Personal Narrative: Junior Year Of High School

Someone once said, “Strength doesn’t come from what you can do. It comes from overcoming the things you once thought you couldn’t.” I use to think that I couldn’t take AP because it was too difficult. But I’m willing to prove to myself and others that just because something is considered hard, doesn’t automatically mean it’s not for you or that you’re going to fail. I want to take AP Biology because I want to challenge myself, of the benefits, and for the experience. I believe that hard work comes with great rewards that are life changing.

However, junior year of high school changed that: I was given the opportunity to take either AP Psychology, or AP European History. I felt that the obvious choice would be to take AP European History, since I’m European and therefore already had a solid foundation for succeeding in the class, but something inside me told me to take a blind leap of faith and choose AP Psychology instead. This choice proved to be one of the greatest decisions I have made in my life. Through this class, I emerged myself into the world of psychology and fell in love with it. I didn’t complete the assignments to get a good grade. I completed them because I cherished every minute of it, and I started applying the materials learned in class to real life

Throughout many of the arduous AP courses I took in high school I was pushed to my limits, but I accomplished my goals through hard work. One example of this would be my AP United States History class. This class was one of the most difficult courses I had taken, mostly due to the sheer amount of information being presented and needed to be memorized. Even though the basics of U.S. history had been taught to me in one way shape or form every school year, there was brand new information on people and important dates. At first I struggled with the work load and text, but I eventually made it through and succeeded by diving

The past few years since I have began High School I have realized how important school really is for my future. My freshman year was the year I slacked because I really just had no care but as an 11th grader and an incoming 12th grader for the 2018-2019 school year, I have realized it was a very big mistake because it is now affecting my GPA which I know could be higher. I am hoping that by taking this class it could increase my GPA although by the time I will be taking this class my college applications will have already been submitted. Taking an AP course will be the biggest step I have taken in my high school career. I may not have been ready for this step up in my education during the 2017-2018 school year but I believe I am fully prepared

On paper, I may not be the best student. I know very well that I am not the brightest student that this university has come across. Nonetheless, my drive and determination is something that I am very proud of. I strive to put my all into every aspect of my education. I remember junior year of high school being the most challenging year I have ever had. I took the initiative of taking three AP level courses all in one semester. I took AP U.S. History, AP Language, and AP Statistics head on that semester. I had heard rumors about AP U.S. History being “the hardest class you will ever take in high school”. That terrified me from the moment I first entered the classroom. With the help of an amazing teacher, it became my favorite class right away. I had not heard much about AP Language, so I had no clue what

Let’s start off with a little bit about myself. Growing up, I had the need to be independent of my parents since about 5th or 6th grade. During this time, I’m sure my thoughts were “I am a mature young adult, who knows what is best for myself. I don’t need someone dictating my life for me!” So, in order to achieve and keep this independence, I had to take higher level courses and keep high grades. Over the years though, my reasoning for taking harder classes turned from “I need to do this for myself” to something more along the lines of “All my friends are taking these classes”. In the end, my stubbornness and social anxiety prompted me to take AP classes

At the beginning of junior year, I had a difficult time with AP Biology. Even though I completed all the practice assignments, I did not do well on the first few lab write-ups and tests. The class was so hard for me that I contemplated dropping. I convinced myself to stay in the class and worked extensively with my teacher outside of class. I tried different studying techniques and methods and found the most effective one for me: pre-reading the textbook sections before my teacher introduced the concept. As this was the first course truly had difficulties with, I recognized that failures in life are inevitable. I embrace a new mindset now that incorporates these challenges into my personal growth. I now use each new obstacle as stepping stones

This year has been very big for me not only as a student, but as a person, citizen, and teenager. Many things have happened to me that have made me rethink my choices and aspirations. One of the most important things that happened to me this year was that I took two AP’s: AP World History and AP Computer Science. These classes challenged me and I got my first B for the quarter in World History. On the day of the AP Computer Science exam I knew that I hadn’t prepared enough, even though I wasn’t prepared for the Computer Science exam it did help me to gauge how the test would be formatted for World History and what to expect time-wise—which seems to be my worst ability during testing season. Those two classes also helped prepare me

The first time I took an AP class however, it was much more difficult and rigorous than what I thought. To begin with, I had joined AP European History two weeks late which also meant making up the summer homework, while keeping up with the assigned readings and homework assignments. As to why I changed my mind to take an AP history class later was due to the incentive of passing the exams, and to manifest my academic potential to myself and others.

At Ardrey Kell High School, students are often confused about whether or not to take an AP class. One might see your GPAs and feel that it is not high enough to get into that dream college. One might just want earn college credits early so one can save money when college rolls around. One might also take these classes simply to learn more about subjects about which he or she are passionate. No matter the reason for taking these classes, they require a momentous commitment to work hard and an extreme amount of effort in order to pass. Students can cope with these requirements by managing time efficiently and becoming organized, which will help them achieve a higher assignment completion rate and score higher on tests and quizzes.

Biology, chemistry, statistics, calculus, US history, and so on are just some of the many different choices for an advanced placement (AP) courses available to high school students to possibly earn college credit. But what about all the negatives of taking these courses, the cost of the test, and the added stress is only scratching the surface. Time to face facts and see that taking these AP courses will only bring further distress to students taking these courses.

I was lucky that the faculty members in my high school recognized the passion I had for history and recommended that I take the Advanced Placement United States History course. I agreed, knowing that this is a formidable endeavor with little support outside of the school environment, parents who are immigrants and no safety net to catch me if I failed. I set to the task telling myself that this was my time to shine. Armed with my favorite subject and an opportunity to take an AP class in Junior Year, how could I fail? Yes, Ten months of study, 400 years of history, 44 Presidents, Two World Wars and a whole lot of conspiracy. Come test time I was worn out. Test day was a Friday marked on the calendar with a big X. After taking the test I had to wait six agonizing weeks to get the results, constantly second guessing my answers, wondering if I did well. On the Friday morning the results were released, I got up early and checked them online…. I got a 5. Top ten percent in the country, now that’s a much better number than one in three

One of the burdens that AP students have to tolerate when it comes to taking that type of course, are the standardized tests follow along. AP tests are administered by The College Board; it’s a test that colleges look out for when determining possible eligibility at their institution. This test should be taken seriously as there are limited “repeat” opportunities. Compared to standard classes, Pre - AP and AP classes tend to assign more work to students. This doesn’t give a student much time to themselves as they’d prioritize getting their work done. Additionally, Pre - AP and AP

In this country there are a great majority of opportunities, but for some reason in our school there aren’t as much educational opportunities as other schools in this nation. As a person that will do anything to succeed I have to take advantage of the educational opportunities that are offered. One of the educational opportunities I have taken advantage are the AP and Honors classes. These classes are more rigorous than the other regular classes and have therefore helped me be better prepared for college. The AP classes I have taken are; AP Euro, AP US History, AP Spanish Language, and AP Chemistry. As for Senior year I am taking AP Calculus and AP Government. I found out about these classes by being told by the school, I always wanted to

There's a couple of weeks remaining in the school year.  At the time, I'm a sophomore reviewing for a Biology test and I'm called up by my teacher.  He informs me that the science course I signed up for (AP Physics I) would not be taught the following year, so the school decided to place me in the next best course...AP Chemistry.  At this point, I've only taken physics and biology classes, so the idea of going into an Advanced Placement version of Chemistry without any prior knowledge of the subject had me terrified.  However, I decided to keep the class in my schedule for two main reasons.  For one, there's a part in me that believed AP Chemistry would involve may exhilarating and extraordinary experiments (it did).  But also, with the junior