MHS offers a variety of Advanced Placement (AP) college-level classes. At the end of the course, AP exams are administered, and depending on the score a student gets on a five-point scale, he or she can get college credit and/or advanced placement in college courses, according to the AP Program and Course Info on the MHS website.
Though AP classes are designed to be college-level courses, they differ from college classes in a number of ways. Some MHS alumni shared their thoughts and personal experiences with AP and college classes.
Andrii Vlasiuk graduated from MHS in 2020 and is now a freshman at DeAnza College in Cupertino. When asked about the difficulty of the AP classes he had taken at MHS, Vlasiuk said in a Zoom interview, “AP U.S. History was certainly difficult for me, and then AP Calculus AB and AP Computer Science were pretty easy. I don’t think it’s just because I like them, but I also enjoyed the way teachers taught.”
In AP Computer Science, he was given enough homework for him to understand the course, he said. In college, some teachers don’t assign homework, but the few who do, don’t require them to be done, he added.
“It’s up to you to do it or not, but if you don’t do it, chances that you’re going to succeed in class are very low,” Vlasiuk said.
Moreover, MHS AP classes do a good job at preparing students for college-level classes, he said. The pace that courses move in college is similar to the pace in AP classes, he added. Finally, he said he recommends taking AP classes to anyone who wants to be more prepared for college and anyone who feels confident about their knowledge.
Sharon Diep is a teacher at MHS and an alumna. She graduated from Santa Clara University and now teaches chemistry and honors chemistry. While she was a student, she took AP World History (WHAP), AP Chemistry, AP Biology, AP Calculus AB, and AP English Literature and Composition.
“Definitely, AP Chem was difficult,” Diep said in a Zoom interview. “I would say that WHAP was hard as a sophomore; that was the first one to take, and there was a lot of reading and a lot of writing involved.”
Additionally, MHS AP classes are rigorous and prepare a student for what true college courses are like, she said. She added that they show a student how fast a college course would be.
“It also prepares you to develop better habits in terms of studying, planning, and just getting things in order,” she said. “And, it teaches you to learn for yourself, which is a lot of college.”
College classes were also difficult because the struggle she faced in her freshman year was more about transitioning to the new environment and adapting to having more time, Diep said. Having a large number of people in lecture halls was also a difficult transition to make, she added.
“You get to your upper-division classes (your junior and senior year), and the struggle is no longer adapting; it’s more of rigor in the courses that you take,” she said.
However, in comparing AP classes to college classes, Diep said that both are at the same level of rigor because of the stage of life that a student is in. In high school, AP classes are unlike anything a high-schooler has ever done, while in college, the rigor is due to the content of the course itself, she said.
“In high school … not only do you have the content to juggle, you also have the pacing to juggle. In college … the juggling for time is a bit less,” she added.
Finally, Diep recommends taking AP classes because they count for credit in college and give students a head start. Taking advantage of that would help in the long run, she said.
MHS alumnus Alexander Phan graduated in 2020 and is now a freshman at the University of Washington in Seattle. As a high school student, he took AP World History, AP U.S. History (APUSH), AP Government, and AP English Literature and Composition.
“WHAP definitely was [difficult], and I think it was just because it was the first AP class I ever took,” Phan said in a Zoom interview. “But I think after WHAP, APUSH, AP Lit., and AP Gov. were, for the most part, easy.”
MHS AP classes were easy, but compared to college classes, AP was harder, he said. The idea that college classes are difficult was false, he added.
“Obviously it depends on what college class you take, but most general education and beginner college classes that you’ll take in your first and second year are honestly cakewalks compared to AP classes in high school,” Phan said.
Additionally, he said his college classes are not difficult and just “overpriced lectures online.” He added that most of his classes are asynchronous.
“[Professors and TAs] pre-record stuff, and they have their entire schedule laid out for the entire year, and you can just do it as deadlines come along,” he said. “And then there are some classes which are synchronous… It functions like a regular class but over Zoom … Attending [is] completely optional. As long as you get your assignments in and show up for your tests, then you should be okay.”
Overall, Phan said he strongly recommends taking at least one AP class and especially recommends taking WHAP to incoming sophomores. Although it may seem rough at first, taking the class would make the rest of their high school career easier, he said. AP classes can also help a student save money, he said.
“If you take enough AP classes, you can fill out a quarter or a semester worth of college classes, which, depending on what school you go to, [is] five to ten thousand dollars saved as long as you pass those AP tests,” Phan said.
Another MHS alumnus who took AP classes is Ivy Nguyen, a current teacher at MHS. She attended multiple colleges including UC San Diego, San Jose State University, and CSU Fullerton. When she was in high school, she took AP Chemistry, AP Biology, and AP Calculus AB. Today, she teaches Math 2, Math 3, and AP Statistics.
“It’s my first time teaching [an AP class], and it’s definitely pushing my limits in terms of the rigor in which I have to teach,” Nguyen said in a Zoom interview. “The expectations are different from teaching a non-AP class. I’ve adjusted, but it’s very different. It’s kind of like trying to keep your head above water.”
During her high school years, AP Chemistry was difficult, but she enjoyed the subject and found it interesting, Nguyen said. As for her other AP subjects, they were relatively easy, she said. Nguyen said that college was difficult due to her thinking that high school was easy.
“I didn’t develop a good work ethic when I went into college, so I definitely struggled in my first few years at UC San Diego,” she said.
Additionally, Nguyen studied more independently in college, and it was difficult for her to ask professors and classmates for help, she said.
“You have to be able to develop a skill of being able to communicate and reach out for help if you need it, and I didn’t have that when I was in high school because I thought that school was easy,” she said. “So in college, I had to learn to ask for help.”
Finally, in comparing AP classes and college classes, college classes were more rigorous because she was a Math major, Nguyen said.
“I had to take a lot of theoretical math classes along with finishing the entire calculus sequence in order to get my degree,” Nguyen said. “The level of difficulty really jumped up, especially as my classes became more abstract and less grounded in numbers.”
However, her non-AP classes were rewarding too, Nguyen said. She also would have taken more advanced English classes because they would have helped put her out of her comfort zone, she said.
All in all, most of the alumni recommended taking AP classes because taking them helps students in many ways, including preparing them for college and giving them a head start over other students.
