I’m a sophomore right now and I am planning on taking 4 AP classes next year as a junior. Right now I am in AP Psychology with all honors classes.
The classes I’m planning on taking are
AP Spanish
AP US History
AP Physics 1
AP Lang
and honors pre-calc
along with electives like youth and law, forensic science, and maybe sociology
I was planning on re-joining Band next year. But along with that, I am in volleyball, basketball, and track. I am not very good at time-management and procrastinate a lot. I was wondering if I practice my time-management this year, would I be able to handle next year’s workload as it is?
Note: I am in Spanish for Heritage Learners 2, so AP Spanish is the next class I can take for a language.
4 AP classes as a junior with sports is not unusual. 4 AP classes with 3 sports (although I assume each is just for one season) and band seems like a lot. Assuming that you can work out any scheduling issues with the band director and the coach, you might be OK, although IME no coach/band director wants his activity to be the one taking the back seat.
Regardless, you will need to have strong time management.
Are you a student who regularly has a lot of homework? Or do you manage to get most done in class? The AP classes tend ot have more homework and if your away long hours for your sports at practices and games it can be tough. However, it can be done … but yes, work on that time management. Take advanatage of little windows of time (ie you finish your work in one class, work on another class, or you have time on the bus to your game, etc). I remember sitting in the locker room before games doing homework while most were out hanging out (and that was years ago before all the AP classes were offered). I have one kid who spends hours and hours on homework. He was regularly up until 1 or 2 am after his sports. Another kid who is in several pre-ap and has long sports hours and still seems to have down time. Just depends on what you are able to handle. Good luck!! (I have never had a band kid … but from what I see they put in some really long days!)
When I was in HS, I was in marching band and soccer basketball and softball and in top 10. It can be done…you just have to be very efficient!
I would highly recommend the book by Cal Newport: “How To Become a Straight-A Student:
The Unconventional Strategies Real College Students Use to Score High While Studying Less”
It will help you with time management and how to be more efficient.