How bad is it to not take an accelerated or honors course?

[Anonymous]

Please watch "Race To Nowhere." Netflix has it, talks about all the extra pressure we put our kids through when they take AP /Honors classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If your DD is getting Bs and Cs you might want to look in a bit more detail as to why beyond just honors/regular classes. Maybe all it is is level, but maybe there's other stuff going on (too much sports/music) or something else.

Not that everyone can get As, but I'd be looking for more consistent performance before spreading her even thinner.

Do you think every private school kid gets all A's? You have got to be kidding. Getting a B as a freshman in Trig honors is very good. Shame on you to make the OP think there is something wrong with her child.

New PP here. I don't think for a second the poster was trying to say there was something wrong with the kid. I think they were saying that maybe sports were taking up too much time - and that by adding to the workload, is that going to make all her classes suffer.

I understood this quite easily. Maybe you're having a PMS day or you're hungover or something and completely over-reacting.

Correct - as that poster, that was not my intention. No, not all kids get As, except in Lake Wobegon. But the OP seemed to worry about DD's ability to do the work in honors classes, and I observed that the issue may go beyond honors classes to be one of ability to keep up sufficiently because of other commitments. Of course, OP may be happy to have DD do lots of extracurriculars and have grades suffer.

PP, please look at your first sentence and your last sentence. It is obvious what your intention was.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Please watch "Race To Nowhere." Netflix has it, talks about all the extra pressure we put our kids through when they take AP /Honors classes.

+1

[Anonymous]

Can I share my experience... we were at at NCS/Holton. We pushed for our daughter to be in Honors Algebra 2/Trigonometry because she came from Honors Geometry in MoCo public and had straight As in all of her classes. Got to private school and realized that the work is way harder than public - the amount of work is similar in terms of hours but what they expect you to produce is so different. Our daughter drown in math because it moved quickly and required immediate deep understanding in the honors level... she could not memorize her way through Alg 2/Trig and all the problems on tests were "challenge level" unlike her last school. Daughter also could not write for beans coming from MoCo public which really screwed her in English and History where these schools have youy kids writing deep analytical essays and research papers during quarter 1. I can't imagine combing that with what you are describing her sports schedule. Take prelac as a sophomore, calc as a junior then AP Stats. She will be fine for college admission as long as you aren't going ivy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not naming the school because I don't want to get into a school war (and I hope none of you do either) but do any of you just want to say no to the accelerated, honors and AP classes?

My child is in 9th grade and is taking Algebra 2/Trig (honors/accelerated) and is also in a science honors. She plays sports 2 seasons as well a music 1/2 credit that meets twice a week. None of which she wants to give up. She also plays a sport about 7 months out of the year that requires about 1/3 of her weekends year round. Again, not something she wants to give up. She is struggling with some academics. Not really bad grades but mainly B's (and some low ones) with an A in there here and there. She had her first C too. It is a little different than the mostly A's and some high B's from middle school. It stresses her although her Dad and I think she is fine and I am not looking for perfect grades if there is no happiness or sleep. We are not gunning for Ivy league. I want her to find a healthier balance and I asked her is she wanted to do regular Pre-Calc next year and she thinks that is a death wish. Her counselor and math teacher said she can do either and to do what makes her happy. So it isn't like the school is pushing it. I have a feeling it is a friend-based issue that makes her feel like she shouldn't.

Am I the only mom in private who isn't gunning for the hardest classes every year? Kids do go on and graduate in non accelerated, non honors courses, correct? How many AP's are normal in junior and senior year? I feel overwhelmed just looking at the next 3 years and what she wants to do.

Also, do any private kids drop language their junior year to take on more specialized classes like social and physical sciences? There are so many electives she wants to take but 6-7 majors seems excessive.

Thanks in advance

At my DC's school, I believe the kids at least take language through their junior year. After taking their AP tests, some prefer to double up on a math, ,science or history elective senior year. We had the same question. It is helpful to look at the recommendations posted on the college's admission requirements lists. We did a cursory sampling which made the decision for DC.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thank you to those that posted with sincere comments.

My daughter only plays two sports and most kids do at least one music or art half elective. She still has multiple study halls a week. Her sport outside of school is mainly weekends from late Spring until early Fall and doesn't really affect school that much. Otherwise she has no outside commitments. I don't feel like that is over scheduling. I know there are some kids who 100% focus on nothing but academics but I don't think that is healthy nor do I think that would make her happy.

And no we are not gunning for Ivy. But I don't want her to start dropping honors courses if it is not the norm. I guess my thought is she could probably get mostly A's in non-honors but then it would be really hard to get back into an honors track. And that the transition to high school with more organizing, autonomy and speed of glasswork. Sports until 6pm was new too. She is doing much better this quarter.

