A new group of sophomores goes into their first Advanced Placement class, AP Human Geography (APHUG), every September to challenge themselves with a new level of rigor. They learn a multitude of new skills that they can apply to the rest of their educational journey, and experience a new level of workload.
Going into a college-level course requires a new level of time management and organization. Making sure to spend enough time on the subject is an important factor to maintain in an AP class, and that tends to be an area where most students need to focus throughout the early months of the year.
“Because the content has such breadth, you might be studying something for over a week rather than just cramming it,” APHUG teacher Samantha Kerley remarked about the girls’ biggest challenge. “So I think in terms of that, it’s mostly time management students struggle with.”
As sophomores, LOTAs’ classes in general tend to go up in difficulty and have a steeper workload, despite not all being at the AP level. Navigating this increase for all their classes is a huge adjustment.
“I think the biggest jump is not just APHUG, but it’s also managing all of the other classes,” Kerley revealed.
This transition takes students around two to three months to adjust to as they notice their classes require a new level of study habits. The first time students really try to apply the content is when most realize they need to pivot.
“We test within the first month and that tends to be kind of the first brick wall that students hit,” Kerley stated. “It’s up to them how they get through it because they can’t go around it like they normally would with content because it comes back.”
The new skills students are learning involve how to approach the AP style of writing free response questions, FRQs, and the AP expectations for multiple choice questions, MCQs.
“You’re not just learning the content but you’re learning how to apply that,” sophomore Ava Jones expressed about her adjustment to the AP question style.
However, as LOTAs head into more AP classes their junior and senior years, most see AP Human Geography as a great introduction to the AP workload, feeling more confident and prepared to handle future AP content.
“I definitely learned how to like do multiple-choice questions faster,” junior Kristen Ruddy remarked about the skills from APHUG. “Cause you only have the minute.”
Despite all the stereotypes, upperclasswomen recommend taking APHUG and emphasize that the course is not unmanageable. Students admit that going into an AP class for the first time is intimidating, but reveal that it seems more daunting than it is after they adjust and find their rhythm.
“I think there’s like a big kind of reputation about AP classes that they’re gonna be like this huge, big, like crazy thing,” Ruddy said. “I don’t think it is. It doesn’t live up to that in my mind.”
