Education
The Best AP Classes to Take – 5 Reasons Why You Should Change Courses in High School
In this episode, Dan and Reddige Goat discuss the crucial factors to consider when changing high school courses, particularly focusing on Advanced Placement (AP) classes. They outline five key scenari...
The Best AP Classes to Take – 5 Reasons Why You Should Change Courses in High School
Education •
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Interactive Transcript
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Hey guys, Dan and Reddige Goat. Today we're going to be talking about course changes. I hope this
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helps anyone who's looking to basically shift things around whether you're trying to take
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if the honors math class or drop the AP class that you had accidentally signed up for and thought
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of a better idea. This is that time of year that many high schools tend to be more open for students
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to start making those adjustments as they start figuring out their enrollment schedule for next year.
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Anyway guys, if you like this channel, please definitely drop a like, comment, subscribe,
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really goes a long way in helping us generate more useful content like this. So without further
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do, let's get into it. So there are five common scenarios that we've determined are basically,
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basically should be a yellow or red flag for when you should really strongly consider changing
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your courses. And the first one is the most common one unfortunately is too many weighted courses.
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Yes, there is such thing as too many weighted courses as they like to say, too much of anything
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is a bad thing. Weighted courses can really wreck your GPA or too many weighted courses can wreck
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your GPA. It can really wreck your life and your mental health too if you don't watch out for it.
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So how do you find out am I taking too many? And I think parents and students ask this every year.
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Well, you're taking too many if, first, your data from the past year or years of academic
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performance don't show you proof that you can handle it next year. So I have a lot of parents or
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students who are scheduled to take, you know, four or three AP classes when they barely survive one
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or two honors classes from the 10th grade. And it's like, let's be realistic here, right?
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Don't pressure yourself in taking weighted courses because you heard it looks good for college.
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Rather, I'd rather have you inflate your unweighted GPA because at least you did well as opposed to
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over challenge yourself and just basically tread it water the whole year, right? So, you know,
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use your past historical data to determine, okay, am I ready for this first of all, right?
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And secondly, guys, you know, I think any weighted passed about four, right? Weighted courses total,
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and that's not just APs, that's also including honors courses that are UC approved as weighted courses.
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Anything passed four, I've seen this typically a bad idea, no matter who you are,
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especially if we're talking about four APs, anything passed that. So if you're taking
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a thing about taking five or maybe you're pressing yourselves a self-study, right? That's a bad idea
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because what's happening there is you're not accounting for all the time that you lose outside of class
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to do other profile building things that are actually more important than the classes that you're
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taking, right? So oftentimes I find that students dedicate way too much time, parents dedicate way
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too much worry, and to, you know, basically getting more weighted coursework and in reality,
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they're not spending at all enough time on things about love and learning or bolstering leadership or,
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you know, genuine ways of demonstrating concern for others, right? And so,
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there's all this other time that you're losing, basically, by taking too many weighted courses. So
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take both of those things in account, guys, historical data and past academic performance,
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as well as basically how much time am I going to have left to do other things, including sleep.
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You know, so obviously that's number one. Number two, the second most common one is weighted courses,
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or reason to start considering the basic recourse changes, weighted courses in the wrong areas,
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right? So, man, I can't emphasize this enough, but like for instance, we have a ton of
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engineering students or bio students who are thinking about taking A-PUS, right, along with,
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you know, three other APs, and it's like, well, AP US history probably will provide zero to no
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value to your profile if you're going to go into computer science, right? And then, you know,
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I usually hear as a response to that, the same thing what I said earlier, which is, oh, but I heard,
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you know, having more weighted courses helps me. Well, that's relative to many other things. You
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know, how much time will you have to do other things, right? AP US history, for instance, is an
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excellent sound because it takes so much time. It's not necessarily a hard course, but it's very time
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intensive. So again, you have to compare that time that you're using there to the time that now
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you're losing elsewhere, right? Working on projects, right? bolstering your profile in other areas,
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like I mentioned earlier. So, you know, I think taking A-P's in the areas that just don't matter,
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or weigh the course in the areas that just have nothing to do with your intended major,
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and most importantly, guys, it has nothing to do with your actual natural interests.
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You're going to end up burning so much time just to do only okay on this course,
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and you're going to basically end up losing a ton of opportunities to build your profile,
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and actually the right and more effective way is for college anyway. So, try not to take too many
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weighted courses or to really try not to take many at all, if at all, you know, any weighted courses
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in areas that have almost nothing to do with your major and on your interests, right?
