Starting next school year, Advanced Placement (AP) psychology is changing from a semester-long course to a full-year class. Instead of taking Introduction to Psychology first semester and AP Psychology second semester, AP will become a full year course, while Introduction to Psychology will still be offered for students who do not want to take the more advanced class.

Psychology teacher Leonard Hopkins supports the changes being made to the program.

“It will be a lot easier for me, in September, [to teach] brain physiology because everything will flow,” Hopkins said. “Logically it will make more sense.”

Senior Anisha Clay also agrees with the changes being made to the program. Clay has already taken both Introduction to Psychology and AP Psychology.

“I think it’s a good idea for AP to be a year long,” Clay said. “When I took it, it was only a semester and we ran out of time to cover the material that was going to be on the AP exam. So, if it’s a full year, it would give everyone in the class enough time to go through everything and it wouldn’t feel as rushed.”

Hopkins is will be teaching all of the AP classes, in addition to two or three Intro to Psychology classes depending on his schedule. Mrs. Tilt will be teaching the other Intro to Psychology classes.

The AP Psychology curriculum will change slightly from the semester long course previously offered.

“The curriculum will change because Intro [to Psychology] is just theory [and] people’s ideas,” Hopkins said. “For AP, we will start immediately on scientific methodology, which is legitimate research, and then we’re going to go right into the brain. The entire AP class is based more on the medical model.”

The final exam process will remain the same for Intro to Psychology and AP Psychology. A project is assigned to Intro to Psychology classes, and AP students are expected to take the AP exam in the spring.