Anyway, thanks for letting me rant. It is tough trying to encourage but not over push. And she is undecided too. Some days she is in the "I can do anything, bring it on" vibe and the next it is "I am so overwhelmed!"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Thank you to those that posted with sincere comments.

My daughter only plays two sports and most kids do at least one music or art half elective. She still has multiple study halls a week. Her sport outside of school is mainly weekends from late Spring until early Fall and doesn't really affect school that much. Otherwise she has no outside commitments. I don't feel like that is over scheduling. I know there are some kids who 100% focus on nothing but academics but I don't think that is healthy nor do I think that would make her happy.

And no we are not gunning for Ivy. But I don't want her to start dropping honors courses if it is not the norm. I guess my thought is she could probably get mostly A's in non-honors but then it would be really hard to get back into an honors track. And that the transition to high school with more organizing, autonomy and speed of glasswork. Sports until 6pm was new too. She is doing much better this quarter.

Anyway, thanks for letting me rant. It is tough trying to encourage but not over push. And she is undecided too. Some days she is in the "I can do anything, bring it on" vibe and the next it is "I am so overwhelmed!"

Okay the bolded didn't make much sense. t meant to say earlier in the year she was dealing with the transition of high school and sports until 6pm. I feel like she has a better handle on it now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can I share my experience... we were at at NCS/Holton. We pushed for our daughter to be in Honors Algebra 2/Trigonometry because she came from Honors Geometry in MoCo public and had straight As in all of her classes. Got to private school and realized that the work is way harder than public - the amount of work is similar in terms of hours but what they expect you to produce is so different. Our daughter drown in math because it moved quickly and required immediate deep understanding in the honors level... she could not memorize her way through Alg 2/Trig and all the problems on tests were "challenge level" unlike her last school. Daughter also could not write for beans coming from MoCo public which really screwed her in English and History where these schools have youy kids writing deep analytical essays and research papers during quarter 1. I can't imagine combing that with what you are describing her sports schedule. Take prelac as a sophomore, calc as a junior then AP Stats. She will be fine for college admission as long as you aren't going ivy.

Thanks for posting this. My DC is taking an assesment to determine math placement. DC is in all honors classes otherwise and is coming from MoCo after taking honors geometry. I was wondering if we should push for DC to continue on with Alg 2, if DC doesn't place there, but not I'm thinking we should just roll with where DC places.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can I share my experience... we were at at NCS/Holton. We pushed for our daughter to be in Honors Algebra 2/Trigonometry because she came from Honors Geometry in MoCo public and had straight As in all of her classes. Got to private school and realized that the work is way harder than public - the amount of work is similar in terms of hours but what they expect you to produce is so different. Our daughter drown in math because it moved quickly and required immediate deep understanding in the honors level... she could not memorize her way through Alg 2/Trig and all the problems on tests were "challenge level" unlike her last school. Daughter also could not write for beans coming from MoCo public which really screwed her in English and History where these schools have youy kids writing deep analytical essays and research papers during quarter 1. I can't imagine combing that with what you are describing her sports schedule. Take prelac as a sophomore, calc as a junior then AP Stats. She will be fine for college admission as long as you aren't going ivy.

Thanks for posting this. My DC is taking an assesment to determine math placement. DC is in all honors classes otherwise and is coming from MoCo after taking honors geometry. I was wondering if we should push for DC to continue on with Alg 2, if DC doesn't place there, but not I'm thinking we should just roll with where DC places.

I know at our school there are options for Algebra 2. There is Alg2/Trig, Alg2/Trig with Data Analysis, and Alg2/Trig with Data Analysis Honors. I am guessing the testing is for which class, not whether he/she would need to take Geometry over again. And PP is right. Honors courses in MCPS are pretty much what non-honors courses are at a big league private. Honors and AP courses in a big private are extremely fast paced with high expectations. If your DC gets placed in honors, I would start there but you CAN move down after one quarter or even the semester if they are struggling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can I share my experience... we were at at NCS/Holton. We pushed for our daughter to be in Honors Algebra 2/Trigonometry because she came from Honors Geometry in MoCo public and had straight As in all of her classes. Got to private school and realized that the work is way harder than public - the amount of work is similar in terms of hours but what they expect you to produce is so different. Our daughter drown in math because it moved quickly and required immediate deep understanding in the honors level... she could not memorize her way through Alg 2/Trig and all the problems on tests were "challenge level" unlike her last school. Daughter also could not write for beans coming from MoCo public which really screwed her in English and History where these schools have youy kids writing deep analytical essays and research papers during quarter 1. I can't imagine combing that with what you are describing her sports schedule. Take prelac as a sophomore, calc as a junior then AP Stats. She will be fine for college admission as long as you aren't going ivy.

