Schooller Education





How many AP classes do you need to take?

Author: Aditya J

Editor: Sameet T


Why are AP classes important?

AP classes are college-level classes that you can take in high school. AP classes allow you to get credit for that college course. However, you will have to get at least a 3 on the AP exam for that subject to get credit. In addition, if your school ranks based on weighted GPA, then your true grade will be 10 points higher than your grade at the end of the year. For example, let's say you get an 85 in AP Physics 1 at the end of the year. Because it's an AP class, your school would add 10 points to the grade and consider it as a 95 when calculating your weighted GPA.


How much does it benefit me?

If your school ranks based on weighted GPA, then AP classes will be immensely beneficial towards getting a higher rank. As a bonus, you can save thousands of dollars by not having to pay for the same class in college. I heavily recommend taking AP classes if your school ranks based on weighted GPA. If your school ranks based on an unweighted GPA, that means that your final grade will not have 10 extra points added. In that case, it is not recommended to take AP classes, as it is much harder to get an A in an AP class than in a regular class. For that reason, students in regular-level classes will have a higher rank.


What do colleges/universities expect?

Colleges and universities expect your curriculum to get progressively harder each year. If you are applying to a competitive college, they will review your high school transcript and determine how rigorous your course load was. In freshman year, very few AP classes are available to you, so colleges expect you to take none or very few classes. As you enter a sophomore year, you are now eligible to take a wide variety of AP classes, so I recommend taking 2-4 AP classes this year, leaving room for you to take more classes during your junior year. Once you enter your junior year, this should be the most difficult year of high school, so take as many AP courses as you think you can handle. Make sure that it is more than the amount of APs you took last year. During senior year, you are allowed to relax your course load a little but don't go from 6 APs to 0, as colleges will think that you slacked off completely last year.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, it's your choice on how many ap classes you should take based on your time, skills, and memory. Ap classes have their benefits for you yet they can also have disadvantages to harm you. Make your choices wisely and be able to think carefully about why you should take them.


Aditya J is a current student planning to major in medicine. He hopes to provide invaluable information regarding how to be successful in your high school career!

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