5 AP Classes Sophomore Year

empressamelea
Wed, 16 Jul 2014 13:42:08 +0000

I have taken all five of those classes and I promise you that waiting on AP Chem would be a good idea. Have you taken Honors Chem or an equivalent? At my school, it is a requirement that you take Honors Chem before AP Chem and Honors Bio before AP Bio. They almost treat it like AP Chem II or AP Bio II and that is not a bad thing at all. Having the honors class as a prerequisite gave us an advantage and we all made high Bs and As in the class (AP Bio, however, was a joke, and I don’t think they needed to make us take a prerequisite). Even if your school doesn’t require you to take another first, do it anyway, or at least ask if you can.

AP Calculus AB is not difficult. Take it. It also sets you up to take Calc BC next year which is perfectly reasonable for a Junior. Physics 1 wasn’t hard at all, it’s more like an honors physics class, and that, again, gives you time to take P2, PA, and PB as an upperclassman.

I absolutely 100% recommend that if you can bring yourself to do it (I know pride definitely got in my way–I didn’t want to listen to anyone when they said I would burn out with 5 APs) you should not DROP Chem, but WAIT on it. You have three years of high school left, that is plenty of time. Plus, 4 APs as a sophomore is very impressive. Taking them all at once, however, means that your senior schedule might look a little light–colleges might think that you took all those courses sophomore/junior year so you could slack off senior year, and that is not the impression you want to give.

I hope this helps, at least a little. I’ve been in your shoes. Take all the advice with a grain of salt, especially from people who haven’t had that experience. You know yourself better than anyone else on here. If you think you can do it, buckle down, study hard, and do it.