Most Impressive AP Classes (+ Useful Tips to Succeed in Them) | Part 2/2

This article is a guide to humanities/social sciences and foreign language AP classes. If you’re interested in learning more about the math and science AP classes, make sure to check out Part 1.

If you have questions like:

• What are the most impressive AP classes for college applications?
• Which AP classes would be the most useful for my intended major?
• What if I can’t handle a certain AP class?

The goal of this article is to help you answer these questions.

You see, as a high schooler, I faced these same questions. I was often unsure of which AP classes to take and chose certain ones simply because many classmates were taking them.

But now, having graduated with 15 AP credits, I’ve been able to reflect on the relative usefulness, importance, and difficulty of each AP class I took. In this article, I evaluate each of the following humanities/social sciences and foreign language AP classes:

• AP English Language and Culture
• AP English Literature and Composition
• AP World History
• AP United States History
• AP Psychology
• AP Macroeconomics
• AP Spanish Language and Culture

Quick note: The AP humanities/social sciences classes I haven’t taken are AP Comparative Government and Politics, AP European History, AP Microeconomics, and AP United States Government and Politics. Therefore, I cannot comment extensively on them.

As with Part 1, here are the scoring systems I use to evaluate each class:

• Usefulness: didn’t learn much, decently applicable, super helpful
• Importance to colleges: meh, some weight, stands out
• Difficulty:

A walk in the park

Some stress but manageable

Rigorous, but if you push yourself hard enough, you can make it

I also include some useful tips that helped me earn 5’s on all my humanities/social sciences and foreign language AP classes. By the time you finish this article, I hope you will have a much better idea of which humanities/social sciences and foreign language AP classes to take and how you can succeed in them.

This post may contain affiliate links, which means that when you make a purchase through a link, I make a small commission at no extra cost to you.

Before we jump in, however, I want to include a few important notes I listed in Part 1 as well.

1. The usefulness of a class depends largely on what you hope to study. I try to be as objective as possible in evaluating how applicable each class is in the real world. However, make sure to keep your own interests in mind.
2. I am by no means an admissions officer who knows exactly how AP classes are evaluated in a transcript. The “importance to colleges” rating I give is based on general trends I’ve seen and articles I’ve read.
3. I also mention a few examples of colleges that offer credit for certain AP classes. However, it is important to keep in mind that credit offered varies largely depending on the college and your major.
4. You should take the difficulty score I give with a grain of salt“”everyone has different strengths and weaknesses. AP classes are also taught differently at different schools. To account for the latter, however, I try to evaluate the difficulty based on the content of the final exam.
5. Finally, while you should challenge yourself with AP classes in high school, you should not focus on stuffing your schedule with the “most impressive AP classes”. Evaluate your own strengths and weaknesses, as well as interests. When you genuinely enjoy a subject, you likely gain more out of it. Additionally, applying for college is not a competition of who takes the most AP classes (for more information on what colleges look for, check out this post).

Ok, let’s jump in!

AP English Language and Composition

Usefulness: super helpful

As a STEM major, I only felt pressurized to take this class because almost all my classmates were taking it. I went in with zero expectations, but I ended up learning a LOT.

AP English Language and Composition teaches you how to explain ideas clearly and effectively argue your position. You will also learn how to synthesize information from different sources, often with opposing positions. These are skills that are crucial for any field.

Throughout the year, you will analyze texts, speeches, cartoons, and other forms of media to understand strategies they use to achieve their purpose. Then, you’ll apply these strategies in your own essays.

Taking this class helped me to improve my writing skills, communication skills, and logical reasoning. I highly recommend it to anyone, even if you’re not interested in pursuing a humanities degree.

Importance to colleges: stands out

AP English Language and Composition is a great addition to your transcript, even if you don’t intend to major in English or another humanities field. Strong communication skills are important for any field, and colleges know that.

At MIT, for example, students are required to take Communication-Intensive subjects to meet their Communication Requirement. There is a First Year Essay Evaluation for freshmen, but students who score a 5 on AP English Language and Composition or AP English Literature and Composition can exempt from it.

Difficulty:

I’ve actually always been fairly decent at academic writing. However, this class challenged me in ways that I had never been challenged before in writing.

The FRQ section is a serious time crunch, in which you’ll only have 135 minutes to write 3 fully-developed essays. 15 of the 135 minutes are allotted for reading texts for the synthesis essay. That leaves 120 minutes to write””that’s only 40 minutes per essay!

