And I thought taking 4 APs was time consuming…When I go on here I see people take 7 APs 
. I am assuming most who do this also spend a good amount on their EC’s too, since they likely want to get into a good college. Either you are really smart, you don’t get that much sleep, or AP’s at your school are actually really easy.
If 1 AP class gives you 1 hour of homework/study time daily, then 7 would be 7 hours not including ECs… So how do you guys who take 7 APs do it?
Well I already graduated, but I took 7 APs in my senior year of high school and like, it’s not awful if you manage your time and prioritize. Most of the time I just studied the nights before tests since I absorb information pretty well during class. And I think it’s an exaggeration that each AP takes up 1 hour a night: at my school there wasn’t necessarily homework every night for every class, and some AP classes are a lot easier than others.
But yeah, mainly it’s prioritization (and occasional naps in the afternoon lol). I will admit that there were quite a few nights where I didn’t get much of sleep, but that was more my procrastination than anything else.
Some students learn very easily and don’t have to put in excessive time studying, some students are super efficient with their time, and some are extremely overworked and sleep deprived.
Some people’s minds are more academically wired than others, I think. For some people, they don’t need to study, and have an easy time just remembering the content from the day’s class.
Also, it’s important to note that not every single class is giving/requiring an hour of work a night. I know when I was in 8th grade, they kept telling us that we would get homework every single night in every class, but… I can only name four or five classes I’ve taken in my two years of high school that regularly demanded homework assignments, and we have eight slots for classes. And if this means anything, only one of those regular homework classes was an AP. The other one didn’t even require any homework aside from optional reading, which helped if you were a bit clueless from the day’s lesson (it seems like most of the AP classes are lecture-based, at least at my school.)
Another thing: some students on here dedicate their entire lives to studying and school. I don’t really think that’s a healthy way to live; a young person needs to build experiences for themselves and have things to smile back on, not worry only about building a good-looking school record. While school is important, students should have lives outside of it and enjoy their lives as a separate entity.
I’ve set myself an absolute maximum of 4 APs a year, 3 if one of them isn’t a given (ex. Psychology or Human Geography.) This way, the classes aren’t going to make me miserable, but they’re just enough to keep me on a rigorous schedule. I also don’t do much outside of school: the only thing I’m doing definitely this year is volunteering at an animal shelter. I do this so my high school existence isn’t plagued my unnecessary stress and anxiety… we have to deal with enough of that as it is.
It all depends on what you are good at. My junior year I took 5 APs (physcis C mech and E&M, chem, bio, psych) and two courses at a local college (Calc 3 and Differential equations which I would count as being at or above AP level) and I would say I had at most two hours of homework/studying per week in total. I got all 5s on the exams and there wasn’t really anything I found difficult about them but that is because I am very good at STEM. If you are very good at a class in the fact that you don’t need to study or review and you will still remember all the material then it all becomes really easy. With the classes I took most of the time is showing work which takes a very long time if you have to reteach yourself the material while you are doing it. If you naturally have instant recall of the material you are learning then most things should never take over 30 minutes unless they are writing assignments or very large amounts of problems. (As a more direct answer, being so good at the subjects that we don’t have to study or practice and can instantly apply anything we have learned)
As others have said, it depends on the teachers and it depends on the subjects. Not all classes will have 1+ hours of homework per night, and not all classes are universally demanding. If you really drilled down on the 7 AP schedule, I doubt that all 7 are heavy hitter classes. Of course, there may be students who are taking 7 demanding AP’s, but are doing little else.
Personally I just don’t see myself being able to do that (because of the work, and the fact alot of APs in my school are double blocked… lol) But some people can memorize things quickly, have good time management, or all they do is study.
I would like to think of myself as smart (top 5% of class) but I need time over multiple days to really understand certain topics. It all depends on what you are good at. If I took an AP science I would need to study for every test at least for 2 hours. However, in Spanish I can memorize the vocab and conjugations relatively quickly so it would be less a priority.