Harvard Student Ranks all 40 AP Classes by Difficulty

Today, we're ranking every AP class based on their difficulty, and this includes both the class itself and the AP exam at the end. If you're wondering what qualifications have to be talking about this topic in specific, I've taken 10 of these classes while was in high school, and was also able to make it into pretty good school, which will be continuing in master's program starting this fall. Anyway, let's start with tier, which contains the easiest AP classes. And you probably wouldn't even know it's an AP if it didn't have an exam at the end. Starting with the easiest AP out of all the 40 options, AP Human Geography. If you took this as freshman, you probably thought you were super advanced. The class is fairly accessible content, but vocabulary and concepts can be abstract at times. This is table that will be showing the passing and failing rates for the AP exams according to the 2024 College Board of Statistics. Anything three or above is considered passing for at least some college credit. Each exam is scaled differently, so the passing rate does not directly equal the difficulty of the exam going forward. Fair warning. Next comes AP environmental science, also known as APEZ. It's mostly vibes. You'll talk about pollution, recycling, and how the planet's on fire. and then you'll usually forget to recycle your AP practice packets. It's not conceptually hard, but it can be tricky due to the scientific vocab and the case studies that are usually involved. Next is AP pre-calc. It's one of the newer courses. It covers algebraic functions, trig, and modeling. It's not as hard as calculus, but keeping up with the multiple functions and applications can be tough. consider it to be good prep for AP Calc or college STEM majors. After pre-calc comes AP research. It's an independent research project and your difficulty is going to depend on your topic and your writing skills. At the top of the easiest tier is AP computer science principles. Principles is doing lot of the heavy lifting here. It's an entry-level coding class that focuses on computing concepts with very high pass rate. It's chill class if you like coding, confusing if you don't, and terrifying if your teacher also doesn't. And that rounds out the first tier. Next up is the tier, and these are the classes you took because they were an easy college credit. Starting off the new tier is AP Seminar. It's also projectbased class similar to AP research. It focuses on writing, collaboration, and more research. It's very doable with good time management. Next is AP 2D art. In this class, you're graded on portfolio, not written exam. The workload depends on how polished your projects are, and its main challenges are time management, creative originality, and thoughtful design. Next comes AP Microeconomics. This class focuses on individual markets, supply and demand, and marginal thinking. Not very math heavy, but can pose challenges with understanding the graphs, opportunity cost, and elasticity. AP psychology comes next. You learn fun stuff like why you procrastinate while procrastinating. It's relatively heavy on memorization like theories and people, but the concepts are often intuitive. The second art related AP is next with AP 3D art. It's similar to 2D, but working with physical or sculptural materials adds complexity. Physically building and photographing pieces that meet AP rubric criteria can be challenging. At the top of this tier comes AP Comparative Government and Politics. It's got shorter curriculum, focuses on comparing political systems, and has less content compared to AP Gov. That finishes out Dtier and Ctier is next. They're classes that exist. And as long as you study and prepare well, they shouldn't pose too much of an issue. They're not super hard. They're not super easy. They're just somewhere in the middle. AP Music Theory is first on this tier, and from what I've heard, it's easier if you have strong music background. Otherwise, it's pretty tough. Next comes AP Computer Science This class focuses on Java programming, objectoriented design, algorithms, and data structures like arrays and array lists. The workload is moderate. You'll be writing, reading, and debugging coding frequently. AP African-American Studies is next. It's an interdisciplinary course that combines history, sociology, literature, political science, and art. It's also newer course, which means an evolving curriculum. One spot higher is AP drawing as it requires strong observational and expressive drawing skills. It has the same portfolio structure as other AP arts, but it can prove challenging due to the creativity, technical skill, and personal voice required in the drawing. AP Euro is next, and it's similar to push in the amount and the demand of the essays, but more manageable due to narrower scope. Next comes AP Statistics. Low-key one of the more useful APs you can take. Just don't expect it to be easier just because it's math with words. The course involves logical thinking and interpreting data, but not overly mathheavy. At the top of Ctier is AP government. It's fine. The class is basically here's how the government works or you know should work. It's memorizationheavy, especially Supreme Court cases and institutions. That finishes up tier. And next is tier, which has tough classes but are manageable with preparation. The first class in this tier is AP macroeconomics, and you'll never look at supply and demand the same way again. It focuses on the economy as whole and can pose challenges in memorizing formulas and interpreting economic indicators. After this is AP World History. Try remembering all of the world history in nine months. You'll probably be mixing up the Mongols and Mesopotamians, but you'll definitely feel this class being more intense than AP Euro. It is broad scope, but less depth compared to push. It requires strong reading and