How do kids take so many APs?

iubaccounting
Mon, 13 Jul 2015 05:33:51 +0000

I took 10, and 6 my senior year. I got three 5’s, two 4’s, and a 3 in Lit, but I didn’t put my full effort into the exam because I only needed a 3 for my college.

In my AP Gov class, literally nobody did any reading, and I probably did 5 hours of homework at most for the entire class. I still got a 4 on the exam without studying, and probably could have gotten a 5 with minimal effort.

In Stats, we had homework every night, but it was very easy, and most of the answers were in the back. I got a 5 without any studying except required practice tests.

In APES, there was a lot of busy work, and I probably spent the most time on this class. I spent multiple hours in one night a few times, but probably only averaged about 15 minutes a night. Most of the time it was 0, with an occasional lab or project that took some time. I got a 5 by only doing required practice tests before the exam, but I did study about 30 minutes before every unit test.

In Lit, we had a few projects, and I only read 1 of the 6 required books because all of the tests were AP-style, so reading Sparknotes worked just as well as reading the book. I got a 3 with no prep.

In Physics 1, we had quite a few labs, but a lot of work was done in class. The workload was similar to APES, except less busy work. I got a 4, but the curve was extremely rough on this exam.

In Psych, I studied for about 30 minutes before every unit test, but my teacher was awful and wasted a ton of class time. I spent about 10 hours studying the weekend before the exam, and got a 5. This was the only exam I actually had to prepare for.

Most nights I had no homework, but I am the type of person that would rather save a lot of work for one night rather than spread it out over many nights. I don’t think I ever stayed up past 11 working on schoolwork, and I played a sport for the first quarter of the school year. My high school is ranked somewhere around 500 in the nation, so it isn’t bad. It is a top 5 public school in Indiana. It also helped that I stayed away from the more intense APs like USH, Physics C, Calc BC etc. I’m not trying to brag, but taking this schedule wasn’t a stretch for me, and I probably could have handled at least a couple more APs if necessary. Getting work done in school and paying attention in class also really helps