By Joud Baghal, Staff Photographer & Jennifer Trend, Staff Writer
Fountain Valley High School offers a variation of classes ranging in different levels, from regular to honors, advanced and Advanced Placement (AP). But is the gap between the different levels too big?
At the beginning of the year teachers commonly say one thing if it is a more advanced class: that they go at a much faster pace, cover more content in a semester, give out much harder content for homework and will greatly challenge the students.
But what happens to those who are too smart to be in the regular classes but can’t find the time or commitment to be able to fully learn and keep up with the advanced classes? Should they struggle all year to keep up with the workload and constantly feel stressed, or should students take the regular classes even if it’s too easy for them or if they aren’t learning as much as they could?
The advanced classes will spend a day on a new lesson, get a full front and back of a page (or more) of homework and the process will repeat again everyday. Meanwhile in regular classes, a few days is spent teaching the lesson and going over the homework depending on where the class is and how much they understand it.
In advanced classes, you can go to the teacher after class hour if you need help. Other than that, it’s all self study. Regular classes will have the teacher help students in class if any of them have a question.
Since AP classes also depend on self studying, it adds to the toughness of the course for some. Depending on the preferred way of your understanding or learning abilities, this can either be a challenge. It can also be the complete opposite, where you can retain and understand the information better when you sit down to teach it to yourself.
In the regular classes you may not have to depend on that. This is either because the material comes easy or because the teacher takes more of the class time to ask questions and ensure students understand the material. The downside to this is that the class is slower paced, meaning those who may understand the subject better than others will have to go along with the entire class instead of moving on.
The gap for me was especially an issue last year in Chemistry in the Community (Chem-comm). I thought that I wouldn’t be able to handle a regular chemistry class and the workload along with it. I was right. Although throughout the Chem-comm course, I felt myself being ahead my other classmates which was a bit frustrating. Even though the class was too easy for me, I knew that the only other option I had was the extremely difficult regular chemistry class. I felt that it was either not being challenged or being pushed too far.
Overall, the gap is too big, but in the end it’s your choice to take the easier class or to test yourself to the limits. You should consider whether or not the subject is worth it and if you have enough time to commit to the rigorous pace advanced classes provide.
