AP classes: what to choose and how to choose them

It’s the end of the second week of May, and for many high schoolers (myself included), today marks a joyful period in time: the end of AP exam season! While we are all glad to be done with our exams and put them behind us, the end of AP season also marks the end of the school year, and soon enough, the next one will start! For some, this is the time where the first AP classes are being chosen. This can be a daunting experience, but don’t worry! This blog is going to help you get through those initial pickings.

Before we get into choosing AP classes, however, let’s talk about what exactly AP classes are. AP stands for Advanced Placement, and they are intro college level classes in a variety of subjects, ranging from Chemistry to Statistics to European History to Music Theory! Each class has an AP exam in May, which you can take to get college credit for that subject. AP exam scores range from 1-5, with 1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest. For most colleges, if you submit an AP exam score of a 3 or above, you can get some kind of college credit and/or advantage. Even if some colleges do not accept AP exam scores for credit, showing them that you did AP classes will look great for your applications!

Taking AP classes provides a variety of benefits and boosts for your college applications, but we must not forget that these courses are college level, meaning they are rigorous, and sometimes, extremely challenging! Therefore, it is highly important to choose AP courses that you can succeed in and are manageable for you. This can lead to making some pretty tough decisions, but with a few helpful tips and guidelines, you can make the process go a lot smoother! So, let’s get started with our first tip!

Tip #1: Do thorough research

It’s always a good idea to do proper research on AP classes that sound potentially interesting to you to get a feel of the content and rigor. The organization that administers AP exams, CollegeBoard, provides detailed course and exam descriptions for each AP class on their website, so you can see what kinds of things you will learn, how the exams are timed and formatted, and what you can expect to get out of them. Additionally, if you have any older siblings or friends in high school, ask them about the AP classes that they have taken, and what they felt about those classes. Everyone is different, of course, but hearing opinions and experiences of different classes and teachers can help you decide whether you want to take that class as well. If you don’t have someone older to talk to, there are forums on the Internet like CollegeConfidential where you can see others’ posts about AP classes, and if you are allowed to, you can post your own questions about them as well!

Tip #2: Choose classes based on your career/college interests

AP exams can be used to get college credit, so it’d be awesome to get credit for a subject you want to do in college! Additionally, AP classes are meant to reflect different majors and career options, so you don’t ever have to fear that your college interests are not represented! For example, if you are interested in going into the medical field, taking classes like AP Biology or AP Chemistry are helpful. If you want to pursue a career in Computer Science, classes like AP Computer Science Principles or AP Computer Science A would be great choices. For business, perhaps take classes like AP Statistics or AP Economics, for humanities AP English Language/Literature and AP US Government/History are good fits, and for the arts and languages, you could take AP 2D Art or AP Spanish Language and Culture! So many options to choose from! Some courses are good for a variety of careers, in fact. For anyone considering doing a career in STEM, for example, AP Calculus is an ideal choice, as nearly all STEM majors require calculus, from biology to computer science! Remember, however, if you do not exactly know what you want to be when you grow up, that’s okay! If you are new to high school, you have 4 years to discover more about yourself and your passions, and you can choose AP classes that reflect those interests.

Tip #3: Choose classes in subjects you like!

The previous tip talked about choosing AP classes that reflect your career interests, but maybe you aren’t exactly sure what you want to be when you grow up (I didn’t until quite recently!). However, that does in no way mean you cannot take AP classes! If you don’t know what you want to do when you grow up, just do classes in subjects that you are interested in and have done well in in the past. Do you really like science, and learning about animals and plants and the environment? Perhaps taking Environmental Science is a good fit for you! Are you a math whiz? You may excel at Calculus or Statistics! Really curious about the inner workings of the mind and knowing more about personality, emotions, and human nature? You’ll probably really like Psychology! We tend to do well in subjects that we like because we are more motivated to learn them and do work for them, so taking rigorous classes in subjects you will be more likely to enjoy and therefore work hard in will work out great for you!

Tip #4: Choose classes you can manage and balance

This is the last tip, and probably, in my opinion, the most important one. AP classes are rigorous, and require time, effort, and studying. It is important to take classes you can manage without them being at the expense of other important things. High school can be a stressful time where you have to balance classes, tests, clubs, volunteering, and much, much more, so during this time, it is super important to take care of yourself and your mental health. If you feel like you are going to burn out during an AP class, or that it is taking too much time and you are struggling, don’t take it. Ultimately, your happiness and wellbeing comes before anything else, and always keep this in mind when choosing your classes.

I hope that these tips helped you, as these would be the pieces of advice I would have loved before choosing my first AP classes. Have fun picking them, and good luck! You are going to do amazing in whatever you choose! :)

Yours Truly,

Dear Youth Global,

Rachana Venugopal