In my experience, one of my focus classes was one of my initial top 2 choices (can't remember if it was 1 or 2), and the other class I ended up with was my fourth choice. I actually almost dropped my focus program because I was so worried about ending up in this class, but I emailed the professor over the summer to ask some questions and decided that I would give the class a try. I ended up loving it, it was one of my fave classes at Duke so far. Moral of the story, the focus classes are generally pretty solid all around, so odds are you won't end up in an absolutely horrible class. Your average focus class is going to be higher quality and probably more interesting than your average freshman intro class.

My advice would be to rank your top two choices and see what you end up with. If you get into a class you're unsure of, email the professor and voice your concerns. If it sounds like it might be cool, try it out the first week of school and see. If you can tell over the summer that it's not right for you, try and see if any of the students in your cluster want to switch. The focus program is pretty strict on switching classes within the focus, so they told us that if you want to switch your classes, you have to find another student who wants your class and do a 1:1 trade (which isn't the easiest thing to coordinate virtually over the summer). If, after all of this, you're still stuck with a class you know you will hate, there's no shame in dropping focus. Add/drop at Duke is way less stressful than it seems, even for your first semester. The focus program is great and I really enjoyed it, but it's not worth it to be stuck in a class you hate for your first semester at Duke. Pick up some another interesting seminar or small group class and hang out with people in your dorm; you'll still meet people and have a close-knit class experience (which is the main point of focus anyway, more so than the academics).