Eunchan Lee, Week 10 - Power of AP Classes
According to a survey done by the City University of New York, it is reported that most students in AP classes undergo “high levels of stress and burnout” and “lose confidence in their ability to competently complete college courses."
As the college admissions process becomes more and more competitive with acceptance rates decreasing every year, it seems like many students(including myself and peers) are mass taking AP classes that they have no interest in simply for the sole purpose of increasing their GPA. Despite knowing that taking as many AP classes as possible does not guarantee a happier future, we often strive to escape the sense of inadequacy and being “average”—giving AP classes the power to make us miserable and sleep-deprived.
Although I am one of the many victims of this and will probably go beastmode with APs next year, I sometimes wonder how much more useful or enjoyable school classes would be if we had the power to freely choose classes that truly aligned with our interests. I do agree that a few years of hard work in high school can completely alter our future paths in life. However, I also believe that we spend too much energy chasing the future and end up becoming forgetful of the things and people we should be grateful for. It’s sometimes ridiculous to think that we are spending our precious teenage years striving to reach a certain GPA number or a letter grade, restricting our time to explore ourselves—who we are, what we enjoy, and our purpose in life.
Survey from the City University of New York:
https://www.cuny.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/4/page-assets/about/administration/offices/oira/policy/seminars/APHighSchoolManuscript_JHRNotypset.pdf
Hi Eunchan,
ReplyDeleteI was immediately captivated by the title when I saw “AP classes” as I am currently taking a lot of them. I do agree with your point that we as students should have a better lifestyle as we are often burned out due to the high levels of stress in AP classes. I like how you tie in your real world experience of being scared of junior year in your first paragraph to how it has power in our lives. I also like how instead of saying it has power, you demonstrate to the reader that it indeed has weight and influence behind our college decisions which are a huge part of our lives. This strategy serves to show the reader instead of just tell them that these courses have a lot of power and are high stress due to the weight they carry with them. I also enjoyed your last line as it is always important to remember that we should enjoy our youth and not waste it spending time solely on work or making a number better. We should strive for who we truly want to be and achieve a goal (non academic) in our lives. I enjoyed reading your blog.
-Krish
Hi Eunchan!
ReplyDeleteYour blog stood out to me this week because of the registration forms that we just got. I’m probably going to take a couple APs next year too. I liked how you added small comedic effects in your blog to make it refreshing to read and more like you’re talking directly to me instead of just formal writing. The survey you talked about is pretty interesting as well, and is related to what we have to deal with soon. I feel like the power of AP classes continues to grow, as every year people feel like they need to take more and more to not be “average”, like you said. But if everyone doesn’t want to be average, it just gets to a really hard point where everyone is trying to climb up while pushing others down and gatekeeping info or other stuff. However, everyone has a good interest because they just want to go to a good school. I enjoyed reading your blog!
- Colin
Hi Eunchan! I found your blog very relatable and truthful at the same time. Last year, during course registration, I had the same dilemma as your friend Cassidy. Having a history of not being great at English (or liking it), I wasn’t sure if I should try and take AP Lang. All the juniors that I talked to said that it was a lot of work, and that Smith’s class was very difficult to get an A in. With motivation to improve my writing for the sake of college application essay writing, I ultimately decided to take this class.
ReplyDeleteI can totally relate to the “high levels of stress” that I have received from this class. Toward the end of the first semester, I started inputting all of my assignments and what I thought I would score, just so I could see what my final grade would be. When the deadline for first semester grades was approaching, I began to check my English grade about 5 times per day. One night, I started rolling around at the bottom of my staircase just because I was so stressed and unable to do anything else.
I, too, will probably go beastmode with APs next year. My current problem is whether or not to take AP Lit; everyone says the workload is lower but Ms. Martin grades harshly. I don’t know if I want my senior year to be torturous like that…
I totally agree with your idea that we spend too much time thinking about the future that we forget to live in the present, making the most of our teenage years. Still, I think that there’s not much we can do; if we hope to attend the best college we can, it is pretty much required to push ourselves to the limit.
Thanks for sharing!