AP Courses are notorious for their difficulty– After all, it’s in the name. These classes involve college-level learning tailored for students who effortlessly pass everyday math, reading, sciences, etc., and are seeking a more powerful transcript for their college applications. I am only enrolled in one AP— AP Lang— as of now, but I have many friends who have told me horror stories of the hell-on-earth that is BC Calculus. There are vast differences in the challenge factor of some APs, and three classes in particular distinguish themselves from all the others due to their overwhelming difficulty.

#3: AP Chem

Chem in third place may be surprising to many, but after discussion with both Mrs. Ngo (CdM’s Honors Chemistry teacher and former AP Chem teacher) and Mrs. McCormick (CdM’s current AP Chem teacher), AP Chem doesn’t seem like the depression-inducing, impossible AP course that I’ve heard it described as. When I spoke with Mrs. Ngo, she explained, “Kids who have had Honors will often find it pretty easy. Coming from Honors, a lot of the material is just repetition.” And this holds— When I went to ask McCormick about the class, she described how five of AP Chem’s eight units were spent on topics covered in Honors Chem. However, this doesn’t mean AP Chem is effortless. “The problems in AP Chem are complex,” said Mrs. Ngo, “Much more complex, with multiple concepts integrated into a singular problem. Students have to pull many ideas and concepts to solve said problems.” And, of course, all of this is assuming you stem from a strong Honors Chemistry background— Without Honors, this class’s difficulty spikes majorly.

Ngo’s final tip for succeeding in AP Chem? “Resiliency. Many of our kids need to build the ability to navigate through setbacks and challenges in a healthy way, and that means reflecting upon their mistakes and errors, correcting those mistakes and errors, and coming to a better understanding to move forward.”

#2: AP Physics

Physics’ difficulty stems from its uniqueness; according to CdM’s AP Physics Teacher, Mr. Selby, what makes physics so difficult is “the fact that you actually have to be creative in problem solving— You haven’t seen some of the questions before, and you aren’t doing things in exactly the same way with each one.” So, physics proves rather challenging due to its entirely new nature. I place physics above chem due to the lack of an “honors physics” (at least at CdM); Unlike in chemistry, where a large portion of the class is taught in Honors, AP Physics is entirely new.

Selby’s main tips for passing Physics are “Be comfortable with your Calculus,” and “Building judgement through experience,” and most importantly of all, “Get good sleep!”

#1: AP Calculus (BC)

My interviews with Mrs. Ballas, CdM’s AP Calculus teacher, pertained more to Calc BC, the harder of the two AP Calculus courses. However, she explained that for both AB and BC Calc, it was the “rigor of the topics,” paired with the fact that most Calculus students hadn’t seen any of the topics before, that made the class a quagmire. While understanding Physics and Chem is certainly difficult, the topics covered in Calculus are simply downright ridiculous to students, and many fail to wrap their heads around what Ballas teaches. Similar to the other AP courses on the list, a large portion of Calc’s challenges stems from a lack of prior exposure to Calculus. However, with the topics covered in Calculus being significantly more challenging than those in AP Chem or AP Physics, it adds multiple new layers of struggle.

Mrs. Ballas’ final tip to succeed in AP Calculus was “To take a little bit of time to self-study Calculus prior to entering, so they know the type of topics they’ll be covering, and to figure out a group of people taking Calculus with them so they can form study groups.”