Taking an AP exam in middle school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:ASK MCPS WHETHER THEY WILL ACCEPT THIS AS SUBSTITUTION FOR THE GRADUATION REQUIREMENT IN THAT CLASS.

This happened to a family we know. Kid took AP Bio in 8th because they're passionate about that subject, and MCPS refuses to accept the class/exam they took as a substitute for the graduation requirement. Kid will have to retake AP Bio sometime in their high school career. Family is completely bummed. Kid participates in outside competitions in biology, got the top score on the exam, is generally an excellent student, etc... but no dice.

Also, for college admissions, I read somewhere that APs count only if they're taken in the past 4 years, which would exclude courses taken in middle school. But maybe that depends on the college.

My high schooler is bored, too, OP, if it's any consolation. She's on track to take 14 APs and it's still too easy. But doing things early is sometimes not the answer, so please do your due diligence. A better solution would be to find interesting extra-curriculars in which to shine...

PP - thank you. can they take the more advanced bio classes to satisfy that requirement? like, electives that have AP bio as a prerequisite?

this is basically the motivation for my child - that they would be able to jump into more advanced classes that seem interesting to them.

Colleges still will want to see core sciences taken during high school: chemistry, biology, physics.

[Anonymous]

Op - Maybe check out enrichment classes at CTY that are not AP courses or take a class at Montgomery college or something.

Your child may be disappointed, but tell them that the state has rules, and to follow them Biology has to be taken in high school. Perhaps with enough background, the HS can be convinced to allow enrollment in AP Bio as the required Bio class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Child craves challenge, bored in school, it's their favorite subject.

+1,000

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Child craves challenge, bored in school, it's their favorite subject.

You have asked this here before and the consensus was and is that it's a stupid idea.

I've never asked this before. In fact, I searched DCUM before asking and all I found was a discussion of a kid taking AP calculus BC in 8th grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op - Maybe check out enrichment classes at CTY that are not AP courses or take a class at Montgomery college or something.

Your child may be disappointed, but tell them that the state has rules, and to follow them Biology has to be taken in high school. Perhaps with enough background, the HS can be convinced to allow enrollment in AP Bio as the required Bio class.

Is this true for biology only? DC is interested in another science subject.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op - Maybe check out enrichment classes at CTY that are not AP courses or take a class at Montgomery college or something.

Your child may be disappointed, but tell them that the state has rules, and to follow them Biology has to be taken in high school. Perhaps with enough background, the HS can be convinced to allow enrollment in AP Bio as the required Bio class.

Is this true for biology only? DC is interested in another science subject.

The science graduation requirements are listed here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YrEkTlllux6C_tiILO9543YUBrRuOK45/view

[Anonymous]

I agree school won’t have authority to waive freshman Bio due to state requirements. I know someone who got permission to skip honors chem to go into AP chem but that child had been home schooled. Not sure the AP would be helpful in that argument or not. If it’s physics, you don’t need to take the easier physics before taking the harder physics APs, so could just jump into those.

I think a bored 8th grader would be better off just doing outside reading and experiments and such at home. It’s not hard to double up on science classes from 10th grade on. My kid is doing it this year (if you count comp sci as a science, is takkmg 3 sciences).

My kid is at a top 10 college and they required kids to take their own science placement test to test out of the first level science classes. Lots of kids that took the AP and got 5s could not do it so are taking the intro level as freshman.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If the kid wants to keep getting ahead, then take more advanced exams than the mediocre-level AP exams: take the USA science/math Olympiads, quiz bowls, essay contests, and other academic extracurricular exams

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op - Maybe check out enrichment classes at CTY that are not AP courses or take a class at Montgomery college or something.

Your child may be disappointed, but tell them that the state has rules, and to follow them Biology has to be taken in high school. Perhaps with enough background, the HS can be convinced to allow enrollment in AP Bio as the required Bio class.

Is this true for biology only? DC is interested in another science subject.

The science graduation requirements are listed here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YrEkTlllux6C_tiILO9543YUBrRuOK45/view

According to this, AP Bio can itself satisfy the life science graduation requirement, although it does have a prerequisite of regular or honors Bio. So if your school allows waiving the prerequisite, there wouldn't be a graduation requirement issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I agree school won’t have authority to waive freshman Bio due to state requirements. I know someone who got permission to skip honors chem to go into AP chem but that child had been home schooled. Not sure the AP would be helpful in that argument or not. If it’s physics, you don’t need to take the easier physics before taking the harder physics APs, so could just jump into those.

