Is it worth taking a handful of tough high school classes if it could potentially risk damaging grades in that class and/or others?

[youngsterat16]

I will be a senior next year and I am having troubles decided on what classes to take.

I’m an honors student and have taken some Ap courses this ear (Ap are advance placement which is like a college course that is free and can go towards college credits, saving money. but it typically a bit more work)

I want to take an ap calc class and ap stat, Ap u.s. government, and an AP literature. I think I could handle the math classes and government. But I’m not sure if I can handle the literature and the calc class since both will be challenging. I’m not much of a reader but Ap can save me money.

I haven’t been able to take many my other years of high school. Not getting into detail but none of which are my fault. Currently in 2 this year.

I want to take a carpentry class and an advanced carpentry very badly. I couldn’t get the carpentry to fit into my schedule this year and ad to readjust. I would also like to take an advanced pottery and a psychology

I’m someone who values education but also values building up experience and skill, and I wouldn’t mind having carpentry knowledge.

I also have a teacher who wants me on her newspaper staff but that requires me taking an advanced journalism which I’m not sure I want to take. but I would like to be on the staff.

I do not think I can juggle all of this so I think the journalism will have to go.

but to my main question: is it worth taking all of those ap classes? I’m really debating taking out literature but don’t like that it is taking out an ap course

 

[Xantippe]

You can take the AP exam without taking the course.

 

[AClaire11]

It depends. My school didn’t really do AP courses and my college had a ton of basic requirements, so I was drowning in 101s and didn’t have space later to take all the electives I wanted. I’d look at your college choices and see how much of an issue that will be.

 

[SuperLuigi]

You’re better off getting a B in some harder classes in high school than an A in easy ones.

If you want to go to medical or law school, you will need to seek advice from some admissions counselors, though, because some of those folks just look at GPA and not even the strength of schedule.

 

[Bill_Martin]

Which colleges are you looking at?

 

[Catherinabird]

It depends on the college you want to go to. If they will require that you take certain classes regardless of your AP scores (which only give you credit for having taken lower level classes but do not always mean you won’t have to take a course in that subject area) then it might not be worthwhile.

For example: my college required I take 4 credits of social science. Just because I scored well in AP government, it does not mean I can count that as my 4 credits hours. It only means I can skip to the next advanced government class if I want. I took anthropology instead.

For biology (my major) it was useful because I could skip Bio 101 which would have been too basic. I was able to take more advanced bio classes sooner. So this was worthwhile.

 

[Xystus]

look into what the collages you want to go to will accept for your major. I took AP Physics in high school and passed the test but my collage would only give me credit for Physics 1 and 2 non-calculus based. My major required Physics 1 and 2 calculus based so I had to take them anyway.

 

[chloebelle]

As a 17 year old high school senior, it’s definitely worth it. My GPA is lower than that of some of my peers, but I have gotten into several really nice schools (so far every one I’ve applied to) because they’d really rather see a B or a C in a challenging AP class than an A in a general class. It also makes a difference how you score on the AP test, they definitely pay attention to that. I always 100% reccomend AP classes and academic electives because they take some of the pressure off to have straight A’s. They also are more understanding if you’re involved in extracurriculars.

 

[youngsterat16]

i plan on taking all the ones i listed except the ap literature. well not except, but that’s the one I am really looking at not taking. I don’t know if I want to substitute that for Ap physics then. or if having that one more will cause an overload

I don’t have extracurriculars except art club. I haven’t found anything I liked except newspaper staff. but that means i need to take an advanced journaling and I don’t actually like the reporting part, but I like doing layout and editing. I don’t know If I wnat to take that or not. I spend a lot of time after school working on my projects to make sure I get them done on time and done well.

but I can’t fit the journalism class without more than likely messing up my carpentry getting in my schedule unless I were to not take ap literature or ap physics in that slot. i currently have 5 ap courses that I plan on scheduling and i don’t know if I really need to take that one more. I’m not sure if I want to take the journalism class anyways and be on newspaper:shrug: but maybe I should.

Currently, my plan for a major is going into ASL interpreting so many of those I won’t even necessarily need really. The only one really would be the english on I’d guess which I don’t think I should take. psychology would be a good one to take as well I think.

