AP course study tips PLEASE??!!!?

Question

I'm currently a junior in highschool and I'm this is my schedule for next year:

- Spanish 3 honors

- AP Psychology

- AP Calculus AB

- AP Calculus BC

- AP Biology

- Honors research and methods

- U.S. History honors

- AP Language and composition

Apart from this, I am the president of an international club in my school (for the upcoming yr.)

That's my course load for next yr..do you have any helpful tips that I can use? Which courses are hard? If you take any of the courses, how long do you spend on homework? Any tips will help...

Thanks and I really appreciate your help!! :)

Answer 1

Wow... ur gonna have tons to do next year! You said you're a junior, so is this your schedule for just next year, or the next two years? Both Calc. ab and bc in one year? okayy, umm... well, calc ur gonna have tons of homework... make sure you really understand it! its just like every other math class, but new topics and some that might not make as much sense as previous math classes... and i thought the derivatives half was harder and needed more time to understand... for bio just make sure you read the book and really study!.... spanish will be just like the first two years, but more reading... english is gonna be all essays and reading novels... just depends on your teacher for that one... but for the AP test make sure you can do persuasive essays and do practice of those multiple choice passage things... they're killer!

Good Luck!!!  

Answer 2

AP Psych is a joke. It is basically the easiest test you can take. AP Lang and Comp is the easier of the Englishes, but it's not a snooze.

But in all seriousness, do not expect to have a social life with this schedule. At my school, it is generally 1-2 hours of studying per AP, per night (with the exception of Psych). I would say an hour for each honors course as well, so right now we are looking at:

Spanish III (1 Hour)

AP Psych (1 Hour)

AP Calculuses (2 Hours)

AP Biology (2 Hours)

US History (1 Hour)

AP Lang and Comp (2 Hours)

I didn't factor in Research and Methods, because I am not aware of what that is. But, you are looking at up to 9 hours of homework on a bad night.  

Answer 3

You are obviously an outstanding student. I will tell you that you might be surprised, once in college, that you actually need to drop some of those AP credits.  My daughter was told she "needed to graduate" following her second year at U.C. Berkeley because she had so many credits. So she dropped those AP credits in order to stay at Cal and enjoy being a college student and take a bunch of classes she had been looking forward to for years. Well, keep yourself healthy by balancing those study hours with exercise, enough sleep and hey...how about a little fun?! Colleges are looking for well rounded people so make sure that when you fill out those applications you tell them about what you like to do in your non study time. Do you like to hike, dance, play guitar or what? All the best to you and enjoy life...it's shorter than you might think!

Answer 4

Crystal hey are you sure you're taking AP Calculus AB and BC. Trust me that might be a waste of time. It's been a while since I've been out of high school but those classes were so similar. As a junior I took Calculus BC. And basically BC just means you cover more calculus topics (If I remember it was geometric series and something else) But maybe they've changed. Talk to you're counselor.

Study tips. Use you're time wisely and the best way to prepare for AP Biology is to get the princeton review and just review the topics. Make sure you don't wait to the last minute and also make sure you're teacher covers all the required labs. That's a heavy schedule just make sure that you're on top of things. AP Calculus was actually not a bad subject just as long as you do you're homework and extra practice problems. Also get the princeton review for that test. And really ask you're counselor how AP Calculus works because I also know that you can take the BC class and take the AB test. Of course this was about four years ago for me.

I didn't take the other classes I did take AP US history and that class was the most reading intensive and of course having to memorize all the stuff for the test.

Check the source a wikipedia article that kind of explains what I mean if it doesn't make sense. Taking AB and BC at the same time really is like taking the same class twice except the 2nd one will cover some more concepts that are not covered in the first class. I never considered AB because if you take AB and then the next year BC for the majority of BC you'll feel like it's AB

Answer 5

The rule of thumb I used for my AP-heavy courseload was that for every one hour I spent in class, I spent 2 hours outside of class studying.

You definitely needed to budget your time wisely. Make a schedule of studying every night depending on what other activities you are doing.

Let me tell you -- say goodbye to TV and Myspace for a while, you won't have time with that schedule.

Answer 6

Yeah I'm a junior in high school as well, taking AP Biology ( wanted Spanish 3 Honors, and composition, AP Calculus and AP Psychology at my school is only for 12th graders... so I hear ) About AP Biology... I hear you have alot of test, and alot of essays like every week. So good writing habits may come in need.

Answer 7

if you were able to get into all those aps youre already a good student-continue your good study habits.

for ap psychology-use flashcards, theyll be your best friend

Answer 8

wow. good luck to you girl!  thats kinda extreme, taking both AP calculuses at both times!! wow.  AP bio is kinda extreme at my school, lottttttttttttttts of memorization i've heard.  

well wen i took us history honors junior year (this past year), my teacher was sooo hard on us, i finally realized at teh end of the year that she treated us like an AP class and she treated her regular us history kids like an honors class.  she gave us project after project, she literally gave us a project one week and gave us another one in class at the same time and we had to finish them on the same day.  and omg the hw was just piling on in her class.  but AP us history at my school is a lot of work, mostly hw and projects.  

regular psychology is basically a joke.  therefore, AP psychology is even more of a joke at my school.  theres no way that you would fail AP psych.  everyone passes, even on the exam.