I think a bored 8th grader would be better off just doing outside reading and experiments and such at home. It’s not hard to double up on science classes from 10th grade on. My kid is doing it this year (if you count comp sci as a science, is takkmg 3 sciences).

My kid is at a top 10 college and they required kids to take their own science placement test to test out of the first level science classes. Lots of kids that took the AP and got 5s could not do it so are taking the intro level as freshman.

How is it not hard? What about foreign language, music, art?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Child craves challenge, bored in school, it's their favorite subject.

If it’s just one class. Allow your kid to take the class and just be bored an hour per day.

Your kid should work on ways to challenge themselves other than just more and more breadth of information. This is a good skill to hone before college; because (newsflash) the top colleges are relatively not difficult for bright students either.

My kid is not as advanced as OPs but is bored in most of their classes. They are all “easy A’s” but they are still getting a lot out of it. For example They help their peers during COmp Sci class or when the physics teacher mentions a subject, they do a deep dive into the topic on their own.

There are a lot of kids “bored” in HS. My kids math teacher allowed a schoolmate in higher level math to teach my kids AP Calc class. (This was because that student aced a hard test or had an100 average by midterms or something). Think of what that kid got out of that vs just taking an even harder class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Child craves challenge, bored in school, it's their favorite subject.

If it’s just one class. Allow your kid to take the class and just be bored an hour per day.

Your kid should work on ways to challenge themselves other than just more and more breadth of information. This is a good skill to hone before college; because (newsflash) the top colleges are relatively not difficult for bright students either.

My kid is not as advanced as OPs but is bored in most of their classes. They are all “easy A’s” but they are still getting a lot out of it. For example They help their peers during COmp Sci class or when the physics teacher mentions a subject, they do a deep dive into the topic on their own.

There are a lot of kids “bored” in HS. My kids math teacher allowed a schoolmate in higher level math to teach my kids AP Calc class. (This was because that student aced a hard test or had an100 average by midterms or something). Think of what that kid got out of that vs just taking an even harder class.

How about just let my kid challenge themselves in a way that they enjoy? I have a PhD and I will be happy to help my child explore that area, if they show interest in it, but they are ahead of me in their current areas of interest. I don't have the time to manage their academic interests so precisely. If they want to challenge themselves by taking an AP exam, that's honestly fine with me.

I am just wondering if it could be done at all, and also, if it would help them with course selection in HS. It sounds like the former is difficult and the latter is not necessarily the case, as, according to the link above, they will still have to take AP classes in physics, chem and bio.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Op - Maybe check out enrichment classes at CTY that are not AP courses or take a class at Montgomery college or something.

Your child may be disappointed, but tell them that the state has rules, and to follow them Biology has to be taken in high school. Perhaps with enough background, the HS can be convinced to allow enrollment in AP Bio as the required Bio class.

Is this true for biology only? DC is interested in another science subject.

My kid is at RICA. He loves physics. In MS, he was allowed to take HS Physics for MS elective credit. It did not count as his HS physics requirement. He still needs to take Physics to complete his HS graduation requirements.

[Anonymous]

What HS is your kid zoned for, and what classes do they offer for which AP Bio is a pre-requisite?

Maybe they exist, but if that's the driving reason, then probably worth checking to see if such classes exist

[Anonymous]

OP-people here are speculating. Each HS is different. HSs DO have the ability (or at least 3 or 4 years ago they had the ability) to waive the prereq to the AP science courses. But whether they will do that or not depends on the school. They sometimes say no because it would open the floodgates to other students asking for the same thing, and they don't have good criteria to use to make that decision. (Getting a high AP score would be a way to make the argument, but it's not the only way.) A few years ago, our HS changed prereq policies abruptly one year when a new principal arrived. They claimed that many of the students waiving the prereq weren't really prepared, and they didn't have a way of knowing which ones ahead of time, so they just started enforcing the prereq.)

If you have an 8th grader, you can contact the HS counselor associated with your last name, explain the situation, and ask. The HS counselors will in any case be meeting with 8th graders in like Jan or Feb, but it sounds like you'd like info earlier and I think they would be responsive to the question... they just may not give you the answer you'd like.