The Value of AP Classes

Almost everyone hates AP classes. Parents hate them, students hate them, schools hate them, even colleges are wary of them. In high school, these AP classes add a significant amount of work to the regular student schedule. Active students who play sports and are involved in their community are often forced to sacrifice leisure time or hours otherwise spend sleeping in order to finish their AP work.

Then the AP test comes in May, and the last 2 or 3 weeks in April are an endless cramming session. For students who take multiple AP tests, it seems like the work will never end. I know because I went through it just like every other high school student. It does, however, pay off.

As a college student right now, I am very happy that I took AP classes. First off, I started my freshman year with 17 AP credits; a standard college semester is only 16. I have friends with over 20 AP credit. This can mean many things depending on how you look at it. If I decide to graduate a semester early using my AP credits to fulfill electives, then I can save a lot of money, somewhere around $20,000. My particular school requires 4 years of study to graduate, but many others will let students graduate early.

What AP credits mean for me is that I can pursue minors and/or take other classes that interest me besides those in my major. I could also take a slightly easier workload every semester and still graduate on time. With this approach, I could dedicate more time to running this website along with others, and possibly find other jobs. There will be more time to socialize as well, but that is not everything. Knowing that I will be able to graduate in 4 years takes off a lot of stress.

My particular credits also mean that I can spend time studying abroad without fear of falling behind. Some classes in foreign universities might not be recognized at my university, but with credits already stacked up, I won’t need to worry.

Finally, there is the value of taking a college “level” class in high school. Although college classes are nothing like high school classes, there is no question that AP better prepares students for the vigor of college. 100 pages of reading per class seems like nothing after doing it for years in high school. Additionally, much of the knowledge learned in AP classes can be directly applied to college. I draw upon knowledge from AP History, Gov, and English classes every day because it makes a substantial part of my academic core. Science and Math classes act the same way for engineers and physicists.

Hopefully, you will think differently about AP classes in the future. Yes, they are a lot of hard work but the work will come sooner or later. Is it not better to get accustomed to it early on? In hindsight, even though I hated the work at the time, I am very glad that I took so many AP’s in high school. My words of wisdom to all students are this: It gets better.

Posted By:
Admin

Posted on:
9:50 PM

Filed Under:
Advanced Placement, college application secrets, high school, High school life, Tips and Secrets

0

Procrastinating in High School

 Is Procrastination Killing You??

I have been putting off writing another article for a good two weeks just because I am lazy and on vacation right now. The truth is that I have had numerous opportunities to write when I have been doing nothing but playing video games, but procrastination got the best of me. The worst part is that it happens more often than not, but especially in the high school environment. Procrastination has been known to ruin the careers of many high schoolers.

High School Students always feel like they have one more day to do everything that needs to be done. A teacher assigns an essay at the beginning of the month and says that it is due on the 30th, a time so distant that teens often forget about it. About a week before the deadline of a huge project or essay, students remember and actually start to work on said project. The key phrase is start to work on it. High School students rarely finish their projects until the night before or morning of the due date. Some have legitimate excuses, but most other teens procrastinate.


Posted By:
Admin

Posted on:
11:34 AM

Filed Under:
Advanced Placement, college advice, high school, High school life, successful students

2

Passing That AP Test

The Secrets to Getting a 5 on Your AP Test

AP tests are upon us. There is very little time between now and test day, so it is time to make the most of it. There also happens to be another SAT on May 1^st, which is great for any AP students who are also taking SAT II's in their respective subjects. The two are very similar, so studying for one is the same as studying for both. Why not kill two birds with one stone? Now the question remains; how do you pass your AP test??

The Test Itself

The AP tests themselves are hard. There is no way of getting around that, but if you have a great AP teacher, then it should not be much of an issue. The teacher makes a huge difference. A bad AP teacher gives you no hope of passing the test unless you plan to dedicate time outside of class to learn the material. The test itself is 2 parts, one part multiple choice and one part essay. EVERY AP test has some sort of essay/written part which accounts for about half of the grade. In English and History, students write actual essays or analyses, where as in Math or Science, a student will solve very long problems. The written section is divided into multiple parts and students get about 2 hours (depending on the test) to complete all of the parts. Guessing is beneficial on the multiple choice if you can eliminate one or more answer choice. 1/4 of a point is deducted for each wrong answer so do not guess blindly, but educated guessing is to your advantage. The quarter point deduction no longer exists. It is to your advantage to guess, even blindly on every question that you do not know the answer to. So now that you understand the breakdown of the test, how do you study for it?

Do Not Freak Out

Posted By:
Admin

Posted on:
11:03 PM

Filed Under:
Advanced Placement, AP secrets, College, high school, SAT collegeboard, SAT scores for college, Standardized tests, studying, Tips and Secrets

1

The Secret to Get Work Done in School

 Do you want to get all of your school work done and still have time to RELAX?

It is impossibly hard to get all of the work done that students get in high school. There is always some sort of project, essay, reading, studying, bookwork, or other homework that needs to be done and there is not enough time to do all of it. It would be great if the day was longer just so that teens could sleep more, but unfortunately, that is not a possibility. So I present the next best thing; the ability to get work done quickly and efficiently.

