Number of AP classes for top 20% of MCPS HS grads?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At our school, 1-2 freshman year, 2-3 sophomore year (depending on whether the kid is ready for calc yet). And 5-6 junior and senior year.

wow - for top 20%? basically between 13 and 17. That's crazy and may not be right. What's top 10% do? 20-24?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At our school, 1-2 freshman year, 2-3 sophomore year (depending on whether the kid is ready for calc yet). And 5-6 junior and senior year.

wow - for top 20%? basically between 13 and 17. That's crazy and may not be right. What's top 10% do? 20-24?

If top 20% is 13-17, then the top 10% is the 17 of the range.

For example, at Whitman HS, you can see 13 AP exams and that over 100 students (20% Of 500 take), and 8 more that over 50 students take.

3-4 Social Studies
2 Math
2 English
2-4 Science
1 World Language
1-2 CS (one of them is Principles fake AP class)

And a smattering of electives that could add 2 per student.


https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jPaF7kQ1nUdfsODVwh-U4sesYZYn3y0s/view

[Anonymous]

And unlike most schools, almost all of those exam scores are 3+.

[Anonymous]

I cannot understand why mcps parents continue to hold that more APs equal “better” especially when kids are not even required to take the final AP exam. PP said her kid deliberately skipped math and language exams because they were a little too hard for him. If you are not capable of taking the AP Exam, you should not be in the class.

What’s more—when my kids compare their AP class work at their private school with their friends at MCPS who are taking the same class (on paper), it’s mind boggling how different many of those classes are—from an expected work and grading perspective. APUSH difference in private v public was particularly noticeable.

I understand that parents are attempting to make their kids look competitive on paper for college applications when they ask about how many APs their kid should take, but I wish more people would ask how do actually prepare our kids better? We were committed to MCPS (DH and I both attended), but as we inched toward HS is became more and more apparent that MCPS cared more about maintaining an illusion of quality vs actuality delivering quality education.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I cannot understand why mcps parents continue to hold that more APs equal “better” especially when kids are not even required to take the final AP exam. PP said her kid deliberately skipped math and language exams because they were a little too hard for him. If you are not capable of taking the AP Exam, you should not be in the class.

What’s more—when my kids compare their AP class work at their private school with their friends at MCPS who are taking the same class (on paper), it’s mind boggling how different many of those classes are—from an expected work and grading perspective. APUSH difference in private v public was particularly noticeable.

I understand that parents are attempting to make their kids look competitive on paper for college applications when they ask about how many APs their kid should take, but I wish more people would ask how do actually prepare our kids better? We were committed to MCPS (DH and I both attended), but as we inched toward HS is became more and more apparent that MCPS cared more about maintaining an illusion of quality vs actuality delivering quality education.

And this related to the question how?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I cannot understand why mcps parents continue to hold that more APs equal “better” especially when kids are not even required to take the final AP exam. PP said her kid deliberately skipped math and language exams because they were a little too hard for him. If you are not capable of taking the AP Exam, you should not be in the class.

What’s more—when my kids compare their AP class work at their private school with their friends at MCPS who are taking the same class (on paper), it’s mind boggling how different many of those classes are—from an expected work and grading perspective. APUSH difference in private v public was particularly noticeable.

I understand that parents are attempting to make their kids look competitive on paper for college applications when they ask about how many APs their kid should take, but I wish more people would ask how do actually prepare our kids better? We were committed to MCPS (DH and I both attended), but as we inched toward HS is became more and more apparent that MCPS cared more about maintaining an illusion of quality vs actuality delivering quality education.

We committed to MCPS and the OP is asking about how many APs their public school child should take to be competitive for college admissions. No one asked how much better you think your child's private school education is. I am pretty sure there are private school threads you can post on to gloat about that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I cannot understand why mcps parents continue to hold that more APs equal “better” especially when kids are not even required to take the final AP exam. PP said her kid deliberately skipped math and language exams because they were a little too hard for him. If you are not capable of taking the AP Exam, you should not be in the class.

What’s more—when my kids compare their AP class work at their private school with their friends at MCPS who are taking the same class (on paper), it’s mind boggling how different many of those classes are—from an expected work and grading perspective. APUSH difference in private v public was particularly noticeable.

I understand that parents are attempting to make their kids look competitive on paper for college applications when they ask about how many APs their kid should take, but I wish more people would ask how do actually prepare our kids better? We were committed to MCPS (DH and I both attended), but as we inched toward HS is became more and more apparent that MCPS cared more about maintaining an illusion of quality vs actuality delivering quality education.

What's different between public school APUSH and private APUSH. So people should go private for APUSH ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I cannot understand why mcps parents continue to hold that more APs equal “better” especially when kids are not even required to take the final AP exam. PP said her kid deliberately skipped math and language exams because they were a little too hard for him. If you are not capable of taking the AP Exam, you should not be in the class.

What’s more—when my kids compare their AP class work at their private school with their friends at MCPS who are taking the same class (on paper), it’s mind boggling how different many of those classes are—from an expected work and grading perspective. APUSH difference in private v public was particularly noticeable.

I understand that parents are attempting to make their kids look competitive on paper for college applications when they ask about how many APs their kid should take, but I wish more people would ask how do actually prepare our kids better? We were committed to MCPS (DH and I both attended), but as we inched toward HS is became more and more apparent that MCPS cared more about maintaining an illusion of quality vs actuality delivering quality education.

What's different between public school APUSH and private APUSH. So people should go private for APUSH ?