I’m not looking into the higher competitive colleges. currently my plan is attend the university that’s 20 minutes away that offers a Bachelor’s in ASL I’m not sure on the competitiveness, but I don’t think it’s nearly as competitive as other schools. I am not sure what I want to minor in yet. one idea is english but I don’t know since I’m not as big on reading. Anyways the university for bachelors and then if I decide to go for a masters, look into some other colleges that offer it (my top choice being Gallaudet university)

I have to open blocks but I am afraid to fill them and not be able to fit in my carpentry classes since they already took that one off this year. I could drop ones and try to get those in if it doesn’t fit but the counselors don’talways like to do that. especially at the beginning of a semester when everyone is trying to do that. plus open blocks I can use to work on projects ro homework(open blocks are free blocks that you don’t have to report to any class for that hour. you could go home during that time if you wanted, but it’s only for seniors)

if that gives more detail to my situation. I don’t know if I want to take advance journalism and I don’t know If I should do Ap literature or Ap phhysics.

 

[Hope_Philomena]

While I do agree that a B in hard classes is better than an A in easy classes, you have to be sure not to overwhelm yourself. While an AP class is manageable, taking many at once may mean that you need to prioritize one over another.

I took AP Lit, and I found it extremely easy. But I am a language arts person rather than a math person. Take what you think will be useful to get a college credit for.

 

[Xantippe]

This has been years ago, but I was kept pretty busy with just AP English and AP US History. (I got a 4 in both I took.) I would encourage you not to take two AP math courses unless you are some sort of math genius. I don’t think you need to take TWO AP math courses for your proposed major. Nobody (except MIT or Caltech or whatever) would think you were wimping out by not doing that your senior year.

As somebody was saying, you won’t necessarily get college credit for these classes, but it will probably help you a lot with admissions. So don’t get too married to the idea that it’s going to save you money–it might, it might not.

Watch the reading loads carefully and ask questions. Interestingly, when I took AP English, it wasn’t actually a heavy reading course. We read a lot of books during the summer, but then during the school year, we just read and analyzed poetry–that was a very humane approach. Interestingly, it was the AP History class that had the very heavy reading and homework load.

The pottery and carpentry are probably pretty safe in terms of no prep or homework–but ASK. Also, it may look lazy to take both the same year.

Go ahead and take a free period if you can afford it in terms of credits.

Do you have any concerns about not having enough credits to graduate/enough in the right areas? That would be my biggest concern. Have you talked to your counselor?

The journalism class plus school newspaper sounds like a big time suck. Not that it wouldn’t be wonderful if you had more time, but there’s the potential of it being as much work as two APs.

Also, make sure to ask about reading load in the psychology course. And yes, it does sound relevant to your proposed course of college study.

Good luck!

 

[Xantippe]

Also, you probably need some sort of extracurricular and volunteering.

The school paper thing would fit for that, but I have the feeling that it’s probably a black hole that would suck up all available time–unless that’s important to you, I would go with something more manageable.

 

[Joe_5859]

I’ll add that you should take it to prayer.

Others have given good advice. Checking with some colleges is good advice. Different colleges give different amounts of credit for different scores. For my AP English score, I received credit for two college course (an English class and a writing class) for 7 hours of college credit. For AP Calculus, I got credit for a 5 hour class. So with just those 2 AP classes, I earned 12 credit hours. Another school might be different, though. Some will give credits for a score of 3 or higher. Some only 4 or 5.

It also depends on your school and the teacher for the AP classes. I don’t recall AP English being especially time consuming, but I had enough writing talent to do well (even when I didn’t read the books ). AP Calculus actually met for twice the amount of time as a regular class period (we had to arrive at school 45 minutes before everyone else). With that extra time, I don’t recall it being that much extra work outside of class.

My AP U.S. History class was another story. Our class was actually behind the regular U.S. History classes in terms of the textbook. In my AP Biology class, we only covered about 12 chapters of the 50 chapter book. I did the required classwork to get As in both classes, but didn’t do anything extra of my own initiative and didn’t score high enough on the AP tests to get any credit.

I avoided AP Chemistry because I knew the teacher and I knew it would have been a ton of work.

So some teachers are better than others at preparing you adequately for the AP test. You might ask around (or you may already know) to find out the workload for a given class as well as how well it prepares you for the AP test.

But don’t forget to pray about it.

 

[youngsterat16]

This has been years ago, but I was kept pretty busy with just AP English and AP US History. (I got a 4 in both I took.) I would encourage you not to take two AP math courses unless you are some sort of math genius. I don’t think you need to take TWO AP math courses for your proposed major. Nobody (except MIT or Caltech or whatever) would think you were wimping out by not doing that your senior year.

