So, last year I was a freshman at my high school and I took the college level course: AP Human Geography. After taking the national exam at the end of the school year, I remember thinking to myself: “was that year’s hard work all worth it?”

First of all, lets talk about the benifits of taking this rigorous course:

1. Pushes you to really focus and do work – Due to the pacing and toughness of this course, it really forces you to lock in during class time and also study times because if you don’t, you will be very behind
2. Develops time management skills – The amount of vocabulary, notes, and concepts that you will have to review constantly is absurd, and it will seem impossible at first, but this allows you to use your time management skills to figure out your priorities.
3. College credit – If you get a good score on the national exam, It will count as some college credit, letting you skip some classes when you get to college.

Now, for the negatives:

1. Limits your free time – due to the amount of studying required, you will have decreased free time at home
2. The class can be very frustrating at times – A lot of times you will not understand or remember the concepts, and it will leave you very angry and frustrated.

After all, is the class worth it? In my opinion, yes, because the all the negative aspects that personally experienced could have been easily solved by better time management skills

-Torres H.