College. That one word that makes all of us students jump and race to the books with its mere mention. What are your grades? How many extracurriculars do you have? And finally, the one we all groan when we hear: How many Advanced Placement courses are you taking?
With seven hours of a school day already being tightly packed with work and the “optional” extracurricular activities such as sports and clubs after the bell, the question of whether or not adding three hours of homework for each added AP is really worth it has certainly popped into students minds once or twice. As the time of year rolls around for students to pick their course schedules, keep the motto “quality over quantity” in mind as you are bombarded with these seemingly life-changing choices.
Focus more on courses with your specific interests rather than taking every AP known to man. Being in high school, it’s understandable to not already know what you plan to do with your life after graduation. To make sure you’re not panicking and signing up for every AP available, try to stick to core subjects like language and history. This way, you’ll be able to get those general education courses out of the way early in college so you can spend more time focusing on finding the right major.
An important part of high school is to know your limits as a student. If you hate a certain subject and know that you won’t put your best effort into working for that high grade, it may be a better idea to either not take that class or to take a lower level. By not being focused on the amount of work you have to do, you’ll be focused more on the content of the class and end up having a more stress free high school experience.
Contrary to popular belief, the point of high school isn’t to be as stressed as possible. We’re all here to explore our options and our interests so that we can get an idea of what we may want to do in the future, so focus on discovering what interests you rather than stressing about how impressive your course load looks to colleges. This year when you’re signing up for classes, focus on giving yourself the most enjoyable year possible, but still make sure to challenge yourself to do your best.