The idea of putting a limit on Advanced Placement classes has become an increasingly discussed subject nationwide. There are concerns that this generation’s teens face tremendous amounts of stress with all of that is expected of them. High school students must balance grades, sports, and clubs. Adding A.P. classes to the list can create additional stress. In order to make sure students do not overload themselves, some schools have limited the number of A.P. classes students can take during a year.

But what do students at HB think? Those who support the limit say that students still have the chance to take the A.P. test to prove their knowledge to colleges without taking the class. This change would also allows students to focus more time on their extracurricular activities and hobbies, and feel less pressure to load up on difficult classes.  Mandy Kabel ‘15, took every core class as an A.P. class her junior year. Kabel emphasized that every student has different strengths and weaknesses, and not everyone could handle all of the A.P. classes the same way. “History comes naturally to me,” says Kabel. “Some people struggled with A.P. U.S. History but I didn’t think it was hard. But if I took A.P. Physics I would have struggled through that.”

A history-loving student who takes the A.P. History class could handle it the same way as another student without the passion takes the regular course. “I definitely think it’s their choice because I wouldn’t know someone else’s maximum and what they could handle,” says Sierra Mignault ‘15. A single limit for everyone may not work because not all students are the same.

It’s also important to remember that Hollis Brookline has many competitive students. There is a large number of students who take A.P. classes, and also a considerable amount who take over two at a time. These kinds of teens are not rare at HB. The kind of students who have a challenging course load are usually very self driven, and wouldn’t want their choices to be limited. It may be that the best option is for students to understand their strengths, weaknesses, and figure out a course load that is the right amount of challenging.