Another AP Classes Question--for a Junior

[elbenn]

I saw the thread on AP classes for freshmen. I know that taking 8-12 AP classes over the four years of high school is pretty common for high achievers. However, I have a specific question about how many is common for junior year.

DS1 took one AP class as a freshman (Human Geography) and two more AP classes as a sophomore. He signed up for his classes for his junior year and he has five AP classes on his schedule and I am wondering if this is common or too many. The classes are AP World Language, AP US History, AP Physics, AP Spanish, and AP Computer Science.

DS1 is a very diligent student who gets good grades. He also has a really busy schedule outside of his school schedule.

[SnuggleBuggles]

That’s about what my ds1’s schedule looked like. He was very busy with activities and managed the classes fine.


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[o_mom]

DS1 had 2 AP or equivalent classes as Junior, 4 as a senior. DS2 had 1 his Junior year, 4 senior year.

[georgiegirl]

DD is taking 5 right now: AP Lang, AP Physics, APUSH, AP Bio, and AP Calc. Her school doesn’t have APs in 9th, and it’s very rare to take then in 10th (DD took AP Calc AB). I think 4-5 is probably “average” for the most competitive students. I’d say 2-3 is average for good students.

[AnnieW625]

Four or five AP or honors courses as a junior is pretty common at Dd1’s school. Dd1 however is only taking 2, AP US and AP Lang.; and honors anatomy. Her schedule is APUSH, AP Lang., Honors Anatomy, Theology, Spanish 3, Pre Calc., and Speech. She was not comfortable with her Spanish to take honors Spanish and didn’t think she wanted to take honors pre calculus.

As a senior I anticipate she will take 3-4 AP classes. She could take 6 if she really wanted to (I think), but tbh I don’t know if she really needs to and I don’t know if she will want that much pressure.

Fwiw: she has a 4.21 gpa. She has only gotten one true B+ since the 8th grade: this past semester in pre calculus. I tend to think she is high achieving even without a full AP class load. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[KrisM]

It's probably fine. I think Spanish is just the next Spanish, so should be doable. Physics - might depend on which physics it is. Physics 1 and 2 are easier than Physics C M or E&M. If there is programming background, Computer Science can be really easy. If programming is brand new, that could be more of a challenge. AP USH can be a lot. Two of mine took it and it's pretty time consuming. I don't know what AP World Language is.

[elbenn]

It's probably fine. I think Spanish is just the next Spanish, so should be doable. Physics - might depend on which physics it is. Physics 1 and 2 are easier than Physics C M or E&M. If there is programming background, Computer Science can be really easy. If programming is brand new, that could be more of a challenge. AP USH can be a lot. Two of mine took it and it's pretty time consuming. I don't know what AP World Language is.

It is AP Physics 1. He has no programming background at all but he is very good at math (if that will help in programming). AP World Language is actually AP Language.

[wencit]

That's a pretty common AP load for high achieving juniors at our high school.

[KrisM]

It is AP Physics 1. He has no programming background at all but he is very good at math (if that will help in programming). AP World Language is actually AP Language.

My kids are all math kids and thought AP Language is a lot of work. But they also said it's a good class to have and it helped them write better than a regular English class did.

If it's computer science A, then I can't really comment, since my son had a lot of programming background. I forgot there is also AP Computer Science Principles. None of my kids had that, but I think it's a non-issue for non-programmers. Math should help with the logic of programming.

Physics 1 should be not be super hard either. It's algebra based and has no other physics pre-requisites, so is a first physics class.

[georgiegirl]

APUSH and AP Lang will be a lot of work. APUSH is reading heavy and has a lot of content to cover. AP Lang is helpful since it’s focused on writing, analyzing writing, and forming arguments. Physics 1 will depend on how hard the teacher is. Even thought it’s only algebra based, my daughter said the kids who were taking calculus (or had already taken it) fared much better than those who didn’t.(my daughter is a junior and becuause we have a 4x4 block schedule, she has already completed AP Physics 1 and AP Lang. Currently in APUSH, AP Bio, and AP Calc BC)


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