As students move into high school, they have the opportunity to pick from many advanced and college classes offered at North Polk. 

Like other students, I had the choice between AP classes and DMACC classes or both. Since I’m a freshman, I wanted to get a head start on college credits so I could possibly get my associate’s degree before graduating high school like I planned. I chose to take as many DMACC classes as I could. Although I would be missing out on my GPA being weighed on a 5.0 scale, I was not too worried; I would have three more years to improve.

I felt like I had more variety with DMACC classes. I had more of an opportunity to explore different career paths through the electives and I was able to take more classes I enjoyed, specifically psychology.

Compared to regular high school courses, I felt like the DMACC classes I took were a lot more relaxed. We only had an assignment or two per week, then we would take notes the rest of the time. I felt like the class was slower and went in more depth with the topic. 

The only downside was that you could not retake tests. Since I didn’t excel on my first couple of tests in DMACC Intro to Psychology, I thought that was going to be a problem for me. Each test was every four chapters of notes, which only left me so much time to get my grade up. 

I encouraged myself to stay on top of my work and study more often instead of trying to find a shortcut to things. After keeping up with the notes and studying I was able to bring my grade up and I passed the class with an A.