Students with this option have likely already had students talk with them about it, and people generally have pretty similar responses. “I’m really glad I took AP Seminar. It was a tough class for me… but, in hindsight, I felt it was a really good class,” said CFHS junior James Wilkinson. While no one denied that AP Seminar was a hard class, it does provide an AP course that gets students prepared for the usually easier AP Research class.

This class is in an interesting position, as many traditionally honors students often skip English the previous year for classes like AP SEM. For students who miss a traditional English class, this could be their very last chance.   “What I regret doing was taking honors English 11, which was a full year class, as opposed to CCP english. Because honors English is very different from AP seminars,”said Wilkinson.  At the same time,  Wilkinson and others taking honors English recommend this class for anyone looking to take one final, traditional English.

Excel TECC gives students the ability to focus on a specific subject and career path, leaving school for around half of the day to study a specific area. The choice of whether to join this program or not can be hard, given the big effect this has on the rest of a student’s high school. For those passionate about certain fields, it can help keep things nice and orderly. “I just wasn’t doing very good in school… I am always really overwhelmed with the amount of classes and all the stuff I have to pay attention to,” said CFHS junior Elliot Rogers. Rogers took Excel TECC, focusing on photography, and noticed an improvement in this area. “When I have Excel TECC , it takes up more time, but I only have to take 4 classes right now, so it really helps out,” said Rogers.

 Honors chemistry, or honors chem, is a sophomore or junior year class.  While the class is considered pretty difficult, one major possible selling point is the amount of other classes you can take after having it. “Even if you’re just taking physics or AP physics, I would recommend having it because it is such a good branching point into other sciences,” said Wilkinson.  While honors chem is required to take classes like AP physics and AP chemistry, it is considered relatively rigorous among students, and students who may not put the work in could fall behind the chemistry grade requirements for later sciences.