Have you ever sat in your guidance meeting to schedule your classes for next year and thought, am I taking too many hard classes at once? Am I not taking enough? Oftentimes, underclassmen are stuck between taking AP, Advanced, Honors, or CP classes, not knowing the extent of their difficulty. We asked Glen Rock Seniors, who had taken an average of 6.1 AP classes in their entire high school career, to score each AP class they had taken on a scale of 1-10 based on difficulty, as well as leave optional comments. These AP Classes are ranked based on the average of these scores (all scores added together divided by the number of responses), and may be used as a guide in the future so students are able to design their schedules to be challenging, but not necessarily overwhelming. Each class includes an individual graph showing the breakdown of the score of each student voted for. Green, considered the easiest, would be a score of 1-3, yellow for a ranking of “intermediate” is scores 4-6, orange for “hard” is scores of 7-8, while red for “very hard” is scored 9-10. The following are listed based on difficulty in each subject area, and include comments from students.

AP Histories, ranked:

“Pohlman is the ?”

“Online tests, not much school work, not stressful; AP test itself is easy”

“Very manageable”

“The class overall was taught very well, especially given this is the first year it’s being taught at GRHS”

“A lot of the material is very self-explanatory and there is a lot of overlap with other classes you might have taken. There’s almost no homework.”

“Very manageable”

“The content itself wasn’t so bad, but there was a LOT of homework and extra studying required”

“Hardest part was being a freshman and handling workload”

“quizzes were hard for me because they were cumlimitative but I also was young and didn’t have good study methods or was keeping up”

“ Not the class to get senioritis in!! You have to work all the way through to the AP Exam.”

“Take it soph or jr year and if you actually do well and participate feldman is a very good resource for college stuff”

“Mr. Feldman is a great teacher. If you listen in class the overall experience is amazing. This class was my favorite in all of high school and so much fun.”

“requires a decent amount of studying but once you get a topic it’s pretty easy to remember and it’s just a really enjoyable class”

“overall workload is very manageable and good and interesting class”

“I find the content hard to understand sometimes”

“Pay attention and the AP tests will be cake. Definitely a subject worth having an exposure to before college.”

“There wasn’t a ton of homework however the assignments we did have were definitely time consuming. Be prepared to write a lot.”

“Honestly any other teacher and this class would be a nightmare but Ms. Walter does a great job with it”

“A lot of work but I felt well prepared for the exam and I thought the class was a good experience.”

“There is always an opportunity for test corrections on tests so it’s not hard to get good marking period grades. But there is a lot of content and reading, so a lot of stress.”

“There’s just a large volume of content, so it’s hard to remember everything!”

A ton of information, frequent tests, lots of reading. However, super worth it if you love history.

AP Mathematics, ranked:

“Definitely one of the easier math APs, but still pretty hard. The second semester is WAY harder than the first semester. really enjoyable class if you like this kind of math though.”

“My favorite math I’ve taken in HS, Mrs. Wallace is certified goat and makes the class so do able”

“Some of the material taught in the beginning overlaps with AP Psychology and Algebra II. This class is more about analyzing data and making inferences than just math, so even if you don’t necessarily enjoy math you might enjoy this class.”

“Some units are pretty easy, some are impossible, kind of a mixed bag but a very good class”

“Hard material but fair tests and homework”

“This math class should regularly challenge anyone at GRHS who isn’t a math god”

“There isn’t a lot of homework, but it’s helpful to do some studying on your own for practice.”

AP Englishes, ranked:

“A lot of essays but not too hard”

“You’ll learn a lot about writing from this class, but you’re expected to be able to write very well before taking the class. Most of the assignments are essays.”

“As long as you read the books the class is very easy. We just went through books that can be applied to the exam”

“The material isn’t very difficult but there is A LOT of homework.”

AP Sciences, ranked:

“Easiest science I’ve taken in high school, 10/10 recommend saving for senior year”

“You have to study but it’s not too much work”

“The stress was light. The tests were decently hard but if you studied and paid a little bit of attention in class you will do fine. It’s really interesting and a discussion based class. Highly recommend for seniors looking to take a light AP science or for the first time AP class, it helps prepare for all science AP exams.”

“Hard tests but not a lot of homework.”

Warning: There was a lack of data for this class due to only receiving two responses

“This is a very interest-based class. If you like biology you shouldn’t have trouble in the class. But if you don’t have interest in the subject you’ll likely find the material very challenging. Most work is done in class and there isn’t a lot of homework, aside from studying and a few large assignments.”

“The homework was light. Just a lot of studying. It did get to be a lot of information at times. Only take this class if you’re genuinely interested, ready to work, and okay with lectures every class”

“The tests are the hardest part.”

“The material is very difficult, so it’s important to keep up with all of the homework to make sure you’re practicing.”

“It’s really hard if you don’t like chemistry so only take it if you actually are interested and enjoy the subject. Mrs Battersby is really sweet and helpful if you ask for extra help but you have to be ready to put in the effort to try and learn.”

TONS OF INFO, lots of hw and tests

“Don’t take this if you haven’t done any trigonometry or calculus. I took this junior year with advanced pre-calc and was lost because I was learning the math I needed for it while taking it. 

“Very stressful”

“Somewhat tricky curriculum”

“Hard because you have to cover both mechanics and electricity and magnetism, and they’re pretty difficult.”

“You’re expected to know everything about mechanics before starting the class”

AP Languages, ranked:

“Latin is hard”

“There is no real work due, but you have to learn a lot of the material on your own”

“You don’t learn a lot of new grammar or linguistic conventions in this class, it’s more focused on learning about Spanish and Latin American culture. So you’re expected to be able to speak, understand, read, and write in Spanish pretty well before starting the class. But even if you aren’t the best in some of these skills, there’s plenty of opportunity to improve through practice throughout the year. There is a considerable amount of homework, but it just helps with practice and isn’t always graded.”