How many AP classes does a "typical, academically advanced" student take in MCPS?

[Anonymous]

My "regular school kid" is taking 5. Guess he will be digging ditches in a few years compared to a "W school kid".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My "regular school kid" is taking 5. Guess he will be digging ditches in a few years compared to a "W school kid".

Oh, get the chip off your shoulder. It's unattractive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You are all insane people. Literally insane. SLOW down. Enjoy life. Why push these kids?

I honestly don't know how to respond to your question. Looking back, my DD was not completely and totally bogged down by work. She went to bed at a normal time, hung out with her friends, and was a happy kid in high school. But she also took twelve APs, got all As, danced 6 hours a week, was in the marching band (another 10 hours a week), took flute lessons (and was 1st chair all-state), and still did not get into any Ivies. She goes to a wonderful school and Ivies were not the end all be all for us but it begs the question - what in god's name are they looking for??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Kids just study the prep books without taking the classes too. You don't have to take the class. Colleges are realizing it is kind of a scam.

Yes and are realizing high schools are offering so many now with subpar teachers just to butter up their test scores/state rankings and now colleges have to decide if they want that many kids coming in with a ridiculous amount of college credits, they won't get back. Colleges need $$. They aren't looking for the kids who have taken 12 AP's.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids just study the prep books without taking the classes too. You don't have to take the class. Colleges are realizing it is kind of a scam.

Yes and are realizing high schools are offering so many now with subpar teachers just to butter up their test scores/state rankings and now colleges have to decide if they want that many kids coming in with a ridiculous amount of college credits, they won't get back. Colleges need $$. They aren't looking for the kids who have taken 12 AP's.

Many kids end up dropping the next class in college and retake the AP class in college format. They realized they missed too much and can't continue without a review. It is very disheartening.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids just study the prep books without taking the classes too. You don't have to take the class. Colleges are realizing it is kind of a scam.

Yes and are realizing high schools are offering so many now with subpar teachers just to butter up their test scores/state rankings and now colleges have to decide if they want that many kids coming in with a ridiculous amount of college credits, they won't get back. Colleges need $$. They aren't looking for the kids who have taken 12 AP's.

Not our experience. DC got a lot of credits/scholarship money. Schools want to attract high performing kids and those kids usually to take a lot of AP courses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids just study the prep books without taking the classes too. You don't have to take the class. Colleges are realizing it is kind of a scam.

Yes and are realizing high schools are offering so many now with subpar teachers just to butter up their test scores/state rankings and now colleges have to decide if they want that many kids coming in with a ridiculous amount of college credits, they won't get back. Colleges need $$. They aren't looking for the kids who have taken 12 AP's.

Nah, the top schools just don't award credit for the APs (or offer elective credit, but make you retake the class if it's in your major). This is nothing new--it was the case when I went to a state school 10 years ago.

[Anonymous]

I have a magnet kid and the plan is 2 in 10th (NSL and Comp. Sci.) , 2 in 11th (Eng. Lang and World History) 2 in 12th (Eng. Literature and French). 6 might not sound like a lot for an advanced kid but he is in a demanding program and I don't want to add to the stress.

[Anonymous]

My oldest daughter took 13 total, counting both self study and actual classes.

DD2 took 10.

DD3, my 8th grader, hasn't set her full high school schedule yet but she's likely to self-study 2 and take one as a ninth grader, for a total of three during freshman year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Need to call our PP's distinction between "W school kid" and "regular school kid". That is despicable.

Really? I didn't read it that way at all. More to do with the families pushing more on APs in Ws so there is a difference. You can look at the stats on number of APs taken, and pass rates. They are published for every school. They do vary from school to school across the county.

Agree, though I think at the "W" type schools peer pressure often plays a bigger role than parental interference.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Need to call our PP's distinction between "W school kid" and "regular school kid". That is despicable.

Really? I didn't read it that way at all. More to do with the families pushing more on APs in Ws so there is a difference. You can look at the stats on number of APs taken, and pass rates. They are published for every school. They do vary from school to school across the county.

Agree, though I think at the "W" type schools peer pressure often plays a bigger role than parental interference.

Agree. I was just reading @16:13 and thinking "that's not gonna work"...

[Anonymous]

Most of the competitive colleges are only accepting 4/5s on the tests and only for selective classes. A friend of my son's went to Maryland with tons of AP credits and did very poorly in the advanced classes as a freshman. He had placed out of so many of the intro classes that he was considered a sophomore his freshman year. Big mistake and he has now had to repeat some of the harder math/science classes. AP classes are no longer (and maybe never were) equivalent to college level classes and they are certainly not taught be people with the proper level of training.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Most of the competitive colleges are only accepting 4/5s on the tests and only for selective classes. A friend of my son's went to Maryland with tons of AP credits and did very poorly in the advanced classes as a freshman. He had placed out of so many of the intro classes that he was considered a sophomore his freshman year. Big mistake and he has now had to repeat some of the harder math/science classes. AP classes are no longer (and maybe never were) equivalent to college level classes and they are certainly not taught be people with the proper level of training.

You have to be smart about it. My DC took some 2nd level classes and it was totally fine, and repeated a couple of classes (e.g., calculus) in areas that weren't a particular strength for DC and he knew the AP wasn't adequate. But DC also isn't trying to graduate early so losing AP credits for a couple of classes isn't a big deal. DC has found that his AP classes in many subjects served him very well and he knew more in his 2nd level classes than kids who had taken the intro class at the university.

Don't forget that most APs are all year and every day so while they may move a little slower than a college class they have twice as much time to cover the material.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You are all insane people. Literally insane. SLOW down. Enjoy life. Why push these kids?

NP here. It irritates me when people say this. Why assume that kids are pushed? Why not assume kids are genuinely interested in certain topics and relish the challenge? Because that's how it is for many. We need to encourage intellectual curiosity instead of having this pervasive and insidious bent against it.

[Anonymous]

Many universities will no longer accept more than six to nine AP credits. That's because it isn't really college work in at lot of cases.