I’m going to be a junior this fall and I’m taking 4 of the most hardest AP classes offered at my school. On top of that, I have to study for the SAT, AP exams, work in a lab, science fairs, extracurricular clubs,etc. I was curious what it’s like being a junior and/or managing 4 AP classes.
I found it to be somewhat tiring, but manageable. As a junior, I took Physics 1, Psych, APUSH, Calc AB, and Comp Sci Principles as my AP classes. I also skied 23 hrs/week from December to April and had 14 absences. It was definitely enough to keep me busy, but I didn’t ever feel like I was drowning.
Side Note: First semester finals in my district were cancelled this year due to excessive amounts of snow.
thank you for the response ! Do you have any tips/advice you wish you would have known for junior year ?
@mindlescat01 Find time to study, work hard, just the same stuff since day 1. Do stuff to make yourself look applicable towards your intended major, and most of all, have fun.
My older daughter did this. She was doing homework pretty much all the time (once she got home from her ECs), and late at night. We helped a bit by reading some of the AP Euro aloud while she took notes. I liked the Euro history, but I wouldn’t have liked it if I had been working as hard as she did. I refer to this as “the hardest A- that I have ever seen in my life”.
You need to stay organized, and do anything that you can to stay ahead of work (or at least caught up). Try very hard not to fall behind. Catch up on sleep when you can (such as Saturday morning).
Whether this is worth the effort probably depends very much on the preferences and personality of each individual student. It seems to me that for most students this won’t get you into Harvard, and this is not needed for most state flagships (which for most of us is still very good).