It would be very hard to tell as each teacher (private and public) is going to teach it differently just as long as they cover all the topics designated by CB and get their syllabus approved. Which is why these type comments are always pointless.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I cannot understand why mcps parents continue to hold that more APs equal “better” especially when kids are not even required to take the final AP exam. PP said her kid deliberately skipped math and language exams because they were a little too hard for him. If you are not capable of taking the AP Exam, you should not be in the class.

What’s more—when my kids compare their AP class work at their private school with their friends at MCPS who are taking the same class (on paper), it’s mind boggling how different many of those classes are—from an expected work and grading perspective. APUSH difference in private v public was particularly noticeable.

I understand that parents are attempting to make their kids look competitive on paper for college applications when they ask about how many APs their kid should take, but I wish more people would ask how do actually prepare our kids better? We were committed to MCPS (DH and I both attended), but as we inched toward HS is became more and more apparent that MCPS cared more about maintaining an illusion of quality vs actuality delivering quality education.

More AP's are only better when the class grade is an A and the exam grade is a 5
That lines up the student for top colleges both inside and outside of the USA.
If you don't know this, then you're not the target audience.

[Anonymous]

NP—the number of APs (with good grades and test scores) is important relative to peers because colleges evaluate applicants vs kids from their school. I assume that’s why OP asked…

I agree that we should be asking about the need for APs freshman year, the AP “arms race” in general, kids taking AP classes to get the GPA bump while still having the option to skip the exam, and overall quality of instruction. These speak more to the quality vs quantity and are outside the scope of OP’s question.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP—the number of APs (with good grades and test scores) is important relative to peers because colleges evaluate applicants vs kids from their school. I assume that’s why OP asked…

I agree that we should be asking about the need for APs freshman year, the AP “arms race” in general, kids taking AP classes to get the GPA bump while still having the option to skip the exam, and overall quality of instruction. These speak more to the quality vs quantity and are outside the scope of OP’s question.

Take that up with University Admissions. When your graduating class is 500-600 students in a district of 10,000-12,000 seniors, and your state flagship gets 60K applications for 5Kish spots, families are going to do whatever to get ahead. APs are one of those ways.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At our school, 1-2 freshman year, 2-3 sophomore year (depending on whether the kid is ready for calc yet). And 5-6 junior and senior year.

wow - for top 20%? basically between 13 and 17. That's crazy and may not be right. What's top 10% do? 20-24?

If top 20% is 13-17, then the top 10% is the 17 of the range.

For example, at Whitman HS, you can see 13 AP exams and that over 100 students (20% Of 500 take), and 8 more that over 50 students take.

3-4 Social Studies
2 Math
2 English
2-4 Science
1 World Language
1-2 CS (one of them is Principles fake AP class)

And a smattering of electives that could add 2 per student.


https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jPaF7kQ1nUdfsODVwh-U4sesYZYn3y0s/view

This immediately doesn’t make sense. Assume top 20% are doing calc as juniors, what is their second AP? Are the majority doing stats? Very unlikely.

Also very few are doing four AP science classes. Very very few.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At our school, 1-2 freshman year, 2-3 sophomore year (depending on whether the kid is ready for calc yet). And 5-6 junior and senior year.

wow - for top 20%? basically between 13 and 17. That's crazy and may not be right. What's top 10% do? 20-24?

If top 20% is 13-17, then the top 10% is the 17 of the range.

For example, at Whitman HS, you can see 13 AP exams and that over 100 students (20% Of 500 take), and 8 more that over 50 students take.

3-4 Social Studies
2 Math
2 English
2-4 Science
1 World Language
1-2 CS (one of them is Principles fake AP class)

And a smattering of electives that could add 2 per student.


https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jPaF7kQ1nUdfsODVwh-U4sesYZYn3y0s/view

This immediately doesn’t make sense. Assume top 20% are doing calc as juniors, what is their second AP? Are the majority doing stats? Very unlikely.

Also very few are doing four AP science classes. Very very few.

If they do AP Calc BC junior year and score well, then take MultiVar as a senior, it does the work itself even if not an AP.

AP Science options: Junior Year: AP Bio, or AP Chem and Physics C, Senior Year: AP Physics C-EM and other not taken junior year

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP—the number of APs (with good grades and test scores) is important relative to peers because colleges evaluate applicants vs kids from their school. I assume that’s why OP asked…

I agree that we should be asking about the need for APs freshman year, the AP “arms race” in general, kids taking AP classes to get the GPA bump while still having the option to skip the exam, and overall quality of instruction. These speak more to the quality vs quantity and are outside the scope of OP’s question.

AP has no GPA bump over Honors in MCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At our school, 1-2 freshman year, 2-3 sophomore year (depending on whether the kid is ready for calc yet). And 5-6 junior and senior year.

wow - for top 20%? basically between 13 and 17. That's crazy and may not be right. What's top 10% do? 20-24?

If top 20% is 13-17, then the top 10% is the 17 of the range.

For example, at Whitman HS, you can see 13 AP exams and that over 100 students (20% Of 500 take), and 8 more that over 50 students take.

3-4 Social Studies
2 Math
2 English
2-4 Science
1 World Language
1-2 CS (one of them is Principles fake AP class)

And a smattering of electives that could add 2 per student.


https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jPaF7kQ1nUdfsODVwh-U4sesYZYn3y0s/view

This immediately doesn’t make sense. Assume top 20% are doing calc as juniors, what is their second AP? Are the majority doing stats? Very unlikely.

Also very few are doing four AP science classes. Very very few.

Some do AB junior year and BC senior year.
Or AB and AP Stats.
Or BC and AP Stats.
Or BC and MVC, which is beyond AP.