Does this schedule seem too hard for a 10th grader?

[dsi411]

This should be my schedule next year:

PE 2
AP World History
AP Biology
AP Language and Composition
Accelerated PreCalculus B First Semester/AP Calculus AB A Second Semester
Spanish 2

Technically this is 4 APs in one year. I'm only taking one this year. Do you think this it too hard for a 10th grader? Do you have any additional questions for me?

[Croconaw]

I think that you have too many AP classes. The most you should take is two, or even three if you feel comfortable. You'll be overwhelmed with work taking those AP classes.

[dsi411]

I think that you have too many AP classes. The most you should take is two, or even three if you feel comfortable. You'll be overwhelmed with work taking those AP classes.

Hmm, which do you suggest taking out? There are no honors courses at my school. For English we can either take AP English or regular English. So I chose AP. For History, either regular World, AP World, or AP European History. I know I'm gonna do that math class. I also know I'm gonna do AP science. Either AP Bio or Chem. And of course foreign language and PE are required. Not very many options for me, sadly.

[Croconaw]

H you only take two AP classes mm, which do you suggest taking out? There are no honors courses at my school. For English we can either take AP English or regular English. So I chose AP. For History, either regular World, AP World, or AP European History. I know I'm gonna do that math class. I also know I'm gonna do AP science. Either AP Bio or Chem. And of course foreign language and PE are required. Not very many options for me, sadly.

I'd take out whichever course you struggle with most. If you only take two AP classes this year, you can take the other two junior year.

[dsi411]

I'd take out whichever course you struggle with most. If you only take two AP classes this year, you can take the other two junior year.

I'm not that good at English compared to my other classes(I got a low A last semester) but I overheard sophomores in chemistry saying that that class isn't very hard, and they barely do anything in that class. I also plan on doing the I.B. program in junior and senior year, do you know of this program? If I do this program I can't do AP classes, I'll be doing I.B. classes in 11th and 12th grades. Sorry, I am kinda making it hard to help me.

[Croconaw]

I have never heard of that. If it actually isn't that difficult, then you should try it. You might not want to take what you heard seriously. They could have been telling the truth or they could have been joking.

[dsi411]

Yeah, I guess. Thanks for the help. Luckily I still have a few days till our course selection needs to be turned in, so I'll be able to think about the stuff you said.

[StoppingTime]

I've taken (and am still taking) AP World as a sophomore, and the course is incredibly taxing. Compared to other APs, from what I've heard, it's arguably the most difficult, and has a lot of work to go with it. So if you want to take that class for sure, then I'd recommend that you only take one other AP sophomore year, and save the others for junior/senior year. Besides, colleges (which I'm assuming you're planning on going to) don't want to accept people just because they've taken a lot of AP Courses. You need to be able to balance both academic work with social/volunteering/sports in order to show that you're not just an academic. Plus, if you were to take more than two APs sophomore year I think you'll find you'll have very little time to do anything else but work, so I'd strongly recommend against it.

[unknownuser]

I've taken (and am still taking) AP World as a sophomore, and the course is incredibly taxing. Compared to other APs, from what I've heard, it's arguably the most difficult, and has a lot of work to go with it. So if you want to take that class for sure, then I'd recommend that you only take one other AP sophomore year, and save the others for junior/senior year. Besides, colleges (which I'm assuming you're planning on going to) don't want to accept people just because they've taken a lot of AP Courses. You need to be able to balance both academic work with social/volunteering/sports in order to show that you're not just an academic. Plus, if you were to take more than two APs sophomore year I think you'll find you'll have very little time to do anything else but work, so I'd strongly recommend against it.

YES.

[lijrobert]

I've taken (and am still taking) AP World as a sophomore, and the course is incredibly taxing. Compared to other APs, from what I've heard, it's arguably the most difficult, and has a lot of work to go with it. So if you want to take that class for sure, then I'd recommend that you only take one other AP sophomore year, and save the others for junior/senior year. Besides, colleges (which I'm assuming you're planning on going to) don't want to accept people just because they've taken a lot of AP Courses. You need to be able to balance both academic work with social/volunteering/sports in order to show that you're not just an academic. Plus, if you were to take more than two APs sophomore year I think you'll find you'll have very little time to do anything else but work, so I'd strongly recommend against it.

I've heard this exact sentiment from many of my Junior and Sophomore friends. Here here!

[dsi411]

I've taken (and am still taking) AP World as a sophomore, and the course is incredibly taxing. Compared to other APs, from what I've heard, it's arguably the most difficult, and has a lot of work to go with it. So if you want to take that class for sure, then I'd recommend that you only take one other AP sophomore year, and save the others for junior/senior year. Besides, colleges (which I'm assuming you're planning on going to) don't want to accept people just because they've taken a lot of AP Courses. You need to be able to balance both academic work with social/volunteering/sports in order to show that you're not just an academic. Plus, if you were to take more than two APs sophomore year I think you'll find you'll have very little time to do anything else but work, so I'd strongly recommend against it.

