r/APStudents

So I just got the disclosure for my AP Lang class and I was looking at the list of possible reading material. There were thirteen listed. Want to guess how many were written by a woman? Not three, not two, not one. But zero.

Mind you, my class is 80% girls. I feel as if we have a right to read from authors who share a female persepective or who can relate to us better. Do I have a right to be infuriated by this or am I being dramatic? Anyone else notice the same thing?

I was wondering what people thought on the level of ap pre calc. I did fine in honors A2 getting around a B+ to A- unweighted and was wondering if AP Pre calc would be the right fit for me. The way my school weights things is straightforward where an B turns to an A and so on.

is it plausible for me to get a 5 on CSA going into the class not knowing a lick of Java? I intended to spend some of the summer learning, but, that didn't quite happen.

Is this good?

In person letter:

[The Date]

Dear ccxxxxxx,

I hope you are having a wonderful week. I am writing to share an update on my academic goals for this school year and my track into high school.

After discussing it thoroughly with my parents, our ultimate goal is for me to enroll in AP Calculus BC as a 9th grader next year. To make this happen while legally meeting all school prerequisites, my plan is to:

1. Self-study AP Precalculus, AP Microeconomics, AP Macroeconomics, and AP Psychology independently during this 8th-grade school year (allocating 1 hour of focused study per day).

2. Enroll in an approved Algebra 2 Honors course this upcoming summer to officially secure the high school transcript credit.

3. Walk straight into AP Calculus BC in the fall of 9th grade.

To maintain a healthy academic and social balance, my parents and I have capped my independent AP study at a strict one hour per day. This ensures I can remain fully committed to my school day, participate in track, and stay active in our school’s robotics club without risking academic burnout.

Because I am currently in Kumon Level M doing advanced trigonometry and analytic geometry, I already have the mathematical foundation for this track. Self-studying AP Precalculus this year will simply ensure I learn the official College Board testing formats, calculator regressions, and language requirements so there are no knowledge gaps.

For your reference, I have brought my physical Kumon Level M materials and the Columbia Public Schools Course Catalog guide with me today to demonstrate my current progress and show that the district explicitly approves 9th graders for AP Calculus BC!

My middle school counselor (xxxxxxxxx) and my future high school counselor (xxxxxxxx) originally hesitated about 9th-grade Calculus BC because the prerequisites weren't on my transcript yet. We believe this new summer-accelerated timeline completely solves that administrative problem.

Since you know my learning pace, my parents and I would greatly appreciate your advice and advocacy. Could we schedule a few minutes during our next meeting to discuss how to get these four AP exams ordered before the November deadline, and how to best present this official track to the high school?

Thank you so much for your continuous support and guidance!

Best regards,

[My Signature Here]

Xxxxxxxxxxxx
8th Grade EEE Student

Never took a AP class but starting this year I’m taking AP Environmental Science. I’m currently in regular us history but I feel like that class is to slow paced and boring. I also am a bit nervous for apush as I heard it’s one of the harder AP classes. What would you recommend?

Hello,

I’m a home-schooled student in Terre Haute, Indiana, and I wish to take two AP exams that are both on the same day but at different times. I’ve searched the AP course ledger, found schools that offer the tests, and we contacted the following schools: public high schools in Terre Haute, smaller public school in Brazil, Indiana, and a private Jesuit preparatory school in Indianapolis. All of them just said no with no explanation other than boilerplate responses.

I was wondering if anybody had any sort of success with this, even if you needed to do something beforehand or pay extra to take it. It’s extremely demoralizing and frustrating that none of these schools are willing to help a hardworking outside homeschool student. Additionally, there doesn’t appear to be anywhere else other than high schools to take them.

Please help us and share schools that actually did allow you to test. We’re willing to drive up to 2 hours from Terre Haute, Indiana to find a testing center.

Thank you very much

And, before I get any responses about this, for the purposes of this post, assume clep exams and community college courses are not an option.

I am self studying AP Physics C: E&M and I was wondering if there are good resources for practice available online and which YouTubers to watch to learn the content.

I took AP Physics 1 last year and currently Taking AP Physics C: Mechanics as a course in my school

we've all been there. it's 11pm, exam's at 8am, and you're "studying" by scrolling through your notes doc for the fourth time. feels productive. it's not.

rereading is the trap. you recognize the words and think you know it, but recognition isn't recall. by the time you sit down for the FRQ section, the stuff you "reviewed" has already faded.

what actually works: turn that pile of notes and lecture slides into flashcards and practice questions, then actually answer them. get one wrong, figure out the exact concept you missed (not "review chapter 4", the specific sub-topic), and hit it again before it fades.

that's the whole move. active recall plus spacing the same material across a couple sessions beats rereading the same chapter twice. cramming isn't a laziness problem, it's a memory problem. you forget because the first pass was wide and shallow, and you never came back to it in a way that forced you to produce the answer.

the night before, you don't need five tabs open or another re-read. you need questions you can get wrong and fix. that's what moves the score.

took 9 aps sophomore-junior year and got mostly 5s. I’m an incoming senior taking Stats, Physics 2, English Lit, and Bio.

