It’s that time of year, when students around the school start plotting their schedule for next year and like any year they are sure to be considering taking an AP class on VHS. To those students I say this – Don’t.
While VHS can be tempting with its promises to allow you to take a class you might otherwise not be able to take, VHS comes with a host of cons that are exacerbated by the fast paced nature of the AP curriculum. On VHS students are essentially isolated from the traditional support system provided by a high school, meaning if you fall behind there is often no way to catch back up; especially if you have a subpar virtual teacher. In this vein VHS also does not take the same school holidays as Maynard does, meaning that you either need to do work on vacation, cram in a bunch of work before vacation, or simply take the zeros and move on.
I have also found that VHS work grinds my chromebook to a halt, making assignments that might take me 10-15 minutes normally take much longer due to lag and slow loading times.
VHS requires an astounding amount of discipline. While you are given the freedom to choose when and where to work this same freedom can make it hard for you to complete work on time. In my experience and talking to other students who have taken other AP VHS courses, it can be difficult to manage your time effectively to complete the coursework on time, especially in just the hour given to you in school.