Our school offers a rich and well-rounded education through academics, athletics, and activities based on our individual goals and interests. An asset of the school is the numerous AP tests it offers across most departments, but most APs are only available to juniors and seniors. Delaying most APs until junior and senior year allows us to improve their background knowledge and skills, leading to better results in classes with the most rigorous amount of material.

     Michelle Pham ’27 believes AP classes are “worthwhile because so far [she’s] been learning a lot in [her] AP classes.” She continued, “[Delaying AP classes] forced me to build a solid foundation before jumping into a hard class without that foundation.” Pham also commented on the flexibility with APs in the math department, stating, “With math, Blake has provided opportunities like summer [and] supplemental courses, [so] I felt good going into [an AP class] sophomore year.” To her, the constraints are to make sure “students develop a good understanding of the topics and pace themselves.”

     AP Chemistry teacher Kirstin Holm thinks taking most AP courses in junior and senior year allows students to feel more confident and prepared for the classes. She stated, “Junior year and senior year are good levels to take [AP Chemistry] because coming in as a sophomore in AP Chemistry without having Honors Chemistry would be really hard.” Holm describes how she structures her course, noting, “I focus on going through the knowledge and the content of AP but going beyond in certain areas so that they’re ready for college.” Her reasoning for this is that many good schools that her students are striving for “might go beyond just regular AP,” so she takes the schools her students want to go to into consideration when teaching the course.

     Without the required classes students take in freshman and sophomore years, we may not fare as well in AP classes due to a lack of foundational information in the subjects. Even though many of us are eager to start harder classes earlier in our high school careers, there are other ways of challenging ourselves in the areas of learning we like best, rather than taking AP courses. Waiting until junior year to take most APs gives time to figure out what subjects we like best before jumping into higher-level classes.