I’d really love to help ease the tension for anyone taking APs as the school year is about to start, as I remember being super anxious about having a busy schedule due to sports+ECs and taking lots of APs concurrently

here are the exams I’ve taken and my scores

Precalc: 5

US History: 5

Macroeconomics: 5

Microeconomics: 4

English Lang: 5

Psych: 5

Chem: 4

Calc BC: 4

US Gov: 5

Funny story, I gave advice to a guy on this sub about a year ago in this exact same situation and, well, I am in his shoes now. So I'm taking AP Spanish this year because my Spanish 3 teacher (who also teaches this AP class) hyped me up and got my pride too high. So now I'm in AP Spanish. In Spanish 3, I could understand about 70-85% of what the teacher was saying, in AP as of now, I say 40-50%. My biggest struggles are pretty much any conjugations outside of the basic yo/tu/el/nosotros, I highly regret not learning that back when I was still in Spanish 2 or Spanish 3, these past 2 weeks I've been trying to force my brain to memorize future and past tense conjugations but it's difficult. More advanced vocabulary is my only other major struggle, mainly because I have no idea what new words there are to memorize and if I do hear one in class, I forget about it by the end of the day (my state has this new law outlawing phones during ALL of school time, the only time it isn't enforced is lunch, but they cut lunch down by like 15 minutes). Any advice would be greatly appreciated, I thank anyone and everyone in advance!

im wondering if skipping over ap precalc and immediately going into ap calc ab is the right decision or not 😭 i was a sophomore when i took math 3+ and now im a junior in ap calc. im not sure if im making a smart decision or if im setting myself up for failure for both the class and the ap test, so im curious about yall's opinion/experience abt this class. study recommendations would also be appreciated....

For some reason my school only allows me to take either AP Physics C E and M or AP Calc BC. So I was wondering if I should either do AP Physics 1 + AP Calc BC or AP Physics C E and M but dual enrolling in Calc II and taking the BC Exam. I want to major in EE. My other AP Courses would be AP Lit, AP Macro, AP Stats.

Dear fellow AP Students/Teachers/Enthusiasts,

I want to take both AP Physics C: Mechanics and Electricity/Magnetism because I feel it strongly aligns with my future college endeavors. However, I didn't want to take a formal AP Physics class because my school has hecka grade deflation, and didn't want to increase my courseload due to the many extracurriculars that I'm pursuing.

I think I am okay the prerequisites, as I believe it only goes up to Calc AB? I've completed both Calc AB and Calc 2 at a community college. As for any additional STEM classes, I took AP Chem (3, I managed my time poorly for that class), and an introductory, non-majors Biology class at a community college (A).

This year, I'm going to take my 1st ever physics class. I'm concurrently enrolled in my school's Honors Physics and doing Multivar at a community college.

My honors physics curriculum is structured in this way:

- Unit 1: Math Review (Alg. 2, Trig.), Vectors, Speed, Velocity

- Unit 2: Kinematics

- Unit 3: Graphing Motion

- Unit 4: Projectiles and 2D Kinematics

- Unit 5: Forces - Newton's Three Laws and Free-body Diagrams

- Unit 6: Impulse, Momentum, and Collisions 

- Unit 7: Work, Energy, and Power

- Unit 8: Introductions with Waves

- Unit 9: Sound

- Unit 10: Light and Optics

- Unit 11: Electricity (Static and Current)

- Unit 12: Magnetism

- Unit 13: Astronomy and Universal Gravitation

I'm currently using Princeton Review's Premium Prep for AP Physics C in order to learn the topics

Are there any extra resources (e.g. Videos, textbooks, etc.) to prepare, learn further, and hone in my skills to get a 5 on both exams?

Okay so I’m in my 4th day of school and I’m realizing that my regular US History class is just extremely easy. The teachers are incredible but we go over topics very slowly (because it’s the low-level history class), and it genuinely feels like a waste of time. So, I had the idea that I should just switch to AP US history so that I can be more challenged with writing and content, but I’m also taking AP calc, AP lang, and AP Bio. Those classes are already difficult with homework and content, and with student council, mock trial, basketball season, lacrosse coaching, and a dual enrollment class, I’m worried it’s too much to add APUSH. I don’t want to be naive and regret not taking the easier class, but wouldn’t it be a better use of my time to get the gpa boost? I don’t know I’m struggling please help

I am a rising junior attempting to self study for AP exams this year. Though I attend a school that doesn’t offer them, and, notably, have never taken one myself, I am extremely dedicated to studying APs with as much depth and rigor as humanly possible.

That said, I am in the process of selecting which exams would be most worth studying for as a STEM-focused student. I am having trouble gaging what science-based (and possibly “other subject“-based) APs to pursue, as I try to balance the constraints of the situation with my desire to max-out the difficulty of my course load.

Here is (I am so sorry) a brain blurb of confusion regarding the situation that I would be endlessly grateful for anyone to try to challenge: How does ap chem compare to ap bio? Would it be a good idea to take ap chem this year as I would be taking a (not-so-AP-aligned) chemistry course through my school? Should I pair both possibly with an AP precalc? It is very important to me that I take APES before the end of high school — should I do that this year? Is three self-study APs unrealistic this year (both in terms of my ability to complete and my subsequent ability to attend prestigious universities?)? Are there important APs I’m missing with regards to microbiology, environmental science, or biomedical engineering focuses? How hard are APs, really?

I apologize thoroughly for my AP ignorance. Any suggestions, feedback, resources (huge for me!), prior experiences, rants, critiques and/or existential crises are welcome.

Do you think this jump is to big? As of a week right now im slowly to understand what the teacher has been teaching but only really struggling on the homework. Today the counselor called me up to the office and asked if I wanted to go down to AB but im split between this decision.