At the end of ninth, tenth, and eleventh grades, students pick their schedule for the next year, and often counselors will recommend to their students to pick several AP courses.

However, AP courses are challenging courses that take up a significant amount of time and effort compared to on-level or honors courses.  AP courses, such as AP Chemistry or AP Biology, can be too much to handle, which is especially true for students who only take the AP course for credit and distinction rather than content.  These are great courses to take if you’re planning on going into a related career in the future, but it really seems that the majority of students who take these two courses, in particular, are not likely to go into areas of study in college that require such intensive knowledge.

AP classes are tough courses, and to take one that won’t even help you in your future career seems like a lot of extra stress that students don’t need.  This is especially true for most AP students at Paint Branch who take three or four AP classes their junior and senior years.  A number of those students are also involved in extracurricular activities after school that take up a great portion of their study time for those AP classes.

In the end, the AP credit doesn’t seem to be worth the time and stress to earn the  credit and prestige.