AP Economics:

Although many students wait until senior year to fulfill their Personal Finance requirement, I took AP Economics with Andrew Foos my junior year, and it was one of the best experiences of my life. Junior year is arguably the most stressful year of high school, and I thought taking a class where the majority of my peers were already accepted into colleges by the time midterms rolled around would be relaxing. Possibly because of the more laid-back atmosphere, not once did I feel overwhelmed by the material covered in Foos’ class. His retake policy was forgiving and very helpful, and I found myself actually learning about what I had missed on exams through remediation, he sits with you and talks you through what you missed instead of telling you to “relearn” it on your own. Taking this class junior year seemed to work out for many of my classmates as well,

“It was definitely the right move [to take AP Econ junior year]. I learned more than I thought I would and had so much fun debating politics and current events in class” Clark Bowden (‘17) said.

AP Psychology:  

AP Psychology has a heavy load of coursework relative to core AP classes at Madison, but many students still take the elective class. Psychology is both interesting and engaging, but getting over the amount of hours spent writing down definitions can be quite the hurdle.

“Taking AP Psychology my senior year was a mistake, but I would not have wanted to inflict this workload on myself last year either, so if you are going to take the class, take it senior year,” Emma Vadney (‘17) said.

The class itself seems to be made up of mainly juniors, and in my class this year the split is probably 8:2 (juniors to seniors) which is much different from my other classes, but there is a certain sense of finality knowing the classes’ grades after first semester are less likely to affect my college admissions than if I had taken it as a junior.

AP Environmental Sciences:

Much unlike AP Psychology, AP Environmental Science has more seniors than juniors. In Richard Gongaware’s 7th period class last year, the amount of seniors greatly outweighed the number of juniors (there were probably 8 people from the class of 2017, and 4 of them sat at one table). It made the class more sociable, as we were meeting new people for the first time.  Mr.Gongaware encouraged mingling between the grade levels (or table groups, in my case). The class took on an even more relaxed vibe after Early Action and Early Decision college results came out, and the workload, although tough, became progressively more manageable as the year went on. The class is also centered largely around group projects, which give more leniency and time to work towards deadlines. This scheduling contrasted the structure of AP United States History and AP English Language and Composition in a way that other AP science classes that my peers were taking did not. The curriculum was both connecting and inspiring; we did studies on the environment around us in our own backyards and local streams.

“APES was one of the best classes I have taken during my high school life and I am glad I took it junior year because of all the wonderful people I met,” Sophia Lee (‘17) said.