Thanks for posting this. My DC is taking an assesment to determine math placement. DC is in all honors classes otherwise and is coming from MoCo after taking honors geometry. I was wondering if we should push for DC to continue on with Alg 2, if DC doesn't place there, but not I'm thinking we should just roll with where DC places.

I know at our school there are options for Algebra 2. There is Alg2/Trig, Alg2/Trig with Data Analysis, and Alg2/Trig with Data Analysis Honors. I am guessing the testing is for which class, not whether he/she would need to take Geometry over again. And PP is right. Honors courses in MCPS are pretty much what non-honors courses are at a big league private. Honors and AP courses in a big private are extremely fast paced with high expectations. If your DC gets placed in honors, I would start there but you CAN move down after one quarter or even the semester if they are struggling.

Honors courses in MCPS are nowhere near even "standard" courses in most privates around here, let alone Big 3 or 5. A pp summarized her experience - which matches ours. Our son was in "honors" and scored "above grade level" or "highly proficient" on MSAs. Yet when he moved to a K-8, his writing skills were well below grade level. Took HSPT and only scored in the 37th percentile, yet this was a kid MCPS considered a top performer. Again, PP summed it up - lots of rote memorization in MCPS and oh, let's not forget the multiple choice worksheets and exams. We thought son would be top in math after having taken IM in 7th grade in Bethesda. Ha. Not at all. I wish our publics were better.

[Anonymous]

What are your goals? If you are trying to get her into an Ivy, then she should max out the difficulty in her curriculum and gets As in those classes. If she is headed for college at any other level, then she can back off a little bit and focus on learning and developing her interests.

[Anonymous]

I would extend that group beyond the Ivies to perhaps top 20 universities. If she doesn't care about those, then it is not necessary to take the most advanced courses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Can I share my experience... we were at at NCS/Holton. We pushed for our daughter to be in Honors Algebra 2/Trigonometry because she came from Honors Geometry in MoCo public and had straight As in all of her classes. Got to private school and realized that the work is way harder than public - the amount of work is similar in terms of hours but what they expect you to produce is so different. Our daughter drown in math because it moved quickly and required immediate deep understanding in the honors level... she could not memorize her way through Alg 2/Trig and all the problems on tests were "challenge level" unlike her last school. Daughter also could not write for beans coming from MoCo public which really screwed her in English and History where these schools have youy kids writing deep analytical essays and research papers during quarter 1. I can't imagine combing that with what you are describing her sports schedule. Take prelac as a sophomore, calc as a junior then AP Stats. She will be fine for college admission as long as you aren't going ivy.

Thanks for posting this. My DC is taking an assesment to determine math placement. DC is in all honors classes otherwise and is coming from MoCo after taking honors geometry. I was wondering if we should push for DC to continue on with Alg 2, if DC doesn't place there, but not I'm thinking we should just roll with where DC places.

I know at our school there are options for Algebra 2. There is Alg2/Trig, Alg2/Trig with Data Analysis, and Alg2/Trig with Data Analysis Honors. I am guessing the testing is for which class, not whether he/she would need to take Geometry over again. And PP is right. Honors courses in MCPS are pretty much what non-honors courses are at a big league private. Honors and AP courses in a big private are extremely fast paced with high expectations. If your DC gets placed in honors, I would start there but you CAN move down after one quarter or even the semester if they are struggling.

Honors courses in MCPS are nowhere near even "standard" courses in most privates around here, let alone Big 3 or 5. A pp summarized her experience - which matches ours. Our son was in "honors" and scored "above grade level" or "highly proficient" on MSAs. Yet when he moved to a K-8, his writing skills were well below grade level. Took HSPT and only scored in the 37th percentile, yet this was a kid MCPS considered a top performer. Again, PP summed it up - lots of rote memorization in MCPS and oh, let's not forget the multiple choice worksheets and exams. We thought son would be top in math after having taken IM in 7th grade in Bethesda. Ha. Not at all. I wish our publics were better.

When my daughter who was in advanced everything in a W school and had all A's moved to private, their one standardizedtest she scored a 10% on vocabulary. 10%!! MCPS sucks. And yes, there was little to no writing in public either. I was so happy to get out of there. My only concern was that she could have aced it all the way thru. She is challenged now but I truly hope colleges know the rigorous work kids at privates put in compared to the "top level" schools at MCPS.

[Anonymous]

It sounds like you should keep her in regular classes and consider dropping the second sport. Imo, academics should always come first (and my kids are elite multi sport athletes)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It sounds like you should keep her in regular classes and consider dropping the second sport. Imo, academics should always come first (and my kids are elite multi sport athletes)