As such, you’ll need to become very proficient at analyzing texts, outlining essays, and communicating your ideas.

Tips that helped me:

• Develop an outline format for each essay type. There are 3 types of essays tested on the exam, and for each essay, my teacher had us follow a specific outline format. There is not, however, a standardized format that needs to be followed. As long as you meet the rubric requirements, you can get a good score. However, having a uniform format will help you streamline the essay planning process significantly.
  • For example, on the rhetorical analysis essay, we would aim for 2-3 body paragraphs. Each body paragraph would be about one main idea expressed in the given passage. Then, the content of the paragraph would include 2-3 specific rhetorical strategies used to communicate that main idea effectively.
• Actively read and analyze texts on your own. Practice is the only way you’ll get fast enough to meet the time constraints of the exam. While taking this class, I would read many practice passages on my own time. I would mark specific rhetorical strategies and make notes about how they contributed to the passage’s main purpose. Over time, this made me a lot faster at analyzing passages and planning my essays.

AP English Literature and Composition

Usefulness: super helpful

If you’re intending on studying English or another humanities field that involves a LOT of reading and analysis, this class is a must-take. If you’re not, then just taking AP English Language and Composition should be sufficient in improving your writing, communication, and analysis skills.

However, if you’re up for the challenge, I genuinely believe that this class will be worth your time. AP English Literature and Composition is all about analyzing texts and understanding their deeper meaning.

For example, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein isn’t just about a horrifying monster that is now a part of our Halloween culture. It’s about the dangers of man exploiting science for selfish reasons. It’s also about miscommunication, pride, and loneliness””all themes that are present in our own lives.

In this class, you will discover that literary texts don’t just apply to the specific context that they were written. Instead, the best authors write texts that resonate universally and timelessly. If you can recognize that, you will learn important lessons to apply in your own life.

Importance to colleges: stands out

AP English Literature and Composition is undoubtedly one of the most impressive AP classes. It’s a class that requires strong critical thinking and writing skills. Colleges recognize that students who score high on the exam are exceptional at written communication and analysis.

Harvard, for example, offers 4 credits for scoring a 5 on AP English Language and Composition. However, they offer 8 credits for scoring a 5 on AP English Literature and Composition. Although this is just one example, AP English Literature and Composition is generally considered to be the more advanced English class. Its lower passing rate also supplements this.

Difficulty:

AP English Literature and Composition challenges you in different ways than AP English Language and Composition. While both exams have a similar structure (you will also need to write 3 essays in 120 minutes for this exam), they test different skills.

AP English Language and Composition tests your ability to present strong arguments and evaluate others’ arguments. AP English Literature and Composition tests your ability to understand an author’s choices (from the dialogue to the literary devices to even the character’s names) and how they contribute to a greater meaning.

Being able to identify and interpret these choices takes lots of practice and time. It doesn’t happen overnight.

Tips that helped me:

• Actually read the assigned books. Front to back at least once. Twice if you can. Many classmates I knew would use Sparknotes, then do poorly on essays and wonder why. By reading the assigned books and critically thinking about them, you’ll already have completed half your essay planning before entering the classroom. Oftentimes, I found that small details were unexpectedly useful in writing my essays. I would have missed these details if I had only used Sparknotes.
• Read How to Read Literature Like a Professor by Thomas C. Foster. This was a required summer reading at my school, and I found it to be super helpful. The author explains in detail how to recognize literary choices and interpret their significance. Throughout the year, I often found motifs that Foster mentioned in the readings we analyzed.

AP World History

Usefulness: decently applicable

Personally, I’m not a big fan of history and don’t plan on studying history for my major. As such, I may be slightly biased in my usefulness rating of this course. However, if you are a history buff, this is a class worth taking.

AP World History focuses on recognizing general historical trends over time. Instead of getting bogged down by specific events and dates, you’ll gain a larger perspective of history.

You’ll also improve your critical thinking skills by evaluating causes and effects, continuations, and more patterns across time periods. Additionally, you’ll discover many interesting parallels between history and the modern-day.

Importance to colleges: some weight

Many highly selective colleges do not offer credit for AP World History. However, being able to get a 4 or a 5 on AP World History is still a commendable achievement.

It is not easy to learn so much material and critically analyze it. Especially if you use AP World History as a stepping stone to take other AP history classes (like AP U.S. History or AP European History), it can help you stand out.

