West High School is no stranger to excellence, as it was recently named the number one school in the state for the fourth consecutive year. West is known for its extremely high graduation rates as well as its high Advanced Placement enrollment. West offers a total of 29 AP courses in their program, with 65% of students having taken at least one AP exam in their time at West. With the high standards West High provides, there is a large amount of pressure placed on students to uphold that academic rigor by taking multiple AP classes.
Because of this expectation, Trojans often find themselves struggling with a balance between their academics and personal life. Many students find themselves making sacrifices in order to keep up with their intense schedules and plethora of extracurricular activities.
Elsie Gross ‘27 is an active participant in many of West’s diverse programs. Ranging from intense tennis games to stage managing the most recent theater production, the sense of pride West instills in her is undeniable. Despite the green and gold running through her veins, Gross is not in the dark about the sacrifices that must be made to stay at the top. Gross was enrolled in AP US History last year, often regarded as one of the more challenging AP courses offered at West. After the test, which took place in May, she was left in suspense until July. She described her initial reluctance to look at her long-awaited score.
“Everyone was talking about [the AP test], so I wanted to wait until the buzz died down. I was so scared that the test didn’t go well for me, the fear of doing bad because of how much work I put into that class outweighed how much I wanted to know,” Gross said.
A couple of weeks after the scores initially came out, Gross decided to look at her results and discovered that she earned a four. This success felt like a weight was lifted off her shoulders as she no longer had to worry about falling short of West’s academic proficiency.
Students enrolled in multiple APs can often struggle with staying motivated throughout the course of the year. Gabby Cwiertny ‘28 is a club swimmer and is enrolled in three AP courses this year. With the busy life Cwiertny leads, it can often be difficult to keep up with the intense workload. She prides herself on her high accomplishments in swimming and holds herself to that same expectation in her academics.
“A big motivating factor is the future, because I’m a swimmer and I want to swim in college, and that already narrows it down. I think that I’m just trying to make my academics look as perfect as they can,” Cwiertny said.
College applications are a threat on the horizon for many, with essays acting as the only outlet to show off a student’s unique individuality outside of academics. However, after a college essay is read, admission officers turn to students’ grades to determine if they are the ultimate fit. This prompts the age-old question, “Do APs actually determine whether or not I get into a good college?”
The answer: it depends. High scores won’t ultimately impact the final decision for college admissions. However, high AP scores can work heavily in a student’s favor, especially in more selective schools. Colleges often look for quality rather than quantity, wanting to see a student’s success in hard courses. It isn’t necessarily a bad thing to try out as many APs as possible, but it is more important to focus on performance.
Throughout West’s time as one of the top-scoring schools for academics, the number of administered AP tests at West has only gone up.
Due to the multitude of AP students at West, teachers work to alleviate stress in any way possible by shaping their lessons to their students’ needs. Camille Crossett, a former West High graduate and AP Psychology teacher, works hard to structure her AP course to make her class an accessible course for all. She provides numerous resources for all her students throughout the year, and has even built in review time leading up to the big test in order to assist them in achieving highly on their AP exam. Crossett explains, however, that a perfect score on the exam is not her top priority.
“We don’t care if they get a five on the test; that’s more of a self-driven thing. I care that you’re in a class, you’re challenging yourself, you’re trying to do something, you’re learning something,” Crossett said.
One of the major issues with AP classes, Crossett acknowledges, is the gap it creates among the students. Not everyone is on the same level. Some people may have no issue at all, passing with flying colors. Yet for others, it may not be that simple.
“It’s really nice that the AP culture offers the opportunity for excellence and encourages students to strive for really great scores and really great grades. But there’s also the pressure that creates for those students and for other students who are trying to play catch-up. They’re trying to meet that standard, and they’re having a harder time,” Crossett said.
AP culture thrives among the student body of West, taking over their lives in and out of school. AP classes are designed to be challenging. These classes have been created for scholars who are passionate about their studies and motivated to go above and beyond in their learning. Students should aim to choose courses that are best fit to a student’s schedule and ability to avoid risking burnout and an impacted performance.
