Honors, AP and homework

[Anonymous]

How much homework does your kid have per week if they take all Honors classes in high school?
How much extra homework would there be per week as you replace Honors classes with AP classes?

I know there are many variables, so just take an educated guess. Does it vary a lot by grade?

8th grade parent

[Anonymous]

I have a 9th grader taking all honors classes (where available). They have not had much homework so far, maybe 30-45 minutes a night. But I think the homework is sometimes what they didn't have time to finish during independent work time in class.

[Anonymous]

If your child's school have the kids doing APUSH in 9th rather than 10th, this will take more time. The freshman are still getting used to high school, and on top of that they are doing one of the harder APs for a first AP class.

[Anonymous]

Mine took AP Gov in 9th, and is taking APUSH in 10th. Both are a lot of reading, but the approach of AP Gov is a bit more straightforward, and I gather it’s easier to understand exactly what you need to get out of each reading.

Mine is very glad they did the courses in this order. But she’s enjoying APUSH more, because she has a fabulous teacher who is preparing them for the test but also taking them a bit beyond it, so it’s a little more interesting and timely.

Otherwise, her other honors and pre-IB classes have been a much smaller fraction of her homework this year and last. But she’s also gotten good about finishing up easier stuff at school so she can focus on the denser AP Gov/history readings at home.

[Anonymous]

100% depends on the student. For our firrst child, school came easy, and although all courses were either honors or AP, I really saw them do any homework or studying. Second child, same type of courses, but actually spent a couple hours each night doing homework. Both straight A students, both ended up with 13 AP classes total (interestingly enough, different AP courses)

[Anonymous]

DD does about 6-7 more hours of HW per week taking AP and dual enrollment than her brother taking AP and honors.

[Anonymous]

Depend on the kid, what DC1 can finish in 15 min will take DC2 the whole day

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:100% depends on the student. For our firrst child, school came easy, and although all courses were either honors or AP, I really saw them do any homework or studying. Second child, same type of courses, but actually spent a couple hours each night doing homework. Both straight A students, both ended up with 13 AP classes total (interestingly enough, different AP courses)

This. One of mine took hours for AB Calc, the other about 10 or 20 minutes, often on the bus. Both got 5s on the AP.

[Anonymous]

Here's a form with time estimates for homework by class at WJ:

https://www2.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/siteassets/schools/high-schools/r-w/wjhs/coursebook/2020--2021-weekly-study-hours-.pdf

I'll note that the give the same time estimates for English 9 and Honors English 9: 3-5 hours per week. Things diverge a little later on: Honors English 11 is 3-5 hours, while AP Language and Composition is 4-6 hours.

I don't think the time totals were necessarily accurate for my kids (both spent less time on homework than these estimates would suggest) but it's a decent place to start.

[Anonymous]

My kids went to WJ (in college now), and neither of them spent anywhere close to those estimates on homework. Both got 5s on all APs (one has 12 and one had 13) and straight A students. Both heavily involved in different extra curriculars, one sports and the other music

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids went to WJ (in college now), and neither of them spent anywhere close to those estimates on homework. Both got 5s on all APs (one has 12 and one had 13) and straight A students. Both heavily involved in different extra curriculars, one sports and the other music

Now I understand why so many kids there are buying peers ADHD stimulant meds.