Difficulty:

AP World History is a very extensive course. Although the exam was recently modified to cut out everything before 1400, it still covers a LOT. Remember, it’s world history. While you won’t dive deep into any particular events, the world is pretty big. And a lot has happened in the past 720-something years.

If this is your first AP History, you’ll also need to learn how to write two types of historical analysis essays. One involves evaluating historical documents and the other involves evaluating historical trends based on your knowledge. At first, these essays can be very difficult to write.

Tips that helped me:

• Focus on general trends within and across time periods. Don’t get bogged down by specific events and dates. I made this mistake when I first started the class, and my grades reflected that (for more on that, check out this post). Once I started focusing on the general trends and memorizing a few specific events to supplement each trend, I started doing much better. History stopped seeming like a bunch of disparate events and more of a connected storyline.
• Watch Heimler’s History! This was honestly a lifesaver when I took AP World History and AP U.S. History. Heimler does a fantastic job of explaining general trends and how specific events fit into those trends. He also explains how to approach exam questions step-by-step.

AP U.S. History

Usefulness: super helpful

As I mentioned previously, I don’t particularly enjoy history. Although AP World History helped me become a better critical thinker, I didn’t really like the class. As such, I went into AP U.S. History with low expectations. However, I ended up gaining a lot more from the class than I thought I would.

As I learned more, I started recognizing parallels between historical events and the modern-day United States. This gave me greater clarity on current social and political issues. Even as someone who doesn’t intend to major in history, I found this course to be very valuable because of the awareness it gave me.

Importance to colleges: some weight

The credit given for AP U.S. History varies largely from college to college. For example, both Princeton and Cornell don’t offer credit for doing well on the AP U.S. History exam. However, Harvard offers 8 units of credit.

If you are trying to decide between an AP English course or an AP History course, and you don’t intend on studying history, AP English would be the way to go. The skills you learn in AP English can help you in any field, while AP History is more specialized.

Difficulty:

AP U.S. History is another extensive course that covers everything from the first Native American settlements to modern-day America. Like AP World History, it requires you to recognize general historical trends.

However, because the class is focused on the history of one country, it dives into a lot more detail. You will need to know specific legislation, technologies, and historical texts. As such, this course really tests your ability to learn the details but also understand how they fit into larger trends.

Tips that helped me:

• Again, as with AP World History, don’t get too bogged down by specific dates, events, and names. You’ll miss the broader connections, which are essential to performing well on the exam. Instead, understand the general trends within and across time periods. By doing this, the details will eventually make a lot more sense.
• Unlike my AP World History teacher, my APUSH teacher had us practice using restricted College Board questions throughout the year. By doing all the questions assigned, I was able to grasp the general trends within each time period much faster. Additionally, I began to see many of the same pieces of legislation, names, documents, and specific events show up in multiple choice answers. Consequently, I was able to determine which details I actually needed to know.

Check out this article for a complete guide on everything I did to get a 5 on AP U.S. History.

AP Psychology

Usefulness: decently applicable

Going into this class, I had no knowledge about psychology whatsoever. AP Psychology was a great introductory course that taught me about the major fields of study in psychology (behavioral, cognitive, developmental, etc.). Additionally, I gained a good understanding of why psychology is important and how it applies in our daily lives.

However, if you’re not interested in studying psychology in the future, you’ll probably never use most of the information in this class ever again.

But if you want to take it anyway, you’ll learn some interesting things about group work dynamics, valid study design, and environmental influences on personal well-being that could be helpful.

Importance to colleges: meh

Unless you’re planning on studying psychology and want to demonstrate your interest, this AP class does not really stand out. It is generally considered to be a lower rigor course. However, many highly selective colleges do offer humanities/social sciences credit for taking it, so you may still want to consider it.

Difficulty:

This was probably the easiest AP class I took, in addition to AP Computer Science Principles. Most of the class is just memorizing terms and knowing how to apply them in basic scenarios. For example, you will learn about various sleeping disorders in the course. A question on the exam may present you with a patient’s symptoms and ask you for the proper diagnosis.

And some test questions don’t even ask you to apply a term””they just ask for the definition.

Tips that helped me:

• Quizlet is a serious lifesaver for this class. I used Quizlet flashcard sets to study for every single test throughout the year and the final exam. Making sure you know the vocabulary is probably the most important part of this course.
• Practice FRQs frequently to get faster. The FRQ section allows 50 minutes to answer 2 questions. But don’t be fooled by the seemingly small number of questions. Each question usually has around 7 parts. As such, you’ll need to recognize and apply vocabulary quickly.