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So anyway, let's go to the next one. So number three is physics that's missing for engineering students,
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right? So it's weird, but a lot of students who are going to be majoring computer science,
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or mechanical engineering aren't taking physics until 12th grade, and that's a huge mistake,
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right? They're electing to take A-P biology or chemistry in the 11th grade, because I guess that's
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the normal track, right? For some people. But if you don't have physics on your transcript, guys,
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by the end of 11th grade, you're not going to end up being able to show anything for physics
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attitude until after your college applications go in already, right? So, you know, a lot of
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parents just say, well, I'm taking a P-Fist in 12th grade, isn't that enough? And it's like, no,
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it's not, because if you have the option to take physics, if you have one for instance in the 11th
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grade, you should have done that because you would have had two semesters or quarters or trimesters
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of grades to show for, right? Your academic attitude and readiness for an engineering department
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that's a Berkeley, you know, or any university, right? So, you know, we always recommend engineering
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candidates take a physics by the end of their 11th grade to really, really demonstrate that
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attitude that engineering departments are looking for. And so, number four is similar to this, right?
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It's actually for business students, and also the supplies for biology students who are thinking
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about going pre-mad, right? But people also going into business economics really gets a half-psychology
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by the end of the 11th grade. And this really serves as a backup option in case things don't really
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go very well, right? For instance, if you're a bio major and you double B or, you know, your bio-AP
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bio class on the 11th grade, probably not a good idea to make you in bio, right? So, highly competitive
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schools at least. Or let's say you're a business major and you just basically got to see in math
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or something, right? It's like, well, quantitative studies is a very strong metric for determining
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readiness for a business major. It's like, okay, you know, you probably shouldn't be applying for
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business to like, you know, the strongest business schools either. So, it's like, well, it's
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going to have a backup option in case, you do want to kind of take a safer route, you know, into
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getting into some really selective schools. And that typically is psychology. We recommend cognitive
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science or psychology because it puts you right in the middle of really three really cool areas
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of pre-professional development, right? One, you can go pre-mad, two, you can go business,
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because you understand people think. And three, you can even go medicine, oh, sorry, well,
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sorry, you can go computer science because part of psychology nowadays is cognition, obviously.
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And also, it's very common to see computer science courses prerequisites for let's say things
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like cognitive science. So, you can go business, math or technology and AI development. It's a pretty
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good deal, right? And you have a higher acceptance rate than a lot of business programs at most schools.
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So, that's the fourth reason you should consider course courses changes here to include this
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psychology course by the 11th grade, if you are an intended business or biology major,
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to just have the backup plan. And the final number five is taking an accelerated math pathway
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or course with weak math foundations, right? So, oftentimes students are in a situation where they
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got places to common core, algebra one. So, if you do the counting, right? In ninth grade,
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I got places in the algebra one common core. I have to take technically, right?
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algebra or geometry common core, tenth grade, algebra two, trigonometry common core in the
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11th grade and then pre-calculus by the 12th grade. And, you know, for a lot of parents,
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they're like, well, wait, hold on, your peers are getting calculus, right? If you calculate this
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AB, if you calculate this BC by the time it's 12th grade, let's get you on the accelerated path,
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but you really kind of, you know, even it out. And that's great, very well intentioned, right? We
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want to try to get students, you know, at the same competitive level as their peers, but at the same
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time, which are what I oftentimes find is that students who are being enrolled in these accelerated
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pathways aren't really ready for them, right? You guys have to understand, you're taking two years
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of math now, compressing it into one barely, right? During COVID, right? Which is all virtual
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instruction and very not engaging at all. So you put all those things together and then you have this
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recipe for disaster, especially if a student does not have strong mathematical foundations. And,
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you know, I taught math for over 15 years in my life. It's very apparent when you're moving this
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fast in math curriculum, right? And you don't have, you're not strong at safe fractions or negative
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numbers or, you know, absolute values or something like that. It really, really starts showing its
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nasty face at you on your transcript, right? In the form of B's and C's and these accelerated
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math pathways. And that funny thing about that is that if you got B's and C's, right, or C's at all,
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right? It pretty much prevents you from going on that accelerated pathway. So you can't even
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continue anyway, right? So, you know, it's really important that I guess to summarize, guys,
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any of the five reasons that I just mentioned about, you know, why you should consider core changes,
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is really just to be genuine with yourself and not to kind of remove your pride and ego aside,
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remove the things that you've heard about, oh, you have to say, wait a course, or just look
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at for college. And really prioritize the things that actually matter more to colleges in the first
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place, which is one, how well did you do in the first place, right? You're unweighted GPA and to
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your interests, right? Students should only be taking classes, especially challenging classes
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in areas that they actually just naturally like, right? So, you know, these are the five reasons
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that, you know, we really kind of see four core changes and they hope this helped you out.
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Again, if you like this video, definitely share it, drop a like and subscribe.
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Definitely appreciate your support, guys. All right, see you next time.