Rigorous Schedule, Help me out.

[NorwegianDJ]

I'm gonna be starting Senior year in just under a week. Thus far I've only taken easy classes I feel. This is my estimated schedule:

AP Lit, AP US Hist, AP Bio, Precalc, Physics

AND

AP Lab, Band and Study Hall

My goal is to get a 4.0 GPA every term. I've gotten some notes already for APUSH.

Basically, what I'm asking is that you, through your experiences in achieving high grades or in these subjects, to give me pointers or help before starting this school year. How did you go about doing so well? What can I expect? Are there any 'shortcuts' to getting and maintaining a good grade in these subjects? Do you have anything that might help me, such as notes, DBQ advice, test formats, sites, etc? Be spesific and elaborate please. I'll take it all and appreciate it!

[auroturtle]

I have:

AP Physics
AP Euro
AP Calculus BC
AP Stats
English
Pottery (lol needed fine arts credit, plus I'm expecting females!!)
Gym

From the two AP classes i've taken in Junior year, the Barron's AP books help A LOT. Both helped me during the semester (I think all high school classes follow pretty much the same chapters, so the AP books provide really concise information, no more than you need and no less). They also helped me get ready for the AP tests. (All i did was take the practice tests for AP Psych and it helped me get a 5 on the exam).

As for your classes, I don't have any experience with them, except for Precalc, Physics (easy, except much of the class suffered in Physics), and US History (never took the class, but heard people complaining about it).

I recommend you get organized! Take good notes and possibly re write them with color when you get home (I'll try this this year for my hardest classes).

[canadiankid]

Stay organized and stay on top of your studies. That's about all you can do, but if you manage to do that it won't be that tough. If you don't, it'll be hell

[RMO]

apply this right now. It will change everything

cl.ly/3T021S0m0U3w

[iamwonton]

APUSH can be hard as tits depending on how much effort you put in it...meaning, put hella lotta effort in it.

Physics 1 is easy imo as long as you know trig and you can learn sequentially (it should go hand in hand with precal). I'm gonna take AP PHYSICS B, and I hear thats actually hard. I hear AP Bio isn't too bad though.

According to people that got an 800 reading SAT, last years AP LIT exam was HARD as my weener.... I mean HARD.

AP Euro exam is pretty hard according to what I heard...but AP World was easy imo.


also, I urge everyone to take AP HUMAN GEO
___________________

MY SCHEDULE

AP CALC BC
AP PHYSICS B
AP STUDIO ART
AP US GOVERNMENT
AP MICROECONOMICS
AP PSYCHOLOGY (MAYBE)
AP STATS (MAYBE)
AP LIT (or maybe ENGLISH 4 HONORS)
AP US HISTORY (MAYBE)

Those are among the AP courses that I requested placement in. I highly doubt I'll get all of them though.

[phoenix74]

Yeah, AP US History + AP Bio = A B*tch.

Shit ton of notes with dates, famous people, historic places, battles, etc. Depending at how good you are at history APUsh isn't too bad. Even if you suck at history if you pay attention during class, read the chapter ( seriously read the chapters!), and make note cards for tests and quizzes you should do good. And if your english skills are good enough to get you into AP lit then dont stress too much about the DBQs. They're really not that bad.

Personally AP bio was fun. But if science isn't your strongest class then study for the tests, because no one gets 100% on the bio tests, like ever. They are always curved. So if you want to beat the curve and have over 110% and up in the class read the Chapters( can't stress that enough, stay on top of them because a chapter is usually 20 pages but not uncommon for it to be 40 or even 50 pg) , take decent notes, and don't study too hard or you'll forget stuff.

AP Lit Im taking this year. Precalc was alright. I'm not sure how your taking physics when you haven't taken calculus. ( My school you have to take at least a semester of calc before you can take AP Physics ( maybe because it's AP idk)) Good luck.

What's AP Lab? Never heard of that before. And you get study hall??? Lucky our school band study hall.

[Javelin]

My schedule this past year was:
1. AP Lang & Comp (supposedly the harder of the two)
2. Math Anal Honors(Teacher was a bitch)
3. AP Stats(Ehhh got by fine in the class (cheated) but only got a 4 on the test, goes to show that you get what you put into these classes)
4. APUSH(ya, there's notes in this class, get used to it. but you don't have to take notes... just doodled and listened to the lectures, read that APUSH Quick Review from REA, pulled a 5)
5. Drama!
6. AP Chemistry (studied the day before the test and pulled a 5).
Got a 4.5 this past year.

Now here is my advice, at the start of this year I was having a mental breakdown over how hard I thought my classes would be, I essentially feared the beast in the closet. As time went on, and my parents wouldn't let me drop, I realized the beast was just a myth. At my school, half of these classes are regarded as GPA killers, and I'm living proof that not only will you survive but you can thrive in these classes, not to mention look fucking stellar for college. So perseverer. Remember perception is reality. Tell yourself that this is easy and it becomes easy.
hell I didn't pick up a book for half these classes!

As for AP Test review materials:
As a rule of thumb, I rec REA for history. Barrons for math/science and maybe princeton review for science(used their Ap chem book in place of the real book). The REA quickstudies are nice, but they don't cover everything! (So if you end up using them, at least have had paid some attention during the year). Biggest advice for AP testing itself was that for the DBQ in history, be sure to: (1) Identify the time period, (I think 2012 was the Gilded Age?) (2) ORGANIZE!!! (a) Group them into your groups (as many as you can, but AT LEAST more than 3) (b) show the biases/viewpoints in at least 3 docs (5 recommended) (c) structure your essay(take a side) and think up of any other information that you remember!



Best of luck! And don't hesitate to ask for any clarification!

[iamwonton]

Question: If you had a choice between BC Calc and Micro, which would you do? I'm thinking about business/finance/accounting majoring but then getting masters in sciences

[bballplaya]

Take micro. Its a much easier class and is more related to what you wanna study in the business areas. Calc BC would help too, but take micro if u can only take one.