How many APs do TJ students take?

[Anonymous]

pseudonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the new AP seminar?

Are freshman allowed to take AP classes if they want?

You can read a description of AP Seminar at the College Board's web site. At TJ, it is replacing Honors English 10. Students actually have a choice of electing to stick with English 10, though I'm not sure how many would want to do that, given that AP classes give a +1.0 boost to the weighted GPA, whereas it's +0.5 for honors.

Freshmen are allowed to take AP classes, though it would only make sense in some narrow circumstances (e.g., if the student had taken Algebra II in 8th grade, they'd be in AP Precalc).

Not true, it is 0.5 boost for both Honor and AP in FCPS (and TJ)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is the new AP seminar?

Are freshman allowed to take AP classes if they want?

AP Seminar and AP Research lack a standardized syllabus, and colleges often view them accordingly, typically offering little to no guaranteed transfer credit. For TJ students, they mainly serve as a +1 GPA boost, and not much more. TJ honors courses already have had a lot of writing and research built into them.

At base schools, the introduction of AP Seminar and AP Research was intended to incorporate structured writing and research into the general education curriculum.

[pseudonymous]

Not true, it is 0.5 boost for both Honor and AP in FCPS (and TJ)

You can check the FCPS web site to confirm that the boost from AP is in fact 1.0.

[Anonymous]

I read on here that to teach dual enrollment courses in HS now need to take a masters in the specific course- so need masters in math and not just masters in education to teach a DE math course. Read that this wasn’t always the case. Is that the same for AP courses? Do teachers need masters in AP subject matters or is just masters of education sufficient then?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I read on here that to teach dual enrollment courses in HS now need to take a masters in the specific course- so need masters in math and not just masters in education to teach a DE math course. Read that this wasn’t always the case. Is that the same for AP courses? Do teachers need masters in AP subject matters or is just masters of education sufficient then?

There exists nothing like a AP teacher certification. Anyone can teach, and teacher has zero influence over the AP exam question paper and grading or curving the AP score. All that is completely in College Board's control. Student doesnt even need to enroll in the course, they can self study and take the exam.

Same cant be said for DE courses. The high school teacher needs to be trained/certified by the partnering college since teacher has complete authority over the course lessons, quizzes, exams, and finally the grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

pseudonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the new AP seminar?

Are freshman allowed to take AP classes if they want?

You can read a description of AP Seminar at the College Board's web site. At TJ, it is replacing Honors English 10. Students actually have a choice of electing to stick with English 10, though I'm not sure how many would want to do that, given that AP classes give a +1.0 boost to the weighted GPA, whereas it's +0.5 for honors.

Freshmen are allowed to take AP classes, though it would only make sense in some narrow circumstances (e.g., if the student had taken Algebra II in 8th grade, they'd be in AP Precalc).

Not true, it is 0.5 boost for both Honor and AP in FCPS (and TJ)

Incorrect.

Additional Weighting for Advanced Academic Courses

The following courses have additional weighting:

Honors (HN) courses are weighted with an additional 0.5 quality points.
Advanced Placement (AP) are weighted with an additional 1.0 quality points.
Advanced (AV) are weighted with an additional 1.0 quality points.
Dual Enrollment (DE) are weighted with an additional 1.0 quality points.
International Baccalaureate (IB) are weighted with an additional 1.0 quality points.

Source: https://www.fcps.edu/about-fcps/leadership/district-performance-transparency/postsecondary-profile#grade-point-average-and-class-rank

[Anonymous]

Isn’t the final GPA dependent on the number of APs? Do post AP courses also have a 1.0 boost?

I don’t want my kid to push themselves to the extreme to do more and more APs.

[Anonymous]

I think the typical TJ student graduated with 8-10 APs I expect the class of 2028 forward will have one or two more. I know some kids get a lot more though but just collecting APs for the sake of collecting APs doesn't seem to impress admissions officers.

[Anonymous]

The top 5% TJ kids end up having 14 or more AP or post AP courses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The top 5% TJ kids end up having 14 or more AP or post AP courses.

