Gina Germano

Cal High students have the opportunity to choose from a diverse selection of 22 Advanced Placement (AP) classes, granting them flexibility in their academic pursuits.
AP classes are a way to give high school students an introduction to college level classes, as well as a chance to gain college credit before graduating high school if they successfully pass the end of the year exam.
But the popularity of certain AP courses surpasses others.
College and career adviser Kathryn Nichols said AP United States History (APUSH), AP Computer Science Principles (AP CSP), AP Biology, and Calculus AB are Cal’s most popular AP classes with a high exam enrollment.
On the flip side, AP French Language and Culture (AP French), AP Calculus BC, AP German Language and Culture (AP German) and AP Music Theory have significantly lower enrollment for both the course and the exam.
AP History
APUSH boasts the highest enrollment for the AP exam, with nearly 300 students registered for the test this month, Nichols said. Statewide, approximately 470,000 students take the APUSH exam annually, according to data from the College Board.
APUSH teacher Daniel Sweetnam suggests the class’s popularity might be attributed to the junior year, when students feel compelled to boost their GPA with weighted courses as they prepare for college applications during the fall of senior year.
“There is a perception that AP history classes may be easier than other AP subjects,” Sweetnam said.
Junior Sadhana Balasubramanian is taking APUSH and signed up to take the AP exam.
“I plan on taking the APUSH exam, since I know that college classes are definitely harder than what they do in high school, so I’d rather get it over with now,” Balasubramanian said.
In terms of difficulty, APUSH teacher Cleo Veizades believes that AP World History and APUSH have more content, while AP European History has content students aren’t familiar with already, causing students to gear toward taking APUSH.
“The APUSH exam has the lowest pass rate of the three, but it also has the most students taking the exam,” Veizades said.
AP Computer Science
AP CSP secures the second-highest spot for AP exam enrollment, with around 200 students signing up for the exam. College Board data indicates that more than 116,000 students statewide take the AP CSP exam annually.
AP CSP teacher Sean Raser believes that since computer science is a fast growing field that is in high demand, many students take the class and enroll for the exam.
“We live in a digital world, and coding is quickly becoming an essential skill, just like reading and writing have always been,” Raser said.
Raser noted that AP CSP has an exceptional pass rate on the AP Exam, typically exceeding 95 percent. As a result, students are eager to spread their success stories, motivating others to enroll in the course.
“AP CSP isn’t just for future programmers, it’s got a bit of everything, from coding to ethics, which makes it appealing to a wider range of students,” sophomore Sayansh Gupta said. “Colleges are starting to recognize the importance of computer science skills, so that probably boosts enrollment too.”
AP Math
This year, 176 students are signed up for the AP Calculus AB exam, which surpasses all of Cal’s other AP math courses.
About 260,000 students statewide take the AP Calculus AB exam every year, according to the College Board.
Sophomore Michelle Kennedy, who is going to take the AP Calculus AB exam, believes that students choose to take the test to earn college credit and to challenge themselves.
“AP Calculus AB is a good class to take to advance your math concepts and after taking it, you get a lot of benefits,” Kennedy said. “I feel like I should be able to take the exam and get something out of it.”
In comparison to AP Calculus BC, AP Calculus AB teacher Namita Vakil believes that AP Calculus AB is a less diffcult course.
However, with only 45 students enrolled for the AP exam, AP Calculus BC falls in the lower tier for AP math courses. The College Board indicates that around 120,000 students statewide take the AP Calculus BC exam every year.
AP Calculus BC teacher Jatinder Singh, said that lower enrollment for the class and exam often stems from students hesitating to tackle the demands of a rigorous math AP course because of how the class could potentially impact their GPA.
“In Calculus AB, people have learned more of the mechanics, while in Calculus BC we go more into application and therefore more critical thinking, which is quite difficult to master,” Singh said.
Junior Srinath Parvatine also agrees with Singh’s assessment.
“AP Calculus BC is pretty difficult as there is more material you need to cover, and you really need to excel in AP Calculus AB to nail the concepts down,” Parvatine said.
AP Science
In the science department, the most popular course is AP Biology with 184 students enrolled for the exam.
The College Board reports that 239,330 students statewide take the AP Biology exam every year.
“I think people take AP Biology either because they really enjoyed general biology and want to delve deeper into topics that we covered, or because they like to do biology based labs,” AP Biology teacher Tyler Richman said.
Richman believes that many of the topics covered align with current research in biological sciences and medical fields, which many students intend to pursue in college.
AP Language
In the realm of AP World Languages, the AP French exam has fewer than 20 students choosing to embark on this particular academic journey. The College Board reports that around 19,000 students statewide participate in the AP French exam every year.
AP French teacher Miranda Kershaw said 11 students in her class took the AP exam in 2022 and nine students took the AP exam in 2021.
“The class has pretty much always been small,” Kershaw said.
Overall, less students take French compared to Spanish.
Spanish has about seven sections of level one and 12 sections of level two this year, compared to one section of level one and three sections of level two French, Kershaw said.
“As the years go by, students gradually leave the program,” Kershaw said.
Senior Mehr Goel, who is taking both the AP French class and exam, believes fewer students become interested in French because of its reputation as a difficult language and because there’s more incentive to take the other languages.
On the other hand, senior Yutong Zhen is taking the class but is not the AP French exam since she doesn’t need the college credit because she already took an AP language last year. She said she simply took the class to improve her French skills and dive deeper into French culture.
The AP exam with the fewest test takers is AP German, which doesn’t have a class offered on campus. Juniors Hannah and Sarah Edlinger are the only students taking the exam. The College Board reports that 4,315 students take the exam in California annually.
Hannah Edlinger said she has been self-studying this language as well as taking German classes from BYU ever since eighth grade.
“My mom is German, so she also taught and prepped us for the language as well,” Hannah Edlinger said. “I recently took a practice AP German Language exam and did pretty well, so I’m not too nervous about it.”
AP Music
AP Music Theory has one of the fewest number of students taking the AP exam this year with less than 20 signed up and about 16,000 statewide. AP Music Theory teacher Lori Willis said not many students enroll in the class because they may not be aware it is designed so students with only one year of music reading experience can be successful in the course.
“I start [the class] off assuming that nobody knows how to read music just so that we can cover it for everybody,” Willis said.
Willis said ear training is a significant segment of the course, which can take years of experience listening to music and understanding for some students to develop.
“[The need for ear training] is why some people may not choose to take the AP exam and why I don’t require it,” Willis said.
With a plethora of AP classes to choose from, students may feel inclined to stack up on as many APs as possible and increase their workload. But Nichols believes students can still be successful in high school and beyond without taking a single AP class or exam.
“There’s simply not enough hours in the day to do all that at work that comes with an AP class,” Nichols said. “Sometimes you really have to make some decisions and frankly, not care what the kid next to you is doing. Ensuring students achieve a healthier balance across all their classes is of utmost importance.”