complete idiot's guide to HS and APs

glassesarechic
Wed, 16 Dec 2009 21:24:14 +0000

It depends on the school. Some let you take them as a freshman, some won’t let you start with any until junior year. That’s something you’re going to have to sort out with your guidance counselor. How difficult each class is also depends on your school–though the test curriculum is standardized, the method of teaching it is not. I highly recommend buying the AP prep books for each class you take. And keep in mind that colleges will expect you to take an exam for every class marked “AP” on your transcript, so don’t jump into an impossible curriculum without knowing what you’re getting into.

As far as how many to take each year, that also depends on the school. More rigorous schools may only allow up to two a year, while others won’t cap the amount. I recommend taking honors classes instead freshman year to get a good grasp of the format of your school. In general, Calc AB and APUSH are taken junior year and Euro senior year (at least at my school), but there aren’t any set guidelines… The key is to take APs in classes that you are motivated in, because there is a lot of extraneous reading/work involved compared to regular homework-based questions.

And I just urge you not to jump into an AP curriculum simply because you’ve been a good student through middle school. Middle school is largely a matter of understanding what the teacher is asking. AP tests are going to ask you to explain what you know about a particular subject without pointing you in the right direction.