As somebody was saying, you won’t necessarily get college credit for these classes, but it will probably help you a lot with admissions. So don’t get too married to the idea that it’s going to save you money–it might, it might not.

Watch the reading loads carefully and ask questions. Interestingly, when I took AP English, it wasn’t actually a heavy reading course. We read a lot of books during the summer, but then during the school year, we just read and analyzed poetry–that was a very humane approach. Interestingly, it was the AP History class that had the very heavy reading and homework load.

The pottery and carpentry are probably pretty safe in terms of no prep or homework–but ASK. Also, it may look lazy to take both the same year.

Go ahead and take a free period if you can afford it in terms of credits.

Do you have any concerns about not having enough credits to graduate/enough in the right areas? That would be my biggest concern. Have you talked to your counselor?

The journalism class plus school newspaper sounds like a big time suck. Not that it wouldn’t be wonderful if you had more time, but there’s the potential of it being as much work as two APs.

Also, make sure to ask about reading load in the psychology course. And yes, it does sound relevant to your proposed course of college study.

Good luck!

I have all all my credits needed axcept for U.S. govt. I made sure to take care of all of that my first three years to make room for classes like such

the pottery and carpentry are not for lazy classes. especially carpentry. I took a lot of outside of class time to work and finish up on projects. And i am already spending at least once a week after school for my pottery class.

I think maybe your advice on taking out a math course may be better. I want to keep the hard calc though because I think i can handle it. Ap stats I’ve heard is a rather very easy class and maybe I should take that one out to make room.

the journalism teacher made it sound like you had a lot of free time for homework, but I spent a LOT of time finishing those articles. and I procrastinated a lot! I had one final paper that I didn’t turn in until the very last day of class. I wish I didn’t have to take the course because all I want to do it layout and editing.

thank you for all of that adivce!my teacher told my that literature is a lot of reading, and I like writing. i don’t really mind essays actually. I don’t think I will do literature but perhaps I should take out stats for physics or something, Physics isone i am really contemplating

 

[Xantippe]

I’ll add that you should take it to prayer.

Others have given good advice. Checking with some colleges is good advice. Different colleges give different amounts of credit for different scores. For my AP English score, I received credit for two college course (an English class and a writing class) for 7 hours of college credit. For AP Calculus, I got credit for a 5 hour class. So with just those 2 AP classes, I earned 12 credit hours. Another school might be different, though. Some will give credits for a score of 3 or higher. Some only 4 or 5.

It also depends on your school and the teacher for the AP classes. I don’t recall AP English being especially time consuming, but I had enough writing talent to do well (even when I didn’t read the books ). AP Calculus actually met for twice the amount of time as a regular class period (we had to arrive at school 45 minutes before everyone else). With that extra time, I don’t recall it being that much extra work outside of class.

My AP U.S. History class was another story. Our class was actually behind the regular U.S. History classes in terms of the textbook. In my AP Biology class, we only covered about 12 chapters of the 50 chapter book. I did the required classwork to get As in both classes, but didn’t do anything extra of my own initiative and didn’t score high enough on the AP tests to get any credit.

I avoided AP Chemistry because I knew the teacher and I knew it would have been a ton of work.

So some teachers are better than others at preparing you adequately for the AP test. You might ask around (or you may already know) to find out the workload for a given class as well as how well it prepares you for the AP test.

But don’t forget to pray about it.

Yes, teacher quality is very important!

 

[Xantippe]

I have all all my credits needed axcept for U.S. govt. I made sure to take care of all of that my first three years to make room for classes like such

the pottery and carpentry are not for lazy classes. especially carpentry. I took a lot of outside of class time to work and finish up on projects. And i am already spending at least once a week after school for my pottery class.

I think maybe your advice on taking out a math course may be better. I want to keep the hard calc though because I think i can handle it. Ap stats I’ve heard is a rather very easy class and maybe I should take that one out to make room.

the journalism teacher made it sound like you had a lot of free time for homework, but I spent a LOT of time finishing those articles. and I procrastinated a lot! I had one final paper that I didn’t turn in until the very last day of class. I wish I didn’t have to take the course because all I want to do it layout and editing.

thank you for all of that adivce!my teacher told my that literature is a lot of reading, and I like writing. i don’t really mind essays actually. I don’t think I will do literature but perhaps I should take out stats for physics or something, Physics isone i am really contemplating

I know carpentry and pottery are not for lazy people–but taking both the same year might look bad. But if the rest of your transcript from previous years is solid, it’s probably OK to take both. Needing to finish up after school sounds bad for your overall workload and unfortunately, when people are looking at your transcript, they won’t realize that there was so much outside work involved.

