High School is a time for students to branch out and find new ways of learning and studying before college. Dual Credit is a type of class offered by high schools where students can gain college credit by taking an actual college class.

“I personally like dual much better than AP. Mainly because with dual, you just have to pass the class in order to get the college credit. In an AP class, you have to take the class, which is harder than a dual class, and pass the AP test,” senior Tyler Fuqua said.

Dual Credit is a great preparation for college. Being in an actual college environment, with an actual college professor, gives one an inside look on how one could be spending four, or more, years of their life.

“In a college class, you only have a few tests and a few essays per semester, so each thing you do is worth more. In a high school class, if you do poorly on a test, it’s alright because you can retake it and you have like 9 tests per semester,” Fuqua said .

Professors handle classroom settings very differently than high school teachers. In college, one may have either a class of about twenty or a class of four-hundred, depending on the size of the school. Also, classes are not every single day, five days a week, like in high school, so one’s relationship with a college professor may not be as close as one’s relationship with a high school teacher.

“If you do poorly, you do poorly and professors could care less. High school teachers are constantly bugging you about how much progress you have made on an assignment and why you didn’t show up to their class. So I guess professors give you a lot more freedom,” Fuqua said.

One may believe that Dual Credit is extremely difficult considering it’s a college course, but, on the contrary, it isn’t as bad as one may assume. It is a great preparation for college because its coursework is exactly the same as a regular college class. It teaches students to stay organized and to learn responsibility with the freedoms it gives, similar to the freedoms in college.

“It is extremely manageable as long as you stay on top of it and pay attention in class. If you get an essay topic 3 weeks before it’s due, you can pace yourself to where you’re not doing it all in one night, ” Fuqua explained.

One of the best things student’s like about Dual Credit, is that they get to follow the college’s schedule rather than the high school’s schedule. As said before, colleges don’t have classes every day, so students only have to go to their class two to three times a week. Also, college courses end weeks before high school semesters do and they receive longer breaks. This allows students to begin and end their high school semester without any worries about their Dual Credit courses.

“On Tuesdays and Thursdays I get to sleep in like two hours later than normal, so that’s pretty awesome. It just kinda sucks on the days I do have dual because I have to wake up a lot earlier than I would on a normal school day,” Fuqua said .

There are many benefits to taking Dual Credit. The preparation it gives for college can impact a student’s studies in great ways.