APs as a 9th grader

[Anonymous]

AP in ninth grade is ridiculous unless your kid is truly very gifted. Why take a college class at that age? Let them be a kid.

[Anonymous]

My son that just graduated last year ended up with 34 credits. His college took them all except that many of them don't count towards his degree - meaning he STILL had to take certain gen eds at college because the colleges require some to be taken on site so they can get the money. If you take AP in 10-12 grade you will end up with more AP credits than a college will give you credit for, but they do like the rigor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hello, I know there are lots of posts about next year’s classes, but this one hasn’t come up as much. How hard are AP comp sci and AP Human Geography for a freshman? This is at oakton. She’s going to be taking all hns, alg 2 hns, summer p.e which gives her an extra elective, spanish 2, and the one elective left we are thinking about AP comp sci if it is manageable. Thoughts?

Who is driving this schedule - you or your child? Make sure you’re not overloading her as she transitions to high school. The workload generally was a lot more than middle school for our kids.

My kid. She wants to do all APs and hardest classes possible, but i’m not sure that’s right for her given her work habits aren’t very good. That’s why i’m asking how hard these classes are.

[Anonymous]

AP CS Principles: python (doable for a driven 9th grader that can handle the transition to HS with minimal negative effect to grades)

AP CS A: java (not recommended for 9th grader unless they've already had a lot of coding experience, including a bit of java)

AP Human Geo: new at our HS school this year...a good amount of reading but otherwise "easy".

Keep in mind that AP classes may have all ages in it...and that can intimidate younger students. Even just a hesitation to join in class discussions can affect their mastery of the subject and subsequently, their grades. Also, prepping for AP exams (prepping in April/May) while still covering content in other classes needs good time management. Once they get to 10th/11th grade, this becomes more manageable for most students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hello, I know there are lots of posts about next year’s classes, but this one hasn’t come up as much. How hard are AP comp sci and AP Human Geography for a freshman? This is at oakton. She’s going to be taking all hns, alg 2 hns, summer p.e which gives her an extra elective, spanish 2, and the one elective left we are thinking about AP comp sci if it is manageable. Thoughts?

Who is driving this schedule - you or your child? Make sure you’re not overloading her as she transitions to high school. The workload generally was a lot more than middle school for our kids.

My kid. She wants to do all APs and hardest classes possible, but i’m not sure that’s right for her given her work habits aren’t very good. That’s why i’m asking how hard these classes are.

I'm in the exact same boat. I can't talk my kid out of it and she wants to take two APs also in 9th. Her counselor has also said "don't do it" but she wants to do it and doesn't want me to "butt into her life" so I don't know what to do. My kid also has really bad work habits and essentially just breezing through the high school math and world language classes at middle school and thinks this is all it's going to take. I guess she will learn the hard way. But as a parent, you see the train wreck coming and you want them to get out of the way, but they just don't want to move out of the train tracks.

[Anonymous]

My kid will be doing both. Shouldn’t be that bad. (if i’m wrong, please prove me wrong i’m looking for feedback too)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hello, I know there are lots of posts about next year’s classes, but this one hasn’t come up as much. How hard are AP comp sci and AP Human Geography for a freshman? This is at oakton. She’s going to be taking all hns, alg 2 hns, summer p.e which gives her an extra elective, spanish 2, and the one elective left we are thinking about AP comp sci if it is manageable. Thoughts?

Who is driving this schedule - you or your child? Make sure you’re not overloading her as she transitions to high school. The workload generally was a lot more than middle school for our kids.

My kid. She wants to do all APs and hardest classes possible, but i’m not sure that’s right for her given her work habits aren’t very good. That’s why i’m asking how hard these classes are.

People wondering who driving schedule I think because you wrote “we are thinking about AP…” it’s the phrasing of the “we” that would lead people to ask if kid wants this or parent

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hello, I know there are lots of posts about next year’s classes, but this one hasn’t come up as much. How hard are AP comp sci and AP Human Geography for a freshman? This is at oakton. She’s going to be taking all hns, alg 2 hns, summer p.e which gives her an extra elective, spanish 2, and the one elective left we are thinking about AP comp sci if it is manageable. Thoughts?

Who is driving this schedule - you or your child? Make sure you’re not overloading her as she transitions to high school. The workload generally was a lot more than middle school for our kids.

My kid. She wants to do all APs and hardest classes possible, but i’m not sure that’s right for her given her work habits aren’t very good. That’s why i’m asking how hard these classes are.

People wondering who driving schedule I think because you wrote “we are thinking about AP…” it’s the phrasing of the “we” that would lead people to ask if kid wants this or parent

Yes you’re right — that’s my bad on my part.

[Anonymous]

Do not take the Java CS program unless your kid knows how to code - you will regret it. They do NOT need to take AP in 9th grade and still have more AP credit than they can apply. Unless they truly love the material I’d wait for 10th grade.

[Anonymous]

AP Human Geography looks amazing.

[Anonymous]

So If my DD were to take an AP if any at all, is seems AP human geo seems like it would be less stressful, right?

[Anonymous]

Some kids can handle APs in 9th and some cannot. The problem is, middle school has been so dumbed down that it is extremely hard to tell. My close friend's child (AAP and straight As in middle school) is doing very poorly in a 9th grade AP class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So If my DD were to take an AP if any at all, is seems AP human geo seems like it would be less stressful, right?

Honestly, yeah. Because if you had an AP elective to study for on top of your honors classes that would be challenging. But, since the AP human geo takes place of a core class, it’s a little easier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some kids can handle APs in 9th and some cannot. The problem is, middle school has been so dumbed down that it is extremely hard to tell. My close friend's child (AAP and straight As in middle school) is doing very poorly in a 9th grade AP class.

What math did they take and did they take a foreign language? DS is completing Geometry and his second year in a foreign langauge. I am hoping that the HS transition won’t be too horrible.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some kids can handle APs in 9th and some cannot. The problem is, middle school has been so dumbed down that it is extremely hard to tell. My close friend's child (AAP and straight As in middle school) is doing very poorly in a 9th grade AP class.

What math did they take and did they take a foreign language? DS is completing Geometry and his second year in a foreign langauge. I am hoping that the HS transition won’t be too horrible.

My kid ended algebra 1 with A- in geometry right now, and taking first year of Spanish. 8th grader.