Advanced Placement (AP) classes have been around for more than 70 years, however some people don’t know what these classes are and how they benefit students. The College board, the main program offering AP courses, reported that 1.2 million students in public high schools took more than 4 million AP exams in 2022. AP classes are helpful in many ways; they can save time and money, improve transcripts, earn college credits, and potentially graduate early from high school. Last year, Principal Dr. Charles Park introduced the AP institute program, offering students a chance to earn a special diploma by taking rigorous courses enhancing their college future. With these many benefits that come with taking college level courses, there is a great amount of time that is invested, however some people think the pressure may be an excessive amount to a point where they’re draining students out.
Some students take from one to six AP classes, making them stand out to colleges. There are many of these students here at our school, one of them being sophomore Bryan Yang.
Yang has been taking AP classes since the start of his high school journey, three of them his freshmen year and currently five APs this school year. Going into his freshman year, Yang didn’t know what pathway he wanted to pursue, but he knew he wanted his academics to be his main priority.
“By that time I wasn’t very clear on my goal and my purpose and the courses I am going to take, but my counselor Mrs. Nash has been really supportive and she helped me to sign up for AP classes,” said Yang.
With five college level courses in Yang’s daily schedule,it takes about three hours daily to complete all assignments if working efficiently and productively.
Just like Yang, there are many other students taking multiple AP classes who are also involved in extracurricular activities and leadership classes. Junior Kylie Chao, also taking five APs, is also involved in the student run video production class BNN and is a part of multiple clubs. When signing up for these classes, Chao was cognizant of the fact that she would be devoting lots of time and effort to her schedule, but what encouraged her even more was to genuinely learn new things.
“I always want to challenge myself, especially when it comes to academics. I am an incredibly ambitious person and extremely passionate for what I do. Taking classes primarily for the grade is surface leveling thinking, I want to be able to expand my knowledge on the subject and genuinely learn the content,” said Chao.
Being able to keep a steady and healthy balance with academics and personal life can certainly be a challenge for these students, which is why some students have mental crashes when they have so much stuff to do for their classes. Junior Christopher Tam has experienced the tension and hassle resulting from AP classes.
“I have had a breakdown once because of not just one AP class, but overall stress. With all the extracurriculars that I do, everything got to be too much one day and it all came crumbling… the hard part is balancing your time between classes and other thing you have going on in your life,” said Tam.
Another contributing factor to the pressure and hardships of being an AP student is the high expectations teachers have. More work being assigned, less time for completion of assignments, and more difficult work make students feel more challenged and pressured.
AP history teacher Katherine Cayem acknowledged the high expectations and difficult classes she teaches sometimes make students feel overwhelmed, so whenever she notices discouragement or lack of motivation she tries to make things easier for them.
“Sometimes I have really high expectations and that can feel like a really heavy weight for some students. So I try to give them time and encourage them to take a breath and we as a class, like just back off a little bit and take some time to kind of reorient when I feel like it’s necessary,” said Cayem.
Over all, taking college level classes in high school can be difficult and overwhelming at times but for many, the end result and positive outcomes are what really push these students to do their best and continue striving for the best possible academic rewards.
Junior Cindy Truong started with one AP in her freshman year, gradually taking more each year, now with a full AP schedule. These higher level classes give students less time for themselves as well as time for their social lives because of the quantity of work and more frequent testing they have. Even though the 2023 to 2024 school year just initiated, Truong has already felt the impact of all six classes and the large amounts of work.
“With it only being over a month into the school year, I have felt the impact of my workload hitting me several times already. I haven’t really gone out much with my family on weekends as it now only consists of finishing up some homework, robotics workshops, or studying for a test. So it sort of feels like my social life is slowly slipping away,” said Truong.
