High school academics can be a big jump up from middle school especially for students taking all pre-AP and AP classes. It’s something the counselors try to prepare students for even before they step foot on campus.

“When we go to middle schools to help students prepare for registering and the transition to high school, we urge them to try to find balance in their schedules, particularly if they have several other commitments outside of school,” counselor Karen Wood said. “If they are trying to challenge themselves by taking higher level classes, we urge them to choose the ones in subjects they enjoy and do better in. Also we ask them to focus on what’s best for them, not what everyone else is doing.”

For some freshmen, the academic load of high school is comparable to middle school except in one area.

“The pre-AP classes isn’t much different here from middle school, however the AP classes are,” freshmen Daniel Nagles said. “They are a lot more vigorous and they’re a lot more heavy on notes so I think that’s about the only difference.”

The world of AP is new to all freshmen, so creating a method of management and organization is often aided by teachers.

“Most of my teachers have agendas, so I’ll just look at the agenda and find what I need to do by what day and start working on it periodically,” Nagles said. “You don’t want to do everything last minute, that’s never fun.”

Many freshmen try to ease themselves into challenging courses by waiting until sophomore year to take AP classes.

“Last year I took like five on-level classes,” sophomore Jimmy Qian said. “It was kind of laid back, but now I realize that grades are important, so this year I’m taking seven pre-AP and AP classes. It’s a lot of work, but if you can really dedicate yourself towards it, then you can reach your goal. You just have to manage your time and learn to organize because anything is possible if you just plan ahead.”

While freshmen and sophomores experiment with taking all Pre-AP and AP classes, juniors and seniors have learned what’s best for them.

“Junior and senior year, I think I learned how to manage my time,” senior Zoe Ramirez said. “When you are in freshmen and sophomore classes, they’re normally not as challenging and rigorous as junior and senior classes. Figuring out how to balance my time really helped me more now when the courses got a little harder.”