Due to the wide offering of AP courses at Blind Brook, students often wonder about the similarities between the high-level curricula and college-level courses.
Sarah Haber, a freshman at Emerson, was placed in AP United States History junior year and AP Government and Politics senior year. Haber states the AP classes she took deserve a solid 8 out of 10 in terms of preparing her for college. Although they do not directly relate to her major, both courses sparked her interest in current events, as well as political science.
“AP classes at Blind Brook prepare you not only in terms of material and information, but also force you to stay organized, improve study techniques and seek out extra help if needed. This definitely helped me when I first started classes in the fall. These courses do encourage you to strain from pure memorization tactics to really applying the information learned in class, into the real world,” said Haber.
Thinking critically is required for these types of courses. AP classes encourage students to study material ahead of time in order to succeed. Haber believes that the AP classes she took most certainly prepared her for college, despite the exhaustive work often required.
“All college courses, no matter what the major may be, are extremely challenging,” said Haber.
Haber states she always felt very rewarded at the end of the day because of all of the effort she put into each AP course and recommends that all students take an AP course in subjects appealing to them.
Another graduate of the class of 2015, Jessica Park, is a business management and administration major at Boston University. She took AP United States History, AP Government and Politics, and AP Bio junior year, and then proceeded to take AP European History, AP Macroeconomics, AP French, and AP Calculus AB during her senior year.
Park states that each college professor and teacher has a different way of conducting their courses, so no one is truly 100% prepared, no matter how many APs they take in high school. Despite this, she says that the course material and skills one learns from taking AP classes are especially helpful.
Park also says that certain teachers at Blind Brook prepare students during AP courses, but in college, students must to be independent, and willing to take initiative. Students cannot rely on their teachers for assistance as much as they do in high school.
AP courses, in Park’s opinion, teach students the best study skills, in addition to time management, although she feels that college courses are more challenging than AP courses.
“I think that the college course was more difficult since it was a large lecture and doing the work was entirely up to you, but the material was similar,” said Park.
Many more former Blind Brook students have found it beneficial to take AP’s in high school. Not only do the courses increase the academic rigor of a student’s workload, but they also teach skills like time management and self-sufficiency.