The constant feeling of stress, anxiety, and exhaustion is what many students experience when they come home from school. The rigorous workload and assessments consume a lot of students’ time, taking away the real high school experience — an experience filled with going to school games, hanging out with friends, and attending fun events. Students often question: is it really worth it? Are the demanding Advanced Placement (AP) classes that are very difficult worth the energy and stress?

AP classes are offered for students grades 10-12 at Rock Ridge, with several classes and subjects to choose from. Taking AP classes comes with an intense workload and lots of homework that students have to complete.

The purpose of taking AP courses is to earn college credit and prepare yourself for the rigorous workload that you will experience in college. In order to earn college credit, you have to pass the AP Exam. The exam is given to students at the end of the year who signed up at the beginning of the year and prepared for it year-long.

As someone who has taken several AP classes throughout high school, taking three to five AP classes per year is unnecessary. Being involved in extracurricular activities and sports is something that students always looked forward to being a part of in high school. But instead, taking AP courses creates constant stress and makes you miss out on things that you love to do because they consume free time. They have turned most days from being enjoyable to miserable, leading students  feeling constantly drained out.

Junior Soliyana Ashenafi found that taking three to five AP classes per school year has made her lose focus on important things that she loves doing outside of school. “When I started loading my school schedule with multiple AP classes, it slowly started taking over my free time and having me studying and doing homework 24/7,” Ashenafi said.

Of course, AP classes do move at a faster pace than non-AP classes, which is why students are constantly falling behind and struggling to catch back up. When AP students miss a few days of school due to being sick or having an appointment, we come back to grades looking worse than they did before. It’s a stressful position to be in, and it creates a constant fear of getting bad grades. Students end up struggling in a class because they miss a few days of school, being completely confused about the lesson.

When students stack on several AP classes in the school year, they begin to lose focus on their other classes and fall behind. It’s important to stay on top of your work, because the material is fast-paced and intense, which will cause students’ grades to drop. “When students choose to take several AP classes, they tend to overwhelm themselves and cannot put in enough effort in any of the individual classes to really get the most out of the class,” computer science teacher Logan Flannigan said.

Balancing school work and after-school activities can be rough when you’re taking multiple AP classes, especially with being in sports, clubs, and other extracurricular activities. When students tend to take 3-5 AP classes, it takes up a lot of downtime at home. I know when I get home, the first thing I always do is open my laptop and work for hours taking up all of the free time that I have. Students are constantly staying up late racing to meet deadlines and due dates for their assignments, stressed about their work. It takes away time that they could be enjoying themselves and having fun.

To be sure, taking AP classes can extend students’ knowledge and different perplexing topics, but this commitment comes at a cost, a cost that sometimes is too steep. It’s time to stop loading your schedules with several AP classes that will take over your life and ruin your academic success.