As a student with high goals for myself and my future, taking Advanced Placement classes is an important part of my high school career. For anyone who is debating whether or not to take an AP class, I encourage you to take the AP class. 

From my personal experience and the benefits that I have seen that come from taking them, I highly recommend taking AP classes. Students will not regret taking them because of all the plus sides to completing them.

There are many AP classes offered that correlate with interests that students may have. For the musically talented, there’s AP Music Theory. For the technologically savvy, there’s AP Computer Science. These are offered alongside your traditional social studies, science, English, and math AP classes.  

Having a rigorous schedule is extremely important when looking into going to schools such as the University of Georgia. Specifically, UGA’s admission statistics show that the middle 50% of admitted students had between 6 and 11 AP, IB, and Dual Enrollment courses. Without the rigor provided by AP classes, the chances of getting into a school like UGA becomes smaller. 

These rigorous classes also allow for students with the same high ambitions to be surrounded by one another. Since primarily students with greater work ethic and drive tend to take more AP classes, students do not have to worry about one of their peers dragging the class behind in the material. 

For students who like classes that are fast-paced, AP classes provide them with that experience, due to the amount of information that has to be learned by the time they have to take their AP exam. In an AP class, there is no time to get bored of the material or the class itself. 

In a majority of the AP classes offered at Starr’s Mill, the class sizes tend to be smaller than in a regular class. This allows for the teachers to get more one-on-one time with each student, allowing for students to better understand the material that is being presented to them. 

Additionally, as a student athlete, AP classes have trained me to manage my time more than anything. Without these skills, college will be a wake up call to those who wait until the last minute to finish their assignments. 

AP classes have also helped me develop study skills, that I had not been familiar with until I took my first AP course, which was AP Human Geography. Rather than just going through and trying to memorize notes, I had to work on explaining why things happened and I had to ask myself questions about the content as I reread my notes. 

With a majority of AP tests being stimulus or application based, rather than just memorizing and regurgitating information, you have to actually thoroughly understand the material to succeed.  

Another huge advantage of taking AP classes is the college credit students can earn from taking the classes. Based off of the score students get on the final exam, colleges will take AP classes as a college credit. This will save students money and time in their college experiences. 

Due to the AP exams at the end of the year, students in these classes do not have to take a final test in that course that counts toward their final grade. This is an attractive benefit for students who are primarily concerned with their grades and class rankings. Plus, because of this, many students that take multiple AP classes get a headstart on their summer vacation at the end of the school year. 

One aspect of AP classes that is extremely rewarding is the input/output ratio. Students can see their hard work pay off through taking APs when they get into the school of their dreams or they get the highest score on the exam. Since AP classes are typically more challenging than regular classes, the feeling of accomplishment after finishing an AP class is great. 

Although AP classes are difficult and time consuming, they have many benefits that outweigh the negatives of them. Take the AP and you will not regret it.