AP Courses

[Crazyday]

Right now I'm a junior in High School and this semester I have Trig, College Algebra, a History and an English class.

Next semester I have AP Bio, Advanced Chem, Physics II, and Spanish.

So far I'm able to maintain a 4.0 with my first semester schedule without putting in too much effort (maybe 1 hour of homework or so a day), so I think I can make a 4.0 next semester with a rougher schedule.

My senior year I'm planning on taking the following AP courses:

AP Calculus
AP Statistics
AP Physics
AP Chemistry
AP Psychology

along with Anatomy, Sociology, and another spanish.

The 8 courses would be divided into two 4 course semesters.

I have two questions about this. Is that schedule too harsh (as in impossible)? I don't really seem to get burnt out, but I haven't had anything of quite that calibur yet. I figure if anything it's good practice for med school

My second question is, should I bother taking the AP exams for the classes? I've heard different opinions on this, and I'm leaning more towards just retaking the courses in college, but any opinions on this would be great.

Thanks in advance.

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[MilkmanAl]

Is that schedule too harsh (as in impossible)?

It wasn't too harsh for me, and I had AP English in there along with them. You should be okay.

I figure if anything it's good practice for med school

Practice for college, maybe. You won't see anything like med school until your later years of college, most likely, and even then, it'll be at a much slower pace.

My second question is, should I bother taking the AP exams for the classes? I've heard different opinions on this, and I'm leaning more towards just retaking the courses in college, but any opinions on this would be great.

Well, as I've mentioned before, it comes down to whether you want a bunch of easy grades or to move on with classes you're interested in. Both paths have their advantages. You'll seldom take an easier class than Intro Psych, but you could also be spending that class time taking a mid-level psych class or something else you enjoy while working harder for a good grade. I went the interesting course route and had a blast doing it.

 

[Crazyday]

It wasn't too harsh for me, and I had AP English in there along with them. You should be okay.

Practice for college, maybe. You won't see anything like med school until your later years of college, most likely, and even then, it'll be at a much slower pace.

Well, as I've mentioned before, it comes down to whether you want a bunch of easy grades or to move on with classes you're interested in. Both paths have their advantages. You'll seldom take an easier class than Intro Psych, but you could also be spending that class time taking a mid-level psych class or something else you enjoy while working harder for a good grade. I went the interesting course route and had a blast doing it.

That's something I hadn't really thought about. I always thought about it in terms of refreshing yourself on the info, but I could definitely see doing that on the Psych class.

Thanks for the advice.

 

[Docere]

If you feel like you thoroughly understand the material in your AP classes, take the AP tests to get it out of your way. Cost-wise, you're paying at most $45 for each test compared to maybe $500 for a course in college you're just going to sleep through. If you feel like you don't have all the concepts down, I recommend you make it through the school year, not take the test, and see if you understand the material more in college when you hear it a second time around.

In high school, I grew lazy and didn't bother taking some of the AP tests even though I knew the material front and back. But now in college, a lot of those subjects are core classes that I have to take again. These are the core classes pretty much everyone has to have credits for: Biology, Chemistry, Physics, History, Language, Economics, Political Science, and Calculus.

 

[pressmom]

Also definitely look into how many AP credits your colleges of choice will take. My college would either take two AP credits if you chose not to pass out of your freshman year or eight if you chose to pass out of your freshman year. No in between. So I just took two tests.