Although there are few situations where one compares the Greek myth Icarus to the burnt-out AP student, the idea of “flying too close to the sun” seems to be a concept that applies to the comparison. The expectations many students have lead them to strive for so much, in turn causing them to fall short when attempting to achieve their goals.
I have found that as my classes became more difficult, I lost the ability to ease my way through the course. I went from being the student people asked for help to being the one with all the questions.
The mindset that my peers and I had entering our first AP courses was that it would be like every other class we took. This outlook came with much disappointment as most of us felt a significant jump in difficulty once we moved past the honors level classes.
I know I was met with a significant shift my sophomore year when I took my first AP class. After just a few months in the class, I already felt significantly less confident in my academic abilities as no matter how much I studied I still seemed to fail.
I am quite certain that many of my peers have had this same experience as many of us were unaware of just how big of a shift AP classes would bring in terms of workload and difficulty. I remember speaking with my classmates in my AP history classes and discussing just how difficult the class was.
Even now I still have conversations about how bad our AP grades seem in comparison to our other honors classes.
One of the main causes for this trend of underachieving is the fact AP classes are meant to be college-level, and since many students’ first AP class is during their sophomore year the jump in difficulty goes up by about four years.
The mindset of many of the students entering AP classes preemptively sets them up for disappointment while simultaneously adding stress to an already stressful workload. I went into my first AP class with confidence that it would be just like every other class I had taken. I would later come to find out just how wrong I was, leading me to believe that I was just not working hard enough.
AP classes are college level classes so even though we as highschoolers are given the opportunity to enroll in these classes, we have to understand that there is going to be a significant increase in difficulty from what we are used to. The AP curriculum is designed to challenge every student whereas the honors classes are aiming to prepare students for these college-level courses.
Students’ should expect to face some challenges when going into any AP class. The classes come with more classwork and homework, as well as having a harder curriculum overall. We need to understand that studying may very well be the difference between passing and failing, and that studying does not always guarantee success.
Many of us come into these classes with a stellar report card and leave them with a lower GPA then we had prior. The importance of our grades has caused us to have a swayed view of A or B grades. AP Students have this idea that a 75% is a failing grade when in actuality it is the expectation of many AP courses as it counts as a B when weighted to non honors classes.
We are to the point where many students view a 4.0 GPA with disappointment as they believe it to be the standard when compared to many students 4.5 and 4.6 weighted GPAs. A 4.0 is a fantastic goal as from a college’s point of view it is a perfect grade on a 4.0 scale. The existence of 5.0 classes has caused worry within students as now they have become so accustomed to 4.0+ GPAs from their peers.
I always wanted to have outstanding grades and the highest GPA so I just assumed if I took the most difficult classes I would be capable of getting straight A’s and boost my GPA. I hadn’t taken into account the fact that I may not be able to achieve A’s in every class, eventually just leading me to have the same GPA boost I would have if I just chose to take the regular level courses.
The idea of wanting to be the best is an infatuation many AP students have. People load their schedule in order to be the most successful but then find themselves falling short when they have too much on their plate.
Although many of the AP students have accomplished a significant amount, it still appears to be lackluster in the eyes of overachievers. Having determination and high standards is a great attribute within reason; however, once the expectations become too grand the student feels as though they have failed when in reality they had already completed so much.
In the same way, Icarus got too caught up in flying toward the sun, my peers and I got too caught up in our academics. In the end, many of us discovered the Advanced Placement classes are meant to challenge students, sometimes to the point that we are unable to get the grade we desire, no matter how high we try to fly.