AP Macroeconomics

Usefulness: decently applicable

In AP Macroeconomics, you will gain a general understanding of market forces, like supply and demand and government economic policies. If you don’t understand things like stocks, GDP, the Federal Reserve, or inflation that are frequently mentioned in the news, you will by the end of this course.

That being said, the course only provides a very broad overview of macroeconomic topics. Everything is grossly simplified so that someone with no knowledge of economics can manage the course without issues. In fact, things are simplified to the point where economics appears to be a predictable, rule-following field when it is anything but.

Importance to colleges: meh

There are many highly selective colleges that offer humanities/social sciences credit for doing well on the AP Macroeconomics exam. However, in general, it is not a class that will make your transcript stand out because of its relatively low rigor.

Difficulty:

The only two AP classes I took that were easier than AP Macroeconomics were AP Psychology and AP Computer Science Principles. Everything is fairly cut and clean in AP Macro. For example, if the price of a product rises, demand for it decreases. If the government decreases taxes, aggregate spending increases. There’s very little that can be misinterpreted.

Tips that helped me:

• Memorize all of the major graphs taught in the class. You’ll need to draw graphs to solve many multiple choice and FRQ questions, so be super familiar with them! In my AP Macro class, my teacher would give us weekly graph quizzes to be drawn from memory.
• If you ever need super quick tutorials that explain macro concepts clearly, check out Jacob Clifford. He has tons of videos that cover every concept in the course. Better yet, many of them are also very short (meaning under 10 minutes).

AP Spanish Language and Culture

Usefulness: decently applicable

I took this class because I’ve always enjoyed studying Spanish and hope to be a fluent speaker someday. In the course, I learned to write essays in Spanish, hold basic conversations, and give presentations. I also learned a lot about the culture in different Latin American countries.

On the exam, you’ll be required to listen to audio clips, read passages, converse (with a pre-recorded audio), write an essay, and give a 2-minute cultural presentation. As you can see, it’s fairly comprehensive in the skills that it tests.

Importance to colleges: stands out

Many schools, particularly highly selective ones, like seeing applicants who study foreign language throughout all 4 years of high school. This is not, of course, a requirement to be accepted.

However, there are several colleges that explicitly recommend that applicants have taken 4 years of foreign language. (If you’re not sure whether this is true for a college you’re interested in, just do a quick Google Search of their recommended high school courses.) After all, committing to the study of a foreign language and reaching the AP level is time-consuming and challenging.

However, if you are a native Spanish speaker, doing well in AP Spanish Language and Culture may not be so impressive. You would likely need to take AP Spanish Literature and Culture to stand out. This course involves more advanced readings (it is, after all, a literature class), and you’ll study many works by notable Latin American writers. As someone who’s never taken the class before, however, I can’t say much more about it.

Difficulty:

AP Spanish Language and Culture, while challenging, is definitely manageable if you practice regularly. The key to learning a language is exposing yourself to it as much as possible. There are many ways to do this in your daily routine (check out the tips section below).

The timing on the test is also fairly reasonable. For example, while the essay section may seem daunting, you’ll only have to write one in 60 minutes. That’s more than enough time if you’ve already written several essays throughout the year. Practice is key!

Tips that helped me:

• Try to expose yourself to Spanish as much as possible in your daily routine. Watch Netflix shows in Spanish, read your favorite book in Spanish, or listen to podcasts in Spanish. These are some fun and easy ways to improve your passive language skills, reading and listening.
• Practice speaking in Spanish with a Spanish-speaking friend or even just another classmate. Sometimes, as a fun challenge, one of my friends and I would have an entire FaceTime call in Spanish. The more you practice, the easier it’ll become.
• Learn lots of idioms and transitional words. This is especially helpful in making your speaking and writing flow more organically.

Check out this article for a complete guide on everything I did to get a 5 on AP Spanish Language and Culture.

Conclusion

If you’ve reached the end of this post, thanks for reading this far! I hope you have a much better idea of which humanities/social sciences and foreign language AP classes are suitable for you.

Also, if you’re now wondering, “Which are the most impressive AP classes to take in math and science?” I have a similar post on all the AP math and science classes I took here.

If you’re curious about what colleges look for besides high-level coursework, check out this post, as well as my free high school planning workbook!

Which of these AP classes are you planning on taking? Let me know in the comments below!