I’m not surprised the journalism is a time suck–I was a print journalism major years ago. Could you do yearbook as an extracurricular and do layout and/or editing?

Good luck!

 

[youngsterat16]

I know carpentry and pottery are not for lazy people–but taking both the same year might look bad. But if the rest of your transcript from previous years is solid, it’s probably OK to take both. Needing to finish up after school sounds bad for your overall workload and unfortunately, when people are looking at your transcript, they won’t realize that there was so much outside work involved.

I’m not surprised the journalism is a time suck–I was a print journalism major years ago. Could you do yearbook as an extracurricular and do layout and/or editing?

Good luck!

Perhaps. I was actaully thinking of maybe taking the pottery out. If i really wanted to continue and expand I’m pretty friendly with the art department I’m sure I could work on my own stuff if I wanted.

I’m not sure about taking out stats again. I keep changing my mind a lot. I know they won’t look at the amount of work outside of school, but that is always something I could explain on my applications with my extracurriculars. I also play piano a lot in my free time and I am trying to teach myself some sign language to help myself out a little come college

I’m not really debating on the journalism again. it’s all stressful but hopefully I will figure it out

 

[CradleJourney]

You’ve gotten some great answers but as a mom who has a college freshman and another couple who’ve recently graduated college, I understand the dilemma you’re facing.

I just want to offer my thoughts to you of a few things -

First - there are no really “wrong” answers. You’re obviously confident that you’d pass any of the classes you’re looking at, and that you’re making sure you have what you need to get your diploma.

Secondly - you need information. Hard facts from your college of choice - call their admissions counselor and ask them what THEY are looking for. Be certain that you are showing what they want in a prospective student because each college is indeed different.

Third - over the years from my oldest applying to my third child applying this past year, I’ve seen the emphasis change. Right now, a goodly number of colleges are less interested in students who have perfect schedules or GPA’s or test scores, and more interested in seeing passion in the student for one or two things (not 9 extra-curriculars). So if you are indeed passionate about ASL or carpentry, then I’d say skip the AP English class and pour that time and energy into learning and projects associated with one or both of those passions. Learn as much ASL online as possible, volunteer with groups who use ASL, contact ASL interpreters and interview them about their work, include all of this in your college essays. Or do the same for carpentry (or origami or whatever fascinates you) - the key is showing you’re willing to go well beyond the normal for a person of your age to learn the topic, practice the topic, and connect with others about the topic. Colleges want students who are going to be active and engaged on campus and this is one way to show them how you can be that kind of student.

Best wishes!
CJ

 

[Xantippe]

You’ve gotten some great answers but as a mom who has a college freshman and another couple who’ve recently graduated college, I understand the dilemma you’re facing.

I just want to offer my thoughts to you of a few things -

First - there are no really “wrong” answers. You’re obviously confident that you’d pass any of the classes you’re looking at, and that you’re making sure you have what you need to get your diploma.

Secondly - you need information. Hard facts from your college of choice - call their admissions counselor and ask them what THEY are looking for. Be certain that you are showing what they want in a prospective student because each college is indeed different.

Third - over the years from my oldest applying to my third child applying this past year, I’ve seen the emphasis change. Right now, a goodly number of colleges are less interested in students who have perfect schedules or GPA’s or test scores, and more interested in seeing passion in the student for one or two things (not 9 extra-curriculars). So if you are indeed passionate about ASL or carpentry, then I’d say skip the AP English class and pour that time and energy into learning and projects associated with one or both of those passions. Learn as much ASL online as possible, volunteer with groups who use ASL, contact ASL interpreters and interview them about their work, include all of this in your college essays. Or do the same for carpentry (or origami or whatever fascinates you) - the key is showing you’re willing to go well beyond the normal for a person of your age to learn the topic, practice the topic, and connect with others about the topic. Colleges want students who are going to be active and engaged on campus and this is one way to show them how you can be that kind of student.

Best wishes!
CJ

Yes!