I think this is true. DD has 10 I think and started with just 1 in 10th.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:TJ students tend to focus less on the total number of AP courses and more on selecting rigorous APs that serve as gateways to even more advanced coursework that align with their interests.

There are a few APs that entire class enrolls in for meeting minimum graduation requirements, like AP Calc AB or BC, AP English Lang, AP Gov, and AP Physics 1 & AP env science starting this year.

AP Physics C M&EM, AP Chemistry, and AP Biology are popular science APs, however students look to demonstrate depth in one or more areas by enrolling in follow-on advanced courses like Electrodynamics (post AP Physics C), Organic Chemistry (post AP Chem), Neurobiology (post AP Biology).

Top STEM focused students dont stop at AP Calculus BC, but go up to two levels beyond that by enrolling first in Mulitvariable/Linear, and following it up with Differential Equations, and Complex Analysis.

Computer science focused students look to enroll in Machine Learning 1 & 2, which has AP Comp Science A, Artificial Intelligence 1& 2, and Multivariable as pre/co-requisites.

AP US History is a common choice for social studies in junior year. More than half of the class enrolls in a AP world language credit.

+1

My TJ kid didn't take any AP class last year as freshman, he is taking 3 AP this year (Seminar, Calculus, and CS A). I was told the quality of AP matters more than the quantity.

In your scenario above are they doing Calc BC in 10th grade?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the typical TJ student graduated with 8-10 APs I expect the class of 2028 forward will have one or two more. I know some kids get a lot more though but just collecting APs for the sake of collecting APs doesn't seem to impress admissions officers.

8 to 10 APs is average for a regular FCPS high school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the typical TJ student graduated with 8-10 APs I expect the class of 2028 forward will have one or two more. I know some kids get a lot more though but just collecting APs for the sake of collecting APs doesn't seem to impress admissions officers.

8 to 10 APs is average for a regular FCPS high school.

The level of rigor of the courses might not be the same though. It’s not uncommon at TH for some courses to have mostly kids with 5s on AP but not As in the course.

[Anonymous]

^ plus until very recently TJ had various class requirements for core classes that made kids ineligible to take AP classes at lower grade levels

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:TJ students tend to focus less on the total number of AP courses and more on selecting rigorous APs that serve as gateways to even more advanced coursework that align with their interests.

There are a few APs that entire class enrolls in for meeting minimum graduation requirements, like AP Calc AB or BC, AP English Lang, AP Gov, and AP Physics 1 & AP env science starting this year.

AP Physics C M&EM, AP Chemistry, and AP Biology are popular science APs, however students look to demonstrate depth in one or more areas by enrolling in follow-on advanced courses like Electrodynamics (post AP Physics C), Organic Chemistry (post AP Chem), Neurobiology (post AP Biology).

Top STEM focused students dont stop at AP Calculus BC, but go up to two levels beyond that by enrolling first in Mulitvariable/Linear, and following it up with Differential Equations, and Complex Analysis.

Computer science focused students look to enroll in Machine Learning 1 & 2, which has AP Comp Science A, Artificial Intelligence 1& 2, and Multivariable as pre/co-requisites.

AP US History is a common choice for social studies in junior year. More than half of the class enrolls in a AP world language credit.

+1

My TJ kid didn't take any AP class last year as freshman, he is taking 3 AP this year (Seminar, Calculus, and CS A). I was told the quality of AP matters more than the quantity.

In your scenario above are they doing Calc BC in 10th grade?

Yes, several of his friends are also in BC this year, but I think most 10th graders are taking Precalculus (previously called Math 4 & 5). If he stays at the base school, he could take a few AP classes as a freshman. At TJ, rigor is built into the curriculum, so APs aren’t seen as such a big deal in terms of GPA boost. More importantly, some of the upper-level classes, like Machine Learning, require advanced math as a prerequisite. To me, having the right math/course sequence is more important than simply counting the number of APs.