It’s that time of year again when high schoolers must begin course selection for classes for the upcoming year. I’m a senior, and sadly (but not sadly), I won’t have to struggle with the questions of “what classes should I take?” or “am I going to overwhelm myself or take it chill next year?” 

If you plan on applying to selective colleges, taking a few challenging AP classes each school year will for sure help your application. Below is my honest take on some of the AP classes I have taken in the entirety of my high school career 

P.S. I didn’t include the AP courses I’m taking that I can’t provide much good insight on.

AP BIOLOGY

PSA: I did take this class when school was in quarantine, so my experience will definitely vary from yours, in a good way, though. Learning AP Bio through a computer screen was incredibly difficult, especially because the concepts are significantly harder and more in-depth than how I learned them in Honors Bio. AP Bio also requires both memorization and a true understanding of processes, molecule names, and concepts. Because AP Bio has more memorization than AP Physics, I would actually say AP Bio is harder because of how content-heavy it is. The first half of AP Bio, which focuses on the scrupulous details of all micro processes like photosynthesis, is much more content-heavy than the second half, which focuses more on broader themes of genetics and evolution. Reading the textbook and taking practice tests is vital to succeeding in AP Bio. 

If you’re worried about your grade, the best thing about AP Bio is that the labs go in the same category as tests, which is about 60% in weight for your over grades. The labs and tests are both 100 points each, so even if you get Ds on the tests, as long as you get As on the labs, you’ll have a high B overall. 

I found the processes in AP Bio incredibly interesting because I could actually connect them back to real life, so if you liked regular biology, I recommend trying this class out!

AP PHYSICS 1

Ah, AP Physics 1. Deciding whether or not to take it the upcoming year is the nail-biting dilemma many overachieving, rising juniors face. AP Physics 1 has been known as the course that makes or breaks many juniors’ GPAs because of how difficult it is. Out of every other AP class, this course has the heaviest test curves; for many tests, a 50% raw score is curved to anywhere between 75-85%. The concepts in AP Physics 1 are ones that you can actually apply to real life and witness for yourself, like the motion of a ball thrown in the air or how a wheel moves a car. Despite its immense difficulty, the practicality and visibility of what was learned in AP Physics 1 made it interesting for many students to learn about, even if we were struggling. 

AP Physics is a double-edged sword in that the class puts so much emphasis on grasping the concepts rather than memorization of details. I had friends who tried their hardest in the class but, because they didn’t actually understand the content, struggled in the class. On the other hand, I knew people who would play chess for the entirety of class but would ace the actual test because they had a strong foundation of the material. 

The key to succeeding in this class is understanding the concepts, asking your teacher questions no matter how stupid you think they are, and taking many AP practice tests to get a feel for what you’re up against. Doing this made every test grade feel super rewarding and well-earned. If you’re more of a STEM person, I recommend at least giving it a try. And even if you’re better at humanities, AP Physics 1 might surprise you. 

AP PHYSICS 2

You might’ve already heard from upperclassmen that AP Physics 2 is just the difficulty of AP Physics 1 with different concepts. I did too, and that was why I took it. They were very much wrong. AP Physics 2 is harder than its predecessor because of how abstract it is. In Physics 1, I learned about visible processes like a wheel spinning or projectile motion. In Physics 2, I am learning more about abstract, microscopic concepts like electric fields and charge. It was and still is a rough adjustment, but it’s also very rewarding once you grasp the concepts. The workload is slightly more, with at least 50 book problems per unit that must be done before the test. Beware: if you put the book problems off until the night of, you’re in for an absolutely stressful, horrendous evening (speaking from personal experience).

AP CALC BC 

The concepts of BC are much more straightforward than anything you’ll ever learn in an AP science class. Many people hype BC up to be terribly hard, but as a STEM person, I find this to be one of the more enjoyable classes. In terms of rigor, I don’t see much of a difference between BC and Honors Calc A. Because of block scheduling, you get about 20 problems to do every other day instead of having to do the same amount of problems every day. The only downside is that if you miss just one homework assignment, you’re susceptible to falling far behind in class. This has happened to me a few times, and it takes all I have in me to simply catch up on those math problems. You should expect to spend up to 2 hours after every class on homework. If you have a good foundation from previous Calc classes and are willing to push yourself to complete those devilish homework assignments, then I recommend taking Calc BC! 

AP US HISTORY

This class was one of many rude awakenings for me during junior year. I had a toxic love-hate relationship with APUSH all year. Like many other students, I struggled with the AP-style questions on assessments that were very different from quiz questions in other Honors History classes. Once you get the hang of the way questions are asked and the dreadful DBQs, you’ll be golden. 

APUSH had a lot more work than any other class I’ve taken. Lots of chapter outlining coupled with preparing for the weekly quizzes were the main culprit of my late nights last year. At the beginning of the year, I think it’s important to read the textbook and take detailed notes. However, as the year progresses, you’ll find in-depth outlines online and learn to just write down important themes from each period in U.S. history as well as the key events/people/concepts from that time. For actual quizzes, though, merely reading an online outline can either get you a great quiz score or a super bad one, so follow that advice carefully. Thankfully, the AP exam focused more on concepts than memorization of the content.

Despite my back-and-forth relationship with APUSH, I would still retake it because of how comforting and fun the class itself was and the useful information that I ended up retaining. If reading the textbook is best for you, you’ll likely spend four hours-ish per week on APUSH. If you can retain information well from online outlines better, you can cut back that time to one hour every week. 

AP PSYCHOLOGY

AP Psych is objectively the best AP to exist, given that you’re interested in studying people. There’s a lot of intersection between multiple subjects, especially social science, and medicine, so no matter what your strengths are, you can thrive in AP Psych!

There’s barely any homework and the class is very interactive in the activities, promising plenty of engagement during class time. This class is much more memorization-heavy than actual application, which is why many students will deem it the “easiest AP ever.” Fair warning though: even though this class is significantly easier than other APs, you still need to put a bit of time into memorizing the vocab terms or you’ll struggle. 

Even though AP Psych wasn’t as challenging as other APs, I still found the class extremely fascinating to learn about because it really explained a lot about human and societal behavior. If you’re an underclassman or simply looking to have more of a comfort class than a rigorous class, I highly recommend taking AP Psych! 

AP HUMAN GEOGRAPHY

Out of all the history classes I’ve taken, APHG was by far the most interesting to me. Because the content of the course is, for the most part, modern and has a lot of connection to my current life, I find it easy to be engaged in the material and am more motivated to do work for the class. Some people say this class is the easiest history AP ever, while others argue it’s boring and hard. I think it’s an easy-to-medium level of rigor; while I still have to study for tests, I don’t have to study nearly as much as I did for classes like APUSH, a much more work-heavy class, and I barely get assigned homework. The class also has lots of projects, which are easy grade boosters. 

Even if you aren’t a history person, I still recommend taking this class because of how straightforward and interesting the content is!

AP LITERATURE AND COMPOSITION 

If you’re contemplating whether or not to take AP Lit, you’re probably in Honors English worrying if AP Lit is way harder than Honors (unless you’re taking AP Lang this year). As someone who has never been good at English, I can tell you that AP Lit is a step up from Honors English in that there’s a bit more homework and more in-class essay writing. However, it isn’t that much of a shift besides a bit more outside work.