I agree, but because I might do the I.B. program, some of these classes are required. Do you all know of the I.B. program? They don't have it at all schools, but it's kinda like AP.
Also, I am just academic, haha. I am not in any clubs or anything. But I also heard somewhere that the "well-rounded" thing is a myth. They said colleges actually want you to specialize in something, like be REALLY good at one subject but still good at all the others. This is also the type of schedule my sister had.
In addition, most of the people that I know (not my friends, I don't have friends, just people I hear talking in class), are also taking this schedule, with the exception of the math class, which only about half of the people in my classes are going to be doing. I'm used to being in classes with "advanced" people, so I am hesitant to enroll in a "regular" class, because there's no honors at my school. Most people do APs.

[StoppingTime]

I agree, but because I might do the I.B. program, some of these classes are required. Do you all know of the I.B. program? They don't have it at all schools, but it's kinda like AP.

Yea, I've heard of I.B. While I understand it isn't exactly the same as an AP, it's still both difficult and time consuming, so combining it with so many other APs may not be beneficial.


Also, I am just academic, haha. I am not in any clubs or anything. But I also heard somewhere that the "well-rounded" thing is a myth. They said colleges actually want you to specialize in something, like be REALLY good at one subject but still good at all the others.

To be honest I've never heard that. I'm in a fairly competitive school, and it's almost looked down upon if you're not in some kind of sport, club, or other sort of extra curricular activity. And look at it from the perspective of a college: Do they only want a student who's great at one subject? What if by the time you get to college you're no longer as interested in that subject as you were in high school? It may sound unlikely now, but you can't know what you'll be thinking for sure a few years down the road.


In addition, most of the people that I know (not my friends, I don't have friends, just people I hear talking in class), are also taking this schedule, with the exception of the math class, which only about half of the people in my classes are going to be doing. I'm used to being in classes with "advanced" people, so I am hesitant to enroll in a "regular" class, because there's no honors at my school. Most people do APs.

Then all I can say is you should be expecting a very heavy workload. And if you're really not planning on doing anything outside of school, really make sure that a college you have in mind would be open to that idea, because from what I've heard, most are not. Plus, it's not good for anyone as an individual to only be in classes and not anything extra.

[Gigablue]

It doesn't seem too hard. I took a similar course load last year. My school doesn't offer AP, only IB. I took 8 courses last year, most of them being pre-IB courses.

AP doesn't really compare to IB. AP courses are a fair bit easier. There are some harder AP classes, but IB classes are significantly harder on average.

IB also forces you to be well rounded. You have to complete 150 CAS hours, 50 of each of creativity, action and service, amongst other things.

I'm in IB1 this year. It isn't that hard, but it is a lot of work. I'm taking basically the hardest courses my school has, so that's probably why.

IB is not to be taken lightly, but it isn't impossible. If you can't handle 4 AP courses, you definitely shouldn't be taking IB. You have to take at least 6 IB courses for two years.

Feel free to ask me if you have any more questions about IB.

[dsi411]

To be honest I've never heard that. I'm in a fairly competitive school, and it's almost looked down upon if you're not in some kind of sport, club, or other sort of extra curricular activity. And look at it from the perspective of a college: Do they only want a student who's great at one subject? What if by the time you get to college you're no longer as interested in that subject as you were in high school? It may sound unlikely now, but you can't know what you'll be thinking for sure a few years down the road.

Yes, good point. I would like to do extra curriculars, it is just hard for me to become involved in clubs and things of the sort because I am not very good socially. I would like to join certain clubs like math club or gardening club, but I could never just go into a meeting like that with a bunch of people staring at me and stuff. And even if I did join a club, I would obviously never be in a leadership position in the club anyways. By the way, I want to get into a UC university and they only count 10th and 11th grade grades, so these are especially helpful. Thank you for helping me, since you come from a competitive school you probably know what it would be like to do a schedule like this one.

It doesn't seem too hard. I took a similar course load last year. My school doesn't offer AP, only IB. I took 8 courses last year, most of them being pre-IB courses.

AP doesn't really compare to IB. AP courses are a fair bit easier. There are some harder AP classes, but IB classes are significantly harder on average.

IB also forces you to be well rounded. You have to complete 150 CAS hours, 50 of each of creativity, action and service, amongst other things.

I'm in IB1 this year. It isn't that hard, but it is a lot of work. I'm taking basically the hardest courses my school has, so that's probably why.

