The opinions expressed here are strictly those of the writer and do not reflect the views of University School of Nashville or the Peabody Press.
As I near the end of my senior year at USN, I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on the classes that have defined my high school experience, especially the AP courses that pushed me academically and influenced how I approach learning. With USN’s recent decision to transition some AP courses to AT classes while also introducing new AT offerings, it feels like a particularly relevant moment to reminisce on and evaluate what USN’s AP classes look like beyond their labels and perceived rigor.
In this article, I’ve evaluated all of the AP courses I’ve taken at USN based on their difficulty, workload, and overall experience. This is, of course, subjective, and carries bias based on my own strengths, interests, and relationships with teaching styles, but I’ve tried to be as honest and transparent as possible about each class. Rather than just focusing on grades or test scores, I also considered factors like pedagogical approach, pacing, types of assignments, and how challenging the material felt day-to-day.
I hope future USN high school students can use this article as a realistic and practical guide when choosing their courses. AP classes often carry reputations that don’t always reflect the actual course experience, especially with variation from teacher to teacher and school to school. This article’s goal is to help students better understand what they can expect from these courses in terms of learning experience and difficulty.
AP English Literature
AP English Literature is overall a very fun and relatively chill experience. For the senior class of 2026, all periods of AP Lit. are taught by Mr. McKay, who leads the classroom experience in a very similar way to junior year American Literature. Most nights, students are only assigned readings from the books, short stories, and poems we discuss in class. Every few weeks, usually when students finish a unit or major text, they may have an essay or test over the material. Compared to other AP courses at USN which have heavier loads of assignments and exams, AP English Literature felt more relaxing and like an enjoyable experience where honest engagement with the course materials mattered more than test scores or the retention of arbitrary knowledge.
Although I enjoyed AP English Literature, I agree with USN’s decision to discontinue the course. Many of my peers, including myself, felt pressured to take AP English Literature over similarly rigorous and more unique senior English seminars because of the course’s AP Distinction. The removal of AP English Literature and the inclusion of more AT courses will hopefully allow more USN students to authentically explore their academic passions without worrying about how colleges may perceive their course rigor.
AP US Government
AP US Government is a much more discussion-driven and intellectually engaging class than many students initially expect. In my experience with Mr. Parsons, the course felt intense inside the classroom because of the level of thought and participation required during discussions. Most class periods revolve around analyzing real-world political events, debating current legislation, and engaging in critical-thinking activities that push students to form and defend their own perspectives. Unlike many traditional AP courses, Mr. Parsons does not strictly teach to the AP curriculum. Instead, he prioritizes helping students understand how government and politics actually function in practice, which often makes the class feel more relevant and meaningful, even if it diverges somewhat from the structure of the AP exam.
That being said, there are consistent textbook readings assigned, and the quizzes based on those readings can be surprisingly difficult if students are not keeping up. However, the overall workload is still very manageable compared to other AP classes at USN. I took AP U.S. Government alongside AP U.S. History during my junior year, and APUSH was significantly more demanding in both the volume of content and the frequency of assessments. In comparison, AP Government felt more balanced, with fewer assignments but a greater emphasis on depth of understanding rather than sheer memorization.
One of the most distinctive aspects of the course is the flexibility in major assignments. Mr. Parsons places a strong emphasis on creativity, independent thought, and genuine engagement with class materials. Students are often given the freedom to approach projects in unique ways, which makes the class feel less rigid and more student-driven. Rather than focusing heavily on memorizing specific facts, court cases, or procedures, Mr. Parsons’ AP Gov. encourages students to think critically about political systems, power structures, and contemporary issues. While this approach may not always align perfectly with the AP Exam’s focus on detailed content knowledge, it ultimately fosters a deeper and more lasting understanding of government.
Overall, AP U.S. Government is a rigorous but manageable course that rewards curiosity and participation more than rote learning. I find it interesting that USN is choosing to remove what are, in my opinion, two of its easiest AP Courses (AP English Literature and AP U.S. Government), for future classes. While both courses offer valuable experiences, I believe their removal (and replacement courses) reflect a shift in USN’s pedagogical strategy that emphasizes depth, originality, creativity, and authentic intellectual exploration over the traditional AP designation.
AP Statistics
AP Statistics is the first STEM course on my list, and in my experience, it serves as a more accessible alternative to AP Calculus AB or BC, while still maintaining a meaningful level of rigor. I am taking AP Statistics concurrently with AP Calculus BC, and the difference in difficulty is very noticeable (especially in the first semester). Statistics felt significantly more manageable in comparison. However, I found that as the year progressed, the AP Stats material became increasingly complex, with the second semester being noticeably more challenging than the first. The concepts build heavily on one another, so falling behind early can make later units harder to understand.
A large portion of the course involves learning a wide range of formulas, and more importantly, understanding how to apply them correctly in different contexts. While this approach is central to mastering the material, it can become confusing as students are introduced to more types of problems that require slightly different interpretations and methods.
Dr. Stump’s class is structured in a very lecture and handout-based format, with a significant amount of work completed during class time. This makes it easier to stay on track if students are engaged during lessons, but it also means that consistent focus is necessary. Homework is assigned almost daily and can be fairly long, reinforcing the concepts covered in class. Assessments are frequent, but they generally feel fair. In particular, Dr. Stump’s study guides are extremely helpful, as they closely resemble the format and content of her quizzes and tests, allowing students to approach assessments confidently.
Overall, AP Statistics is in my opinion, one of the most approachable AP STEM courses at USN, providing a strong introduction to data analysis and statistical thinking without the intensity of higher level math courses like Calculus.
AP US History
AP U.S. History is a rigorous humanities/social science course with a strong emphasis on reading and historical analysis. There is a significant amount of textbook and primary source work, and keeping up with the material is important to fully understand the progression of events and themes. The AP-style multiple choice questions are often the most consistently challenging aspect of the course, as they require students to distinguish between very similar answer choices.