First I will start with the same stuff that everyone always says. "Teens need to manage their time better" is usually what others say when teens complain. I hear this all the time from teachers, counselors, parents, etc, but this advice is useless. First of all, these older people do not understand what it means to be a teen in this day and age. They think that life is just as simple as it was 20 or 30 years ago when they were teens, but that is simply not the case. For one, there is much more work in high school today than in the past. American students are just so competitive that more work is inevitable. Added to this are all of the other things that teens need or want to do in order to get into college. Teens manage their time as well as they can, which "everyone" does not understand. So now I will get to my advice to get work done.

1. Stay off Facebook until work is done. I do it, my friends do it, adults do it, almost everyone uses Facebook, usually wasting about an hour every day online. Facebook looks so innocent in the grand scheme of time wasters, but in reality, it is the worst. A few minutes can easily turn into a few hours on Facebook, so if students have work to do, Facebook is not a good way to take a break. I advise to stay away from Facebook, especially if students need just another hour to get everything done. Save the socializing for truly free time.

Image by Clker-free-vector-images

2. Prioritize!! This is what I will spend most of my time explaining because it is rather unorthodox and controversial, but absolutely necessary. My advice is to do only the bare minimum of work. Do the minimum but get all of it done. Lets face it, most teachers do not read every single homework assignment word for work before giving you points; these teachers have soooo much other work to grade. Take advantage of this. In my freshman year, I used to put all of my effort into homework, about an hour and a half per assignment and I usually got around 5 points for each one. For freshman year this was fine because nothing was too hard, but sophomore year was completely different; I had AP classes which changed everything. My old system of spending so much time on my homework would not work any more because I did not have the time. I realized that AP teachers could care less about homework. The tests are the most important part of AP classes; homework is just a few extra points.

Now comes the unorthodox part; students can half ass this homework because they will get the points either way! Although it helps to do the work so that students can preform better on tests, it is not necessary, and with all of the other work, it is not possible. Most AP classes are taught lecture style, so students will learn everything from the homework in class. Do the work just for the points, then pay attention in class. It will make life much easier. Tests reign supreme in AP classes, so they always take priority. ALWAYS!! A student is better off losing 3-5 points on homework than performing poorly on a test. On days with multiple tests, my homework usually waits until lunch. I must warn though that this method is not for everyone, so students should try it out before committing fully. This takes much patience, practice, and maturity. Learning this skill in high school will be beneficial in all aspects of life late on.

Posted By:
Admin

Posted on:
4:27 PM

Filed Under:
Advanced Placement, high school, High school life, Tips and Secrets

2

How to Pick the Right Classes and Enjoy High School

Do you need help picking classes for high school next year?

It is that time of year again; time to pick classes for next year. High school students are faced with hundreds of potential classes that they can take, ranging from college prep/regular (CP) to Advanced Placement (AP). There are sooo many choices. Every student faces the choice of whether to take one class or another, and this often makes picking classes a difficult task.

Image by Anastasia Gepp

So what classes should I take?? - The answer is pretty simple; take the most challenging classes of what you like/are good at. For some students this will mean taking 6 AP classes, while for others this advice translates into just regular classes. Colleges like to see students take challenging classes, but a few AP/honors classes is more than enough to meet that requirement. At the same time, however, taking many college prep classes will lessen a student's competitive edge over other students. There are sooooo many high school students out there right now who are taking 5 or 6 AP classes at once, that it is essential for everyone to have a few in order to show colleges competence. In my opinion, that many AP classes in one year is overkill, but my motto is "whatever floats your boat." The thing about AP that many students forget/overlook is that many colleges will only accept up to a certain number of classes for credit or extra GPA points. The U.C. system (University of California), for example, only accepts a maximum of 8 AP classes. So why take any more than that? Honestly, colleges like to see well rounded people, and someone who takes 6 AP classes is not going to be as well rounded as someone who takes 3 or 4 and devotes time to other things. AP students are always short on time, it comes with the title, as I explained in a previous article here. 6 AP classes = no life other than school.

So what if any AP classes should I take? -- Take the subjects that you like most and are thinking about studying in college. If a student absolutely hates math (as I do) then it is not necessary to take AP or even honors math. Although it will look better on college applications to take a higher level math, students should not take it solely to look better. Colleges would rather have happy students who study what they like to study than depressed and overworked students who only take classes to look good. Another factor to consider is the amount of other AP classes that a student will take the following year. One AP class on its own is not that much additional work, unless it is AP Chem, but multiple classes can really add up. (*I have a personal gripe against AP Chem because of a bad teacher who made me learn everything by myself. AP Chem is NOT a fun class to learn from a book.) It gets tricky once a student has 3 AP classes in one year. From here on, students must really prioritize and they had better know what they are getting in to. So in short, students should take the AP classes that they think they will enjoy.

There is also the dilemma of what class looks better for college. Students should take 4 years of Math, 4 years of English, 3-4 years of language, 3-4 years of science, and 3-4 years of History in order to get into a good college. 4 years of each would be optimal, but 3 years in language, science, and history will suffice. Colleges like to see progression though each subject and sticking with a subject shows dedication. For specific requirements for the college that you want to go to, look at the admissions page on their main website.

In summary, students should pick the classes that they enjoy or think that they will enjoy the most. They should take a few AP classes so that they can compete with everyone else in the country, but only to a certain point. 6 AP classes is wayyy too many if you do anything but study. Most importantly though is to have fun in high school; don't kill yourself with hard classes. High School is only 4 years so make the most of it!

On a different note, be sure to read about how the University of California is ending standardized testing!

Posted By:
Admin

Posted on:
11:55 PM

Filed Under:
Advanced Placement, high school, High school life, Tips and Secrets

0