by Kaylie Blais

Students in this school are constantly faced with the dilemma of choosing academic, honors or AP classes. When it comes time to choose, they wonder how much work each will require and how fast of a pace they can actually handle. They often feel more comfortable changing from academic to honors than from honors to AP.

Students don’t often feel as if they are truly receiving a different type of education than those students who take academic classes.

“There is a little bit more reading involved,” said sophomore Diana Vasselin, “and the grading for essays is different because it pays more attention to details. I think in honors we just go through everything at a little bit of a faster pace than academic.”

“It’s really just taught at a faster pace, and I think it’s more about pace than academic ability,”said junior Brooke Lebowitz.

Despite what is perceived as a small difference between academic and honors by students, there is careful deliberation to determine what is different between assignments given to each class.

“Honors and Academics get various assignments like the Honors English class is writing an essay on theme that requires them to build their own thesis,” said English teacher Carol Hobbs. “Honors students are expected to have a deeper understanding of the text; whereas academic classes have a more directed piece where they won’t have as much room with the thesis creation. Their essay would have more to do with characterization.”

Even though some people may not see this as such a big difference between an honors and academic class, our school district is exactly where it should be in relation to other school districts.

“The rigor at the honors level is adequate for the program,” said Principal Brian Reagan. “My concern is for the academic level because you have the broadest population of students in that particular level. It’s a challenge to make sure that program is always appropriately rigorous.”

However some students disagree with how rigorous the work given by our honors department really is compared to other school districts.

“I feel like we are way behind other schools. I mean the school has good classes to offer, but look at other schools and what their averages and SAT scores are it seems like we are pretty low,” said sophomore Jennifer Kallin. “I feel like a lot of the time the assignments we are given are busy work and not necessarily useful for anything. The assignments aren’t terrible (too easy or too hard), but I feel they could improve.”

Students taking honors classes claim they don’t feel or notice much of a difference between honors and academic, yet more students take academic classes than honors. In a poll given out to 150 students students seem to be contradicting what they claimed about pace and workload. Data shows that 50% of  the 24 sophomores taking honors classes often find it difficult to keep up with the workload and make sure all of their work is done and that 30% of those students have had the guidance department switch them to the academic level. Meanwhile 45% of the 11 seniors surveyed have asked guidance to move them down to an academic or honors level. Most would see this as evidence that students don’t feel prepared to make the switch from academic to honors even though students in those classes say otherwise.

“I think that academic does prepare you for honors, but sometimes I feel like I have a small disadvantage,” said sophomore Sara Fagan. “In honors chemistry students will learn things I haven’t because they took intro to physics.”

So students feel they are prepared adequately for a switch from academic to honors, but they view an honors to AP switch very differently.

“Honors doesn’t necessarily prepare you for AP. I think it’s more of a choice on how much work you can handle,” said Lebowitz. “It’s different from honors because the material is different, the workload is different and you go more in depth in your studies. In AP English right now I’m learning about precis, which I don’t think is even touched upon in Honors.”

This is the transition that often causes the most trouble among students.

“I typically get students coming down to talk about AP classes as opposed to honors,” said Counselor Angela Wilcox. “Workload is often the problem as opposed to stress, but they just need to adjust their time management. However most students opt in the first two weeks, and we [guidance] feel that this isn’t enough time to properly adjust.”

AP material is standardized across the country by the College Board as they have to approve the class syllabus.

Despite the complaints and problems students have with AP at first, they do feel the payoff is completely worth the struggle.

“Sometimes the work is overwhelming, and it feels like a lot, but I’m learning a lot of things and I think it is a good experience,” said Lebowitz.

It is all about not stretching yourself too thin with work and watching the time management because despite sometimes feeling as though the work is too hard or too much is given most students tough it out. Obviously they feel the experience is worth it.