Assignments coming their way one after the other repeatedly, how do they keep up with it all? Taking college level courses in High School, are they academically advanced enough for it? How do they keep themselves above water in a harder class like AP Bio, or college level math? Let’s get some answers from the contenders.
Volleyball and Soccer player Kaitlin Detzel (12) believes that AP classes are not as hard as they are held up to be.
“I’m in AP Bio and it’s a really fun group of people and they make learning more fun,” Detzel said. “The class isn’t as hard as I thought it would be.”
You’d think that taking AP classes would cause an effect on a student, staying after school for the class, having an arguably bigger workload. Although, Detzel says otherwise.
“My AP class doesn’t affect anything out of school really. The homework doesn’t take long and most of the time she schedules us for TLTs to do the homework, or we get time in class,” Detzel said.
These kinds of classes can cause stress on students, although, according to Detzel, these classes also provide a sense of experience.
“I think the classes give more benefits than hardships,” Detzel said. “They teach you more responsibility and hold you to higher expectations, which some people can really learn from.”
Detzel stated that another big factor that makes her like AP Biology is the environment.
“In normal classes, time gets held up by people not understanding the topic, which isn’t an issue but it does give us less time to do things we need to,” Detzel said. “In normal classes there are people who don’t care about the class so they mess around and disturb the class. Whereas in AP classes, everyone is more focused.”
Students that take AP classes feel like the class is more structured and easy to lock down in because there is a bigger percentage of kids that genuinely care for the class and want to do well.
Adam Obrochta (11) likes to hangout with his girlfriend and play DnD with his friends on the weekends and enjoy video games.
Obrochta takes more than one AP class in his week of school and agrees that AP classes can be hard to handle at times.
“It can be stressful and tiring at times, especially with an abundance of notes and writing. Otherwise, I like the classes as they go into detail on subjects I really enjoy,” Obrochta said.
Obrochta stated that he had to pass up on family time in order to handle the workload from his AP class.
“A few days ago, I had to skip a trip to the science center with my family to get my notes done,” Obrotcha said.
Although, even with the workload being hard to handle at times, Obrochta still has appreciation for his AP classes.
“I signed up for it in the end, the classes are worth it,” Obrochta said. “The hardships and the benefits that come with AP classes are a back and forth thing.”
Obrochta stated that he has things that he looks forward to and does not look forward to in AP classes. “I like the more in-depth takes on subjects, like European History or Biology that are not covered in required classes because I find the small things to be the most interesting,” Obrochta said. “Although, my least favorite is definitely the notes, as they take a long time and hurt my hand at the end of the day. But you have to take the good with the bad.”
Being in a more advanced class like AP courses also arguably advances a lot of aspects of the classes, such as homework or tests. In Obrochta’s case, it’s the notes.
“I feel the extra notes help me immensely to understand the subject. At least at the time, I didn’t think I would change anything,” Obrochta said.
Students overall believe that AP classes are a lot easier to handle than it is assumed from people that don’t take those kinds of courses.
Anishica Brady (11) likes to play Sims 4 or watch YouTube videos.
Brady thinks that AP classes aren’t much different from normal classes in difficulty, besides the expectations students are held at for workload.
“If you are absent one day or do not do an assignment, you will be behind and it will negatively affect your grade,” Brady said. “The work is not hard but it piles up extremely fast and you get overwhelmed.”
In regular classes, there is some information that teachers would usually skip over for the sake of the students’ understanding. Although, in AP classes, there is a lot of material that students learn that they usually wouldn’t. While, according to Brady, this can make subjects harder to understand when they are first introduced.
“Even if it is hard, retaining new knowledge on a subject that you love is so much fun,” Brady said. “Some of the topics are not going to make sense the first time, so It does cause you to overthink and stress out because AP classes are college classes and it raises the question if you should be asking for help when you’re in an AP class, as you are treated as an adult.”
In spite of the fact that people on the outside of AP classes would assume that these classes would be extremely hard to keep up with, and stressful. Many students think that these classes are extremely beneficial to them, and worth all of the stress they may endure, and they are usually a lot easier than they are hyped up to be, and can even be fun to be in.
