What A Load!

Sophomore, Audrina Torres, got a head start and is currently taking two AP classes.

By Emily Trejo

Sophomore year is when students at Rialto High School are given the opportunity to take their first AP class. Sophomore Audrina Torres took advantage of this opportunity and decided to challenge herself by taking two AP classes in her sophomore year.

Torres is currently taking AP World History and AP Psychology. Most senior’s first AP class was AP World History and only took one AP course sophomore year, so considering that she is taking two AP classes her sophomore year is outstanding.

A sophomore having two AP classes is not something ordinary, so Torres shares how she accomplished this. She did summer school through Options for Youth for her PE credit so she could have a free period and be able to choose the class she wanted. Torres had plans of taking AP Psychology as her elective since she had an interest in becoming a psychiatrist.

Her first period is AP World History and she mentions that this is her most difficult class. Because of AP World History and the amount of workload she receives, Torres has had a hard time completing assignments from other classes, “I think my history class is the thing that is wrecking most of my homework.”

She also shares that compared to her other classes, she receives most of her homework from AP World History. Torres also adds that she had taken honor classes in her previous years but despite this, the work she receives in her AP classes is nothing like she has ever seen before. However, Torres expresses how she enjoys her other AP class, AP Psychology, due to the subject's intriguing concepts and light workload.

The expected daily work for AP World History consists of daily book readings with notes and other assignments that are to be completed overnight. According to Torres, the daily book readings can consist of reading from three pages to 10 pages. Student stress is inevitable when it comes to juggling two AP classes, especially when one of them is history.

In hopes of completing her assignments on time, she tries to do her history homework first but faces a backlash due to the book readings and assignments as they cause her time to be mostly consumed by these rigorous assignments. She expresses, “I’m very grateful that most of my classes don’t have as much of a homework load,” which allows her to focus on history.

An advice she would have given herself at the beginning of the year would be, “Do most of your assignments—book readings—during school or something so you have more time at home to relax and actually have a life.”

After school, Torres participates in theater. Once she is finished with her after-school activity she goes home. Due to her workload she rarely has time for herself, for example, the moment she arrives home she relaxes for a bit and gets straight to work. Torres shares that she believes that taking AP classes is taking most of her youth.

The advice she would give to students who are afraid of taking AP classes is to enroll in dual enrollment classes instead. Dual enrollment is when high school students are able to enroll in college classes to complete college credits so they can graduate high school while also being able to earn their associate's degree.

Instead of continuing her AP path, Torres has decided to do dual enrollment in her junior and senior years because she believes that it is a better resource for students and gives students a better opportunity to succeed throughout their high school careers.