AP (Advanced Placement) classes have been around for over 70 years now, providing an opportunity for all students across the country to attain college credit without having to pay college prices. The classes available range across the entirety of core classes, all the way from AP Spanish Language to AP 3D Art to AP Chemistry. The worst of these classes that Collegeboard has to offer is by far AP Government.
AP Government is a class based on the inner workings of the U.S. Government, explaining its functions and foundations.. The Declaration of Independence, The U.S. Constitution, the Bill of Rights, all 700 million of Hamilton’s Federalist papers—it’s all covered!
As a class that has an on-level opposite that only takes a semester to complete, you would assume that it would be relatively easy, slow-paced, even. But that is where you would be embarrassingly and tragically wrong. Despite only having five units, the class’ material goes far more in depth than an on-level class would, as well as far more in depth than would ever be necessary.
One might say that anyone taking any AP class has no right to complain; they’re the one who signed up for the class, it’s their responsibility to complete their due diligence when they knew what to suspect.
But I have a counterargument for you– this is a senior-level class. A class for a grade level that is notorious for burnout after four long years of a high school career, balancing everything from college applications to their multiple other classes, oftentimes an afterschool job and whatever else going on in their home lives. The complexities of politics and government are just too much to balance on top of all that with any real and consistent success.
At North Forsyth, students are expected to complete (with well-reflecting scores) one AP-style 55-question multiple choice test every month, and the day following the date of said test be capable of writing two extensive three-part FRQ questions. These FRQs cover SCOTUS cases that students are required to remember to a tee (of which there are 15 total) as well as ranging scenarios and graphs that students will have to analyze and decode on the spot.
This is too much! Between the outrageously specific vocabulary one must employ to receive points on an FRQ and the convoluted diction used in AP style MCQs, the rigor of AP Gov is nearly unspeakable. It’s exhausting, and often one finds their hard work and studying to be fruitless.
Thus, this class has simply got to go. Personally, I couldn’t care any less if it was kept at quite literally any other school in the county, state or the country– but not here. I cannot in good conscience graduate knowing that next year’s seniors would be given the sideswipe option of taking this class.
If you want college credit, dual enroll– as far as I and many other AP Gov. students are concerned, not getting the credit and having to include it in the classes you’re paying tuition for is honestly more worth it than the suffering that AP Gov. entails.
