Every student wishes to have a smooth sailing academic journey, particularly considering their admission processes, overall academic experience, and college prospects. Eventually all of this is impacted by just the selection of your AP courses.
Now, every aspirant faces these challenges – which AP courses to choose, and how to choose the right ones!
Well, truth be told, there is a wide variety of courses to choose from – 30 AP courses – and all of this requires a thoughtful consideration based on your interests, your goals, your requirements, and most importantly, your strengths. Once all of these considerations align with your requirements, then the process of course selection becomes extremely smooth.
Therefore, we have come up with this comprehensive guide that would help you make the best informed decision to help you choose the right AP courses for you without any hassles.
What to consider before choosing your AP courses?
What are AP courses all about?
Basically, AP courses allow students to earn college credits if they have a score of 3 or higher on a 5-point scale. These are offered in high school as college level classes. Their content is designed so as to assess students in a rigorous manner so that they earn these credits, which thereafter saves them time and money in their college, as offered by the college.
They are also known to help develop critical and analytical thinking ability in students along with improving their time management skills and overall academic performance. Taking up AP courses also projects that you wish to further your academic goals and take on more challenges in your academic journey.
Research all about AP courses and their content
You will have to check with your high school about which AP courses are available ith them. A deeper research would help you know more about the courses and their content offering. Some of the available AP courses are – Humanities (Psychology, English Literature, Language and Composition, World history, Politics, etc.), Arts (Music theory, 2D and 3D drawing), Computer Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Calculus, Science (Biology, Physics, Chemistry). You can check for the content in ech course and make up your mind for the ones that you wish to take up.
Evaluate the difficulty level of each course
Once you have the knowledge of the various AP courses, now is the time to look into the difficulty level considering your interest, grasping power and learning capability. Remember that all the AP courses are curated in a different way. So the level of difficulty would also be different. For example, AP History and AP Physics are generally considered very difficult as compared to any other AP courses, considering their pass rates.
And it would be extremely wise to talk and consult your seniors who have already taken the respective courses and ask them for their feedback and experience about the same.
Compare between the benefits and challenges of each AP course
Well, every AP course depending upon your interest can be quite beneficial. However, they all come along with some challenges as well. Before taking up any AP course, you must look into each of the benefits and weigh them against their challenges to be able to make a wise decision.
What Benefits you must look for?
- Do they help you gain enough credit points and thus help you save money?
- Do they help you with better college admission prospects?
- Do they help you with better academic experience and skills?
What Challenges do you have to look for?
- How much stress can you handle for a specific AP course, or a bunch of AP courses?
- How much can you invest for the extra study resources that might be required for a particular AP course?
- How much time and effort can you put in?
Look into your schedule and academic workload
Even though the AP courses might appear good on your transcripts, it is better to watch out for the number of AP courses you balance yourself along with your busy school-life schedule.
Time management skills are quite effective when it comes to choosing the number of AP courses you can take up. But to be on a safer side, it is highly advisable that you begin by choosing one AP course as a beginner and then gradually increase the number as you move up in your senior years.
Also, you will have to look into your other extracurricular commitments prior to choosing the number of AP courses as well.
Recognise your strengths and interests
It is extremely important that you align your academic strengths and your personal interest with the kind of AP courses you choose to pursue. However, for that, you need to first identify your strengths and interests. Look into what you are passionate about, what topic interests you the most, what you truly feel like pursuing even in your future, and much more. You might also have to look into your past performances to be able to evaluate your strengths and weaknesses, to get a deeper perspective on your choice of AP courses.
Evaluate your career goals
So, if you are truly passionate about a certain subject, you can further your career goals by taking up that particular AP course in your high school.
Conclusion
With that being said, once you have considered your interests, strengths, evaluated your career goals, weighed all the benefits against their challenges, you can now confidently move along to choose the right AP course or courses.
You must take into consideration that you not only have to impress the colleges for a smoother admission process, but also to grow yourself personally and academically working in a holistic manner.
EduQuest, the Best AP tutor in Gurgoan, Delhi- India | AP online course and coaching centre EduQuest is your holistic support when it comes to making the right and well-informed choices and guides you throughout your preparation phase, preparing you for your success in the subject that you choose. So, join EduQuest to make the most of your AP courses and learn from the best industry experts to further your career goals.