AP Classes: Helpful or Just More Stress?

Many students have chosen to take Advanced Placement classes. Some take them for challenge, some for the college credit, others like that they help you stand out on high school transcripts. AP student, Haley Tannous, says she “likes that the classes are quicker paced and they give you college credit”. However, some students wish the classes would slow down, as they provide a larger workload compared to non-AP classes.

AP student, Maddie Haller, says if she could change one thing about the classes, it would be “making sure each student understands the concept being learned rather than just testing over it”. She explains the classes are more difficult because the skill level is higher and it’s not just a grade that’s at stake. If you don’t pass the class, you don’t get the college credit that’s offered.

Catherine Mudd, the AP Administrator for Fruita Monument High School provided very useful information regarding these courses. Over the past five years, Fruita has grown from 276 AP students to 308. The most Advanced Placement students our school has had since 2013 was in 2015 with 376. This year, we currently have 308 of them.

Our high school this year has 27 available AP classes. Among these are European History, German Language and Culture, Music Theory, Microeconomics, and many more. The class with the most success this year (testing wise) is United States Government and Politics with 8 students scoring a 5.

Over 7 classes have been added, taken out, and added again through the last five years, and three classes have been added (and are still part of the curriculum) in the same amount of time. There’s been a noticed correlation between the classes that were taken out and the success they’ve had (test score wise). For example, AP Studio Art: Drawing Portfolio only had one student score above a 3 in 2014 and was taken out the next year.

Fruita Monument is constantly encouraging students to excel to the best of their abilities and challenge themselves with these advanced classes. They help students stand out with their high school transcripts and gain college credit. The offered AP courses at Fruita Monument and many other high schools are consistently showing their importance and how they help our students in their journeys after high school.

Picture Credit: Wikipedia