My situation is a little different, but something similar happened to me my sophomore year. I was taking an honors class, AP Art History, and AP Bio, which was mainly a junior/senior class at my school, and I hadn’t taken regular bio or chem yet. Needless to say, I was in over my head, and I dropped it for regular bio after the first quarter.
Swapping classes did two things for me. (1) It gave me more time to focus on my other classes and set myself up for success going into junior year. (2) It made me really thing about what I was getting myself into going forward, and gauge how much work I can realistically do, and (3) potentially most importantly, it was the first real feeling of failure in my academic career. I didn’t technically fail the class, but I wasn’t able to do what I thought I could, and that gave me some real perspective.
I dropped the class with support from my parents and the school councilor, and it wasn’t easy to step down, but looking back, it really set me up for success by having that experience, and knowing limitations.
I took 6 more AP classes during high school, and went into college with some 20 extra units, getting out of some pre-reqs, which was nice, but I ultimately ended up dropping them because I double majored with a minor and hit the unit cap. That being said, I loved the AP classes, so I wouldn’t have changed anything.