How AP Over-prepared Me for College by Emilee

How AP Over-prepared Me for College by Emilee - April 2019 Scholarship Essay

Growing up, I was usually smarter than most of the other kids, and it would often screw with my head. I struggled in my classes, not because they were difficult but because they were anything but. The classes were too slow-paced for me, and I wanted more than anything to actually feel challenged in school. I actually liked learning, but the classes I would have to take made me feel as though I wasn’t learning much of anything at all. This not only was my issue through elementary and middle school, but it continued on into high school. That was until I happened upon what would be the most challenging classes I would ever take: Advanced Placement classes.

I had taken honors classes my freshman year, and I was certain that AP classes couldn’t be that much harder. Although they were considered to be college level-like courses, I felt confident in my ability to excel in my first AP class, AP World History, as I had always done great in any of my classes. It sure was a shock to me when I finally did get into the “meat” so to speak of this AP class, as I found myself struggling to keep up with all the reading assignments and other homework. When it came time for the AP exam, I no longer felt confident in myself. I felt as though I was not understanding the content enough to pass the exam and earn the college credit. Sure enough I was right. I earned a 1, which was not worth any college credit at all. This struggle of understanding concepts followed me into my other AP classes (AP US History and AP Language and Composition my junior year, and 4 other AP classes my senior year). Although I did better on the exams for these other classes (I ended up passing 4 of the 6 AP exams I actually took), I was still baffled (in both a good and bad way) that I had finally found something that challenged me.

One thing that always stuck with me was something my AP Lang teacher told my class on one of the first days of class, it was something along the lines of this: “Be prepared, AP classes are harder than college. You are going to get to college someday after taking my class and realize that college is going to be a piece of cake”. This seemed hard to believe at the time, but having been in college for almost a full year now, I can now say that she was right. Making the decision to challenge myself and take the 7 AP classes I did in high school was a great decision. I not only feel that I now have great time management skills, but I also gained so much knowledge in several fields of study because of them. Although I spent most of my free time in high school studying for intense tests or reading long chapters of hard to understand textbooks, I am grateful for the experiences and knowledge I gained from them. Choosing to take AP courses, although they challenged me and often times even made me upset to the point of crying, was one of the best decisions I could have made for both high school Emilee and present Emilee.