writing skills. Next comes AP Art History. Honestly, it's surprisingly intense. This class is similar to push, but with paintings and judgmental paintings. It has lots of memorization, but more accessible if you're visually oriented and enjoy art. The second to last class in this tier is AP US History, also known as push. Nothing humbles you like the DBQ about the panic of 1837. You'll learn more random dates than you'll ever need. There's tons of reading, historical interpretation, and long essays, including the DBQ and LEQ. consider it to be the most difficult historybased AP of them all. The last in the tier is AP Calculus AB. It's challenging college level math course that covers limits, derivatives, and integrals. It's often the first truly abstract math class that students take. It's perfect for students strong in algebra and are planning to pursue STEM, but requires consistent practice and comfort with problem solving. That rounds out tier. Next comes the second highest tier on this list, which is tier. These are firmly in the difficult tier, but you might still have chance to for social life. First comes AP Latin. It's very specialized, making it tough for most students unless you're strong in Latin grammar and translation. Next is AP Literature or AP Lit. It's often compared to AP Lang as it's reading and writing intensive course focused on analyzing classic and contemporary literature. This includes Shakespeare. It's challenging due to the advanced vocabulary, abstract themes, and essay expectations, but manageable for students overall. AP biology comes next, and in this class, you're going to memorize everything. It's not as conceptually difficult as other AP STEMs like chemistry, but the volume of content is criminal. It's got massive content load and analytical free response questions. Next comes AP Spanish Lang. And this is challenging course that emphasizes fluency in reading, writing, listening, and speaking Spanish in real world conversations and academic contexts. It's easier for heritage or fluent speakers, but demanding for non-native speakers due to its fast pace and highle grammar and vocabulary requirements. Alongside AP Spanish lang, this is also where the rest of the language and culture AP classes are going to fit. This includes Chinese, German, French, Italian, and Japanese. AP Lang is next, where you're going to write essays, analyze essays, and dream about essays. It's not overly difficult, but it's extremely draining. And no matter what, the College Board will find way to confuse you with their rubric and the system they'll grade you on. At the very top of tier is going to be AP Calculus BC. It's hard, but at least the rules make sense. If you're already decent at math, you'll probably be fine, but if not, welcome to the void. It covers all of AB plus more advanced topics. It's got fast pace and intense problem solving. That finishes off the tier. And finally, next comes the tier, the classes that will just outright eat your soul and destroy you from the inside out. These classes aren't just hard, they can feel like full-time job, but you do kind of feel like genius when you do finally get it. Starting off the most difficult tier is AP Physics 2. It's continuation of physics one which is ironically placed higher than this one and includes fluid dynamics, thermodynamics, and modern physics. The main challenge in this course is the abstract ideas and more math, although still sometimes algebra based. It's often confusing if your physics one foundation is at all weak. Right after comes AP Physics 1. It's algebra based physics with mechanics topics and can be extremely challenging for new students due to the conceptual reasoning and the tricky free response questions. The pass rate is very low at only around 47% due to the hard grading but not necessarily content difficulty. AP Spanish lit comes next. it's placed so high up due to the heavy reading and analysis of complex Spanish literature from different centuries aspects of the class. Alongside this, there's the challenge of understanding older texts in Spanish and writing essays about them. Once again, if you're fluent or heritage speaker, this class is much more manageable, but for non-native speakers, it's very difficult. The third most difficult AP class is awarded to AP Physics mechanics. This requires strong calculus plus deep conceptual understanding of physics. The class can be summed up as college level mechanics class using calculus but challenging due to the fast pace and require deep understanding of motion, force, energy, and rotation. recommend only taking this class if you are taking or have taken calculus in the past. The second most difficult AP class is AP Physics electricity and magnetism or ENM. This is due to the fact that it uses advanced calculus and vector math to explore ENM fields and circuits. Its main challenges is that it's abstract and extremely mathheavy. Many students consider this as the hardest AP class and is best for future engineers, physicists, or math pros. Physics 1 and two are broader but much less technical in comparison. Finally, the most difficult AP class of all is AP Chemistry. This class separates the students from the survivors. The AP exam felt like fever dream when took it, but the curve is generous, so you might survive. The class relies on heavy memorization, complex math with specific formulas, lab aspects, and abstract concepts students likely would be seeing for the first time, unless chemistry has been taken previously. So, that's the tier list of all 40 AP classes. Do you agree with my opinion? Let me know in the comments, preferably respectfully. And remember, you can survive any AP class, as long as you have caffeine, Google Docs, and at least one friend who's better at the subject than you. Make sure to like, subscribe, and good luck to anyone currently taking AP Chemistry. You deserve medal and possibly an app.