AP classes aren’t easy, that’s a well-known fact, and AP World History is unfortunately not an exception. It’s reasonable to assume that a class that offers a lot of work isn’t going to be a fun one, especially if we’re talking about an AP class. For sophomores, AP World is often their first experience of an AP class, and a first experience of any AP class isn’t, and will probably never be, a particularly easy one.

However, there are some sophomores that take AP World a little too seriously. Of course, in complete fairness, this is reasonable; however, some people take bad grades personally, as though a C- is a failing grade. Taking an AP class seriously is important, but it is also important to understand what your limits are.

The difference between stress and overstress: 

The reason why we human beings stress in difficult situations is because it enhances our focus and starts pumping that adrenaline. Let’s say you’re a caveman and, suddenly, you’re ambushed by a hyena. Realistically, you would then immediately die because nobody in the modern day knows how to fight wild animals, but for the sake of this story, let’s say you’re just built different. With you being in a difficult situation, stress is activated, and with your brain working sharper and harder, you can handle the hyena situation with ease.

However, wrestling with hyenas doesn’t get you far in the modern day. Surprisingly, fighting wild animals with your bare hands isn’t a necessary role in society. Instead, you have to do something gross and abysmal called “paperwork,” but unfortunately for you, stress cannot tell the difference between a stack of paperwork and a furious hyena that wants your guts. Thus you start treating an algebra math problem like it’s a life-or-death situation.

Stress isn’t exactly an entire negative to this situation, however. Stress helps you focus more clearly and take a situation more seriously. According to stress, unless you man up, you’ll never figure out what X equals. Stress is important, but in some situations, people can start to overstress. If you’re facing more and more work, you get more and more stressed, but stress sees all of that extra paperwork as more bloodthirsty hyenas, and thus, you start overstressing.

Granted, some people might say overstressing while you’re hypothetically duelling an alligator or two is somewhat reasonable, but overstressing over work simply isn’t healthy in the slightest. It’s important to understand what your limits are and even better to sit down and say, “Is my panicking reasonable considering the situation?” According to some people in AP World, it is, but is that true? Is the AP World workload truly that difficult?

Is panicking over a bad grade in AP World reasonable?

Well, the short answer is, “no.” The slightly longer answer is, “yes, but there’s a fine line between meltdown and reason.” Yes, having a C in AP World isn’t what most people would call genius work, and you should go out and try to improve that (I, personally, did not, and I live to regret it). If you’re aiming to have at least a 90% in the class, that means you would work harder to achieve that. However, it’s very important to remember that you aren’t invincible –you can’t just say “I’ll work harder” and immediately get straight A’s. Work requires time and energy, and AP World isn’t your only class.

For example, let’s say you just finished a particularly difficult history test in AP World, and you couldn’t remember at what time George Washington stubbed his toe in 1764. Forgetting that information costs you a lot though, and your test grade comes out to be a D-, and now your class grade is a C! Is your future now screwed to eternity? Simply put, no. Yes, it is disappointing to earn an unsatisfying grade, but unless your dream career is devoted to learning historical fun facts, it isn’t the end of the world, not yet anyway. If you’re aiming high, like something in medicine, it’s not very likely that the job interview will go south just because you got a C in AP World back in high school.

However, even if you’re still not convinced that a bad grade in AP World is not something to panic about, remember one big point that is important in AP classes: only the AP test matters at the end of the day! Even if you failed the class, if you passed the AP test, that’s truly something to celebrate because that’s where all the AP credit is gained. As my AP World teacher, Jacquelin Laabs, once said in my sophomore year, unless you’re taking the AP test, “you’re just taking AP World for fun.”

Maybe your perfect grade streak is going to hit a few bumps in the road, maybe you get a C in one class, but at the end of the day, letters on a screen won’t define who you are as a person ten years from now on. AP World isn’t going to halt your ambitions. In short, take care of yourself when it comes to stress, and don’t treat every situation like you’re about to start wrestling with some hyenas.