IB is not to be taken lightly, but it isn't impossible. If you can't handle 4 AP courses, you definitely shouldn't be taking IB. You have to take at least 6 IB courses for two years.

Feel free to ask me if you have any more questions about IB.
In 11th and 12th grades I will be taking a combination of AP and IB, so I will have to do IB anyways. I don't particularly agree that AP doesn't really compare to IB, AP is college level not just some high school honors course, but I also know how hard IB is. What was your schedule last year?

[Gigablue]

In 11th and 12th grades I will be taking a combination of AP and IB, so I will have to do IB anyways. I don't particularly agree that AP doesn't really compare to IB, AP is college level not just some high school honors course, but I also know how hard IB is. What was your schedule last year?

Are you planning on doing the full IB diploma or the IB certificate? If you plan on doing the full diploma, doing it in combination with AP will be very hard. Not impossible, but very hard.

Last year I took English, French, history, geography, math, science, psychology and business, with all but the last two being pre IB courses.

[dsi411]

Are you planning on doing the full IB diploma or the IB certificate? If you plan on doing the full diploma, doing it in combination with AP will be very hard. Not impossible, but very hard.

Last year I took English, French, history, geography, math, science, psychology and business, with all but the last two being pre IB courses.

I'm doing full IB. Any spots not taken by IB classes will be used for AP classes.

[Syvelocin]

This is my opinion as a college sophomore:
Unless you have huge dreams that are going to require a perfect college application, don't do it. I took advanced maths and english classes (not near AP equivalent, just harder than on-level) only because they're effortless for me (I would complete a week's worth of maths in the last hour before it's due. I did that in college math too) and schools don't seem to like it when you aren't being challenged. Getting into college isn't hard—I would actually say quite easy depending on your intelligence—but getting into a top college is brutal. You want to be a doctor, lawyer, etc? Oh yeah, I'd agree that I actually do see the need to take those classes. Otherwise, the rest of my opinion is what I would say.

College for me is probably about triple the difficulty secondary was. That varies depending on the person, programme, and especially on the mental health of the person (I'm struggling greatly right now, but I'm in one of the worst depression phases I've ever had). You will have 2-10 years of much more difficult classes. These are your final couple years to be a kid. I felt like shit as a kid for being the slacker I was, but now that I look back, all I would have done differently is slacked off MORE, or at least spent that time with my friends instead of playing video games. Not to make college look like shit, I mean. There's a lot of fun to be had, I just get really... eh... passionate about all these kids working so hard to get good grades to get the college acceptance to get the diploma to get the job when it's really the last time you can be lazy, make mistakes, be a total failure and easily come back from that. After that, there's serious consequences.

I had friends who were taking all-advanced and they had literally no life outside school, at least in my eyes. You couldn't ask them anywhere because every time they had a mile-high pile of work to do. I would probably dissuade my kids from taking those classes. I would probably push more to the extracurricular side of the college app criteria. It's easier to add extra things on than make the core stuff more difficult imo, and you can create life-long hobbies from those things.

I never did clubs in secondary. I actually still don't really do clubs, but that's because my body won't allow me to have a regular sleep cycle so I usually have class during the common meeting times. But the clubs I have done, it's really not bad. I have social anxiety as well and once you jump in, test the waters, I find other people try to cater to you and understand what it's like the first time. If they're not dipshits, they'll be actually quickly become family, although my club experience extends to Gender and Sexuality Alliance, not exactly where you'd find rather rude or indifferent people lol. Everyone there just wants to hug you and have fun.

[dsi411]

This is my opinion as a college sophomore:
Unless you have huge dreams that are going to require a perfect college application, don't do it. I took advanced maths and english classes (not near AP equivalent, just harder than on-level) only because they're effortless for me (I would complete a week's worth of maths in the last hour before it's due. I did that in college math too) and schools don't seem to like it when you aren't being challenged. Getting into college isn't hard—I would actually say quite easy depending on your intelligence—but getting into a top college is brutal. You want to be a doctor, lawyer, etc? Oh yeah, I'd agree that I actually do see the need to take those classes. Otherwise, the rest of my opinion is what I would say.

These are good points. Especially about being able to enjoy your childhood. For a career, I want to be maybe a scientist or engineer. Something like that. And I would like to go to a college like UCLA. I get free tuition there since my father was in the military. So I really want to get in. But also, you said that college is very hard, a lot harder than high school. But don't you think if I'm used to it being hard in high school, it won't be as bad in college. Right? Does this sound like a good reason to you for me to do challenging classes? But you make a good point. Perhaps I won't do as many hard classes in 11th and 12th grades, when I have more options.

[PinkFloyd]

I could take on all of that except for the calculous. I am awful at math... In short, no; doesn't look too hard. It'll be more of a challenge than regular placement; which is a good thing.