AP classes are easier than when we were kids, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m blown by hearing about all these kids taking 10+ AP classes in HS. First, my high school never had that many classes. But more importantly, there was A LOT of work, lots of assignments and projects that took a lot of time. More of a college workload in terms of readings etc but without the extra study time that comes with not having a full day of classes. There is no way people could handle so many AP classes at once, just from a time perspective. Are AP classes the new Honors?

People who took a handful of AP classes went on to Ivy and top 25 schools. Now, kids need so many!

Have classes gotten easier, is there grade inflation, or are kids truly overwhelmed with increased expectations?

It's this. My kid is only in 10th and taking 1 and it is a LOT of work. DC is taking 3 next year. But we've encouraged opting out of the AP rat race. It's absurd. If a college wants to pass on my kid as not "college ready" bc she took 6 or 7 APs (and the rest honors) instead of 10-12, so be it. There is zero reason to take APs in classes DC has no interest or as high an aptitude. And colleges should be ashamed of themselves for requiring it of these kids, many of whom are stressed out and not enjoying their HS years. It's grotesque.

I agree it’s a grotesque arms race that only seems to reward kids that are willing to forego sleep. My sense is that the difficulty of the classes varies, as it did when I was a teen in the late 80s, but they tend to be a lot of work even if not overly difficult. I hate that the kids feel they have to take them to keep up with the pack and the college board keeps adding more (like the new AP pre calc).

In fairness, at some public schools there is either AP or grade level in the core subjects. Grade level is a joke and there is not even Honors, so essentially AP is your only option.

[Anonymous]

Umm I'm 37 and had 4-5 AP courses a year. Yes it was a TON of work. It's not that much more work than honors or gifted classes though.

[Anonymous]

I've been wondering about this, too. I took 3 AP classes, and that was a pretty standard number for schools like UVA/W&M in that era.

It seems like now, the kids are supposed to be taking a full-load of college-equivalent classes from grade 11 (in some cases grade 10) onward. And what's the point of it? Those classes will probably be better taught in college, anyway.

[Anonymous]

When I graduated from Fairfax public high schools (late 1990s) I do believe that for 12th grade classes like 12th grade English, and government, the options were AP or regular grade level (no GT/ honors). I remember specifically taking regular government because I didn’t want an other AP class (was already in AP English, AP Spanish 5, AP calculus BC, and AP psychology). But I do specifically remember taking GT/honors science classes because I was not interested enough to do AP.

[Anonymous]

^^i should add that taking 4 AP classes as a senior was considered heavy (we had 7 classes total , for reference). I knew one kid who was taking 6 and it was unheard of! I would say Most kids looking to apply to colleges competitively (UVA, William and Mary, etc) took probably 2, maybe 3 AP classes senior year and probably 1 junior year (US History), maybe a second if they were advanced in a foreign language or wanted to do AP art history or something as an elective.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't recall my AP tests to be all that hard. I agree the classes assigned more work.

I think nowadays the class is designed so that you do well on the test. The APUSH test does not require you write a 5 page (or even a 2 page) essay on a topic, so the teachers don't see the point in assigning something like that as homework.

I graduated HS in 1992 and took AP history. I never had to write 2-5 page essays for homework or ever in that class. There is a lot of nostalgia for yesteryear that always confuses. My daughter attends a HS where the expectations are more rigorous than mine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In high school I took four AP classes (and one other AP exam based off a class that wasn't billed as AP but covered similar material). I didn't take any until my junior year (AP US History) and most of them I took as a senior. None of them were hard compared to college classes, but I went to a pretty non-descript public high school and then a much more prestigious university with a reputation for difficulty. It seemed like they were effectively the equivalent of a college class at an average or slightly below difficulty university.

That made sense to me. What happens now baffles me.

+1. I think the AP test has stayed the same level of difficult. Schools have gotten better teaching for the test. And just as we expect more kids to attend college even it may not be a good fit, we expect more kids to take APs, even when it might not be a good fit.

Maybe my kid will be better prepared for college than I was. But I took the hardest level classes at my HS, and my 14 year is even more stressed out than I was. It seems like weird sour grapes or something to ask what the OP did - are APs easier because more kids take them. Instead we should ask, why are we pushing them so hard on everyone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In high school I took four AP classes (and one other AP exam based off a class that wasn't billed as AP but covered similar material). I didn't take any until my junior year (AP US History) and most of them I took as a senior. None of them were hard compared to college classes, but I went to a pretty non-descript public high school and then a much more prestigious university with a reputation for difficulty. It seemed like they were effectively the equivalent of a college class at an average or slightly below difficulty university.

That made sense to me. What happens now baffles me.

+1. I think the AP test has stayed the same level of difficult. Schools have gotten better teaching for the test. And just as we expect more kids to attend college even it may not be a good fit, we expect more kids to take APs, even when it might not be a good fit.

Maybe my kid will be better prepared for college than I was. But I took the hardest level classes at my HS, and my 14 year is even more stressed out than I was. It seems like weird sour grapes or something to ask what the OP did - are APs easier because more kids take them. Instead we should ask, why are we pushing them so hard on everyone.

OP here. Not sour grapes. I have a 9th grader who needs to choose classes soon, and I’m just trying to understand. Kids who aspired to Ivys 20-30 years ago would aspire to them now. Back then, a student with 5 AP classes could go to an Ivy. Now, not so much. That’s not something I push with my kid.

In any case, If APs take less work now, I would encourage my kid to take as many as they can. If they are just as hard and kids are working themselves to the bone, we will step out of that because that’s not the high school experience I want for my kid, and they will still do fine in college.

[Anonymous]

History is harder. There is more of it. (lol)

[Anonymous]

I took two AP English classes at the same time my senior year of high school I don’t actually remember it being an insane amount of work. My DD took many APs throughout high school and I also can’t say that it was a crazy workload. It was more learning how to test in a certain way. She actually disliked APs, because she felt like learning the material to prepare for the test was valued over learning the material in general (especially in history classes).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Clearly everything was easier when we were kids.

We have all become our parents.

Teacher and parent, here. Grade inflation is really a thing. Everything is easier.

[Anonymous]

AP was a joke in the late 70s when I was in HS teachers gave all As. The regular classes were harder.

[Anonymous]

You can't compare the two. When we were kids, APs were tests, not full curriculum. At my ridiculously high end private school, kids in honors classes could opt to take the Calc AB/BC test, which was the same test, just depended on how many questions you chose to answer. and a few more, English, History, Chem maybe. But schools didn't revolve around them, kids didn't rely on them to get into college, and teachers were not bound to College Board produced lesson plans.

[Anonymous]

I went to a DC area private and was a top student in the 90s. I took 4 AP classes. They were a lot of work but not that difficult. My kid is taking a high number of APs and definitely works way harder than I did.

At my school kids taking the most APs went to UVA and similar caliber schools. Some higher. Very few kids went to Ivies because even back then, the DC area competition for Ivies was brutal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I went to a DC area private and was a top student in the 90s. I took 4 AP classes. They were a lot of work but not that difficult. My kid is taking a high number of APs and definitely works way harder than I did.

At my school kids taking the most APs went to UVA and similar caliber schools. Some higher. Very few kids went to Ivies because even back then, the DC area competition for Ivies was brutal.

Also at my school, you needed an A in the prior years honors class to get into the AP class. Still think my kid works way harder.