by Nathan St. Pierre ‘12

AP U.S. History is notorious for being one of the toughest AP classes in the social studies department. This year 25 students are taking this difficult class as early as their sophomore year.

These sophomores are separated from the seniors taking AP U.S. History into a single class period taught by social studies resource teacher Joe Sangillo for the sake of keeping the class as a senior elective. The current crop of sophomores are the first ones to take AP U.S. History this early due to new policy change in Sherwood, which took place last year, allowing freshmen to take AP NSL.

“The sophomores in AP U.S. History are a small group of exceptional students,” said Sangillo. “[As freshmen in AP NSL], they outperformed their sophomore counterparts last year in AP NSL.” This previous past performance may explain why none of these sophomores have dropped out of AP U.S. History.

“The AP NSL teachers aim to give students a good push in the direction of independent, strategic learning, strong background knowledge on the U.S., and boosted literacy skills–three keys to continued success in advanced placement classes,” said AP NSL teacher Aileen Woolley.

AP NSL, while not being as difficult as AP U.S. History, is still more rigorous than the traditional 9th grade U.S. History that freshmen usually take. “Some of the major challenges [in AP NSL] are the amount of independent reading students are required to do, the elaboration and specificity required when writing, and the accelerated pace of concept presentation,” explained Woolley.

Besides the obvious upside of padding their college applications with rigorous classes, the sophomores also gain essential skills for their future in college by taking a college-level class so early in their high school career.

“Their literacy and study skills become significantly enhanced in an AP classroom and moreover, the great college obstacles of poor time management and lack of organization are tackled and dealt with in a supportive environment,” explained Woolley.

However, there are still potential downsides such as students losing steam after realizing the work load and hard effort needed to take AP U.S. History. As it stands now, any sophomores who drop out of AP U.S. or decline to take AP U.S. will have to be placed in Honors U.S. History with the 9th graders, essentially gaining nothing from taking AP NSL their freshmen year.

The pressure has not yet gotten to sophomore Sammi Rosenburg who finds the class not to be too strenuous right now. “I thought that AP U.S. would be really hard, but it’s actually not really that hard at all,” said Rosenburg. “The workload is still there, but it’s not too overwhelming so far.”