At many schools, Advanced Placement (AP) classes are reserved for juniors and seniors. However, at BSM, there’s one AP class that freshmen have the option to take. This class is AP Human Geography, which is made up of both freshmen and sophomores.
Any AP class is a lot of work, and when underclassmen choose not to take these classes it’s often because of the workload. “For any honors or AP class, you want to have the motivation to enter because you’re going to have to spend a lot of time with the material and have a lot of homework, so if you don’t have that motivation, you’re going to struggle,” AP Human Geography teacher Cherie Vroman said.
For students with this motivation and a good work ethic, this class can be a good entry point for AP classes. Vroman teaches her students how to take notes and answer free-response questions (FRQs) so she can prepare them in the best way possible for the AP test. Her teaching method is effective because students consistently score well on the test. “When you compare all the fives, fours, and threes, freshmen are testing just as well as sophomores,” Vroman said.
This class also prepares these freshmen for more AP social studies classes at BSM like AP U.S. History (APUSH). Sophomore Addison Buhl took AP Human Geography as a freshman and is now in APUSH. “I really liked [AP Human Geography]. It was stressful though. Looking back on it, it helped me with note-taking and study skills,” Buhl said.
In the past, high school students have only had to take three years of social studies, but this year’s freshmen have to take three and a half years. However, Vroman talked about how the number of freshmen in the class hasn’t changed much in proportion to the number of sophomores. It is still mainly students who work hard and want to do well who take the class.
Freshman Violet Grendahl is taking AP Human Geography instead of the other offered social studies class, a one-semester course of regular Human Geography. “I took the class because it’s an AP, and it looks good on college applications,” Grendahl said.
I think it’s a fantastic class for freshmen because it’s a good opening introduction to AP. You learn to read this nonfiction text at a high level, you learn to take notes, and you learn to write a good solid paragraph [for the FRQs].”
— Cherie Vroman
AP Human Geography is a lot more work than the non-AP version, but a lot of students have loved the class and everything they’ve learned from it. “I think it’s a fantastic class for freshmen because it’s a good opening introduction to AP. You learn to read this nonfiction text at a high level, you learn to take notes, and you learn to write a good solid paragraph [for the FRQs],” Vroman said.