Advanced Placement classes are a great way to experience all the thrills of high school while getting college credits. However, with the addition of block scheduling, some students feel overwhelmed the first weeks of their AP classes. Some particularly demanding classes are AP Environmental Science, AP US History, AP Statistics, and AP Calculus just to name a few of the very many AP classes. Personally, I have been in many AP classes and I relate to the feeling of sitting and listening to the teacher explain how hard the course is, and wondering if you can do this. The answer is yes, you can do this and I have a few tips on how to survive AP. And while this article focuses on AP classes, these tips can certainly help with any class!

1. Time Management: The last minute is your enemy. Yes, you can do an assignment all the night before, but should you? No. Waiting until the last minute to do everything creates more stress for you and doesn’t give you a good grasp on the topic which creates more stress when it comes to quizzes and tests. Do a little bit of a large assignment every night and not all of it at once. If you don’t believe me, try doing your entire summer reading project of AP Language or Literature the night before its due. 
2. Breaks: Always allow thirty minutes to an hour for yourself every night during study sessions. When you are working for long periods of time, give yourself breaks after big chunks of reading or a particular taxing math problem. That time can be used to enjoy a bath or to watch an episode of your favorite show, but make sure you set aside time to de-stress.  
3. Weekends: No one wants to work all weekend long because it is a break from school; however, using the weekend to get caught up or even ahead will reduce a lot of stress later. I normally worked from 12 P.M. until 3  or 4 P.M. and then the rest of the day I can do whatever else I need to do which may be homework or reviewing for a test.  
4. You are More Important than Your Grade: If you ever feel yourself having a minor or major mental breakdown, take a break. Stress is not good for learning; you won’t retain anything when you’re reading through tears. Taking a bath or going for a run is a good destressing option. If it’s late at night, go ahead and sleep.  
5. Sleeping, Eating, and Bathing: Do all of these things. It can be tempting to skip a meal to finish a few more calculus problems or just one more page of APUSH, but this will lead to very unhealthy habits. As well, it will hurt your grade worse to pull all-nighters, to skip meals, or not to bathe. Not eating and/or sleeping can affect you especially because malnourishment and sleep deprivation have been linked to lower test grades.  
6. Talk to your Teachers: If you don’t understand a topic or you need extra time for a mental health or family problem, most teachers will be more than willing to help you after school or give you an extended deadline. You should always communicate with your teachers because they cannot read your mind. 
7. Chill Out: Your grade does not define who you are. In the long run, people who get a degree from UGA have the same degree as people who go to Harvard. Getting one bad test grade or a bad quiz grade is not the end of the world. I promise.