Despite the workload, the class itself is very engaging and well taught. There are a variety of in class activities that go beyond just lectures, along with frequent discussions that allow students to explore different perspectives and think more critically about historical events.
Overall, AP U.S. History is a demanding but rewarding course. While it requires consistent effort and strong reading skills, the class offers a deeper understanding of American history, and the discussions and activities make it a more engaging experience than a typical history class.
AP Calculus AB
Although AP Calculus AB is objectively simpler than Calculus BC, the material is still relatively difficult and requires a different kind of conceptual thinking than what most students are used to coming from Precalculus and Algebra classes. The transition into Calculus can feel unfamiliar at first, especially because the course emphasizes understanding concepts like limits and rates of change rather than just solving equations. In my experience, students who came from Advanced Precalculus generally found Calculus AB more manageable, while those from regular Precalculus often struggled more with the adjustment.
One important aspect of the course is that the concepts heavily build on one another. This can make the class challenging if students fall behind early, since each new topic depends on a strong understanding of previous material. At the same time, if students develop a solid foundation from the beginning, the course can feel much more intuitive as the year progresses. There is also a clear division between semesters with the first semester primarily focusing on limits and derivatives, while the second semester shifts toward basic integration concepts, giving the course a structured progression.
Overall, Calculus AB is a rigorous but manageable introduction to Calculus. It is definitely less intense than Calculus BC, which will be discussed more later, but it still requires consistent effort and strong conceptual understanding to succeed. For students wanting to challenge themselves in math but are worried about the difficulty of Calculus BC, AP Calculus AB can be a solid option.
AP Physics I
AP Physics I is one of the most challenging STEM courses at USN, both conceptually and in terms of how it is taught. Mr. Hubbell takes a more hands-off approach in the classroom, which means that a lot of the responsibility falls on students to actively engage with the material and seek out understanding on their own. The course is officially algebra-based but many of the concepts require a type of thinking similar to calculus, so having a background in calculus or taking it concurrently can be helpful.
The difficulty of the class is most apparent in unit tests, which are pretty brutal. However, the grading system helps balance this out. Tests are heavily curved, often by 20% or more, and tests comprise a smaller portion of students’ overall grade compared to other AP STEM courses. Because of this, it is still very possible to succeed in the class, even if you struggle with the assessments. For example, averaging around a B post-curve (which may only be a 60-65% raw score) can still put students in a strong position to earn an A overall if you consistently perform well on homework and labs.
That being said, AP Physics I is a course where many students still struggle, regardless of how much they study, and sometimes, it can feel like certain students naturally grasp the material more easily than others. External resources that Mr. Hubbell provides access to YouTube Channels (Flipping Physics is probably the best one) and the MIT Physics Workbook can play a significant role in helping students understand the content. Overall, the course will challenge students far more than freshman and sophomore science classes at USN. I would strongly recommend taking the course in your senior year, ideally after AP Biology or AP Chemistry and alongside or after a Calculus course to set yourself up for the best chance of success.
AP Biology
This might be a hot take, but I found AP Biology at USN to be more difficult than AP Physics I, although that may be partly because it was my first AP science course and required a larger adjustment in both workload and expectations. There is a significant amount of work in AP Biology, with long assignments and almost daily homework. Preparing for unit tests is especially time consuming. I often studied for multiple hours per day over the course of a week leading up to each unit exam, particularly during the first semester when the material and tests felt more challenging.
While the first semester had conceptually harder units on average in my opinion, the second semester had a heavier workload due to intensive annotated study guides with required visuals (to prepare for the AP exam) that took multiple hours to complete. AP Biology also includes more rigorous labs than AP Physics, both in terms of in-class expectations and post-lab writeups. A large portion of AP Biology involves memorization, but many students underestimate the need to apply the knowledge you are supposed to memorize to more complex, conceptual problems. Compared to other STEM APs like Physics, Chemistry, or Calculus, the quantitative aspects are much simpler, so students who are strong at absorbing non-math-heavy information may find AP Biology to be a better fit.
Overall, AP Biology is a demanding course that requires consistent effort and a willingness to put in significant time into studying. It tends to be more enjoyable for students interested in health sciences or medicine, while others may find the amount of memorization less engaging. Despite the rigor, Mrs. Berthel prepares students extremely well for the AP exam, and with minimal additional studying beyond classwork, many students are able to earn a 4 or 5. AP Biology at USN had a notably high rate of top scores, which reflects the strength of the course.
AP Calculus BC
AP Calculus BC is the hardest class I have taken at USN. Even though I took AP Calculus AB before Calculus BC, I still found the material to be challenging. The class moves extremely quickly, and Dr. Fitzpatrick holds students to a rigorously high standard from the start. Tests, especially in the first semester, can feel pretty intense, and it took me time to adjust to the level of depth and speed Dr. Fitz expects in BC Calc.
The workload also takes up a significant amount of time with almost daily homework that tends to be fairly lengthy. Over the course of the year, students cover both college-level Calculus I and Calculus II material, but in a shorter timeframe than most college courses since you also have to prepare for the AP exam. In my experience, even topics that are introduced in AB are explored at a deeper level in BC, and the types of problems you encounter, especially on tests, require more critical thinking and a stronger conceptual understanding than what you typically see on homework or in-class examples.
Overall, AP Calculus BC is a notably demanding course, but it can be a great introduction for advanced college-level math courses for aspiring STEM majors. If you stick with BC and put in consistent effort, you will noticeably improve your quantitative reasoning and problem-solving skills throughout the year. It is a great class for students who want to seriously challenge themselves in math and are considering pursuing a STEM-related field in the future.
