Each student at Mount Vernon High School has had a class that made them study extra or come in after school to ask questions or that they may have even considered dropping out of. Mount Vernon High School has many different electives available to help students decide and prepare for what they want to specialize in after graduation. Many of these classes prove difficult for students and require many hours of hard work. Each student is different and has had different experiences throughout their high school career. Here are some of the most challenging classes for juniors and seniors at Mount Vernon High School.
In the email survey given to Mount Vernon High School junior and senior students in March with 18 responses, one of the most challenging classes is AP Chemistry with Mrs. Appley. AP Chemistry is a college-level course where students expand their knowledge of previous chemistry classes at the college level. Many students commented that it is a lot of information to retain and you must be perfect in every step you take or your answer could be wrong. “AP Chemistry is one of the worst and best experiences of my life,” senior Charlie Krob said. “Despite my doubts, I managed to persevere, and I’ll be finishing with an A. It’s one of my greatest accomplishments.” Almost all of the students interviewed recommended that underclassmen take this class saying it helped them develop skills useful in engineering and science careers. AP Chemistry is one of the classes at Mount Vernon where students most likely started to struggle for the first time in their high school careers.
The number one class voted as difficult by the students was AP World History. AP World History is a class with Margo Massey which is a college-level deep dive into the specifics of world history from approximately 1200 C.E. to the present.
Klayten Perreault had a great experience with AP World History. Perreault thinks that Massey is an amazing teacher who helped make the content make sense to him. When he first started taking the class it was the most challenging class he had taken. The amount of course content (workload) and the format of the questions proved very difficult for Perreault and his other classmates. Perreault described the initial start of the class as being, “Thrown into the ocean and not knowing how to swim. Luckily I had a great swim instructor (Massey)”. Perreault believes that AP World helped prepare him for other AP classes in his junior and senior years. All the other classes seemed a lot easier in comparison to AP World. AP World turned him into a better student and taught him how to study, helping him develop crucial study habits early. Perreault would recommend this class to anyone who did well in US Honors History, people who enjoy a story, and people who are good at writing fast. He would not recommend the class to any perfectionist because you will make mistakes.
One person who had a strong opinion against the class was Thomas Ferguson. Ferguson said, “AP World History, it is not worth taking”. Ferguson felt that the DBQs(Document Based Question) essays were very stressful and made it difficult to maintain a high grade. Ferguson recommends that you, “don’t take it, it’s a lot more trouble than it is worth”.
Mrs. Massey had seen the evolution of the AP World and how the course and her students have changed, and how the course has affected her. She thinks the class is so difficult for students because of the massive workload and content needed to know for the class. AP World has had some changes in the rubric for the necessary parts students must have for their tests requiring less for the students. “I have learned just as much as my students,” Massey said. She found a way to assign more manageable amounts of homework for the students giving her students time to do more free time after school.
Over her time teaching AP World Massey had tried to make the class as fun as possible for her students. She started implementing different types of assignments such as debates and presentations. Massey believes that there are many benefits to taking AP World such as many life skills that you will learn that can help apply in the real world and college like learning how to write, read, and analyze. Another benefit would be being able to be challenged by things that are not easy and learning to learn, and of course the 6 semester hours of college credit. She would recommend this class to students who are motivated to work hard and students who are prepared to struggle.
Mount Vernon has many unique and challenging classes for students to enroll in. Many students find certain classes difficult but with the right teacher and effort you can ace them.
