AP Stats experiences?

[Anonymous]

I have two children in AP Stat class now. Both are very technical kids who do not struggle in normal advanced Math.
I have Math degree with concentration in Statistics. In my opinion this is absolutely terrible class. This is not math course, it is social studies badly presented.
At least in our school AP book is terrible. You suppose to read through 20 pages of really crappy text, and get out of it what is useful is extremely difficult. (I would say almost impossible even for an adult!)
Book is loaded with useless terminology. Formulas are following from sky without much sense. Looking at Barrons, it is the same on exam.
No good technical school will give you credit for this AP class. Most colleges do not give credit at all. UMD CP gives credit for STAT100.
For my kids's program class was required, otherwise they would never take it.
It is waste of time. If you are interested in Statistics - take calculus based real statistics in college.
If you are interested in easy math course - avoid AP Stat at any expense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have two children in AP Stat class now. Both are very technical kids who do not struggle in normal advanced Math.
I have Math degree with concentration in Statistics. In my opinion this is absolutely terrible class. This is not math course, it is social studies badly presented.
At least in our school AP book is terrible. You suppose to read through 20 pages of really crappy text, and get out of it what is useful is extremely difficult. (I would say almost impossible even for an adult!)
Book is loaded with useless terminology. Formulas are following from sky without much sense. Looking at Barrons, it is the same on exam.
No good technical school will give you credit for this AP class. Most colleges do not give credit at all. UMD CP gives credit for STAT100.
For my kids's program class was required, otherwise they would never take it.
It is waste of time. If you are interested in Statistics - take calculus based real statistics in college.
If you are interested in easy math course - avoid AP Stat at any expense.

Thanks, this is about what I was expecting from looking at the exam. Our HS counselor warned us it looks terrible as a final HS math course, because it doesn't involve enough math to maintain skills going into college. I also didn't like the emphasis on terminology and things like types of graphs that appear to be an emphasis of the the test. But, then a lot of MCPS math has a similar drive, so it should at least be familiar to students. If anything getting credit for STAT100 sounds too generous. It looks like a better course, since it's software based and might help someone math adverse at least put stats to work in their own field and there the instructor would have depth of knowledge beyond the course topics. Oh well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have two children in AP Stat class now. Both are very technical kids who do not struggle in normal advanced Math.
I have Math degree with concentration in Statistics. In my opinion this is absolutely terrible class. This is not math course, it is social studies badly presented.
At least in our school AP book is terrible. You suppose to read through 20 pages of really crappy text, and get out of it what is useful is extremely difficult. (I would say almost impossible even for an adult!)
Book is loaded with useless terminology. Formulas are following from sky without much sense. Looking at Barrons, it is the same on exam.
No good technical school will give you credit for this AP class. Most colleges do not give credit at all. UMD CP gives credit for STAT100.
For my kids's program class was required, otherwise they would never take it.
It is waste of time. If you are interested in Statistics - take calculus based real statistics in college.
If you are interested in easy math course - avoid AP Stat at any expense.

This is disappointed--my dd wants to take it next year as a second math class. Are you saying that students never actually run models (e.g., regressions)?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have two children in AP Stat class now. Both are very technical kids who do not struggle in normal advanced Math.
I have Math degree with concentration in Statistics. In my opinion this is absolutely terrible class. This is not math course, it is social studies badly presented.
At least in our school AP book is terrible. You suppose to read through 20 pages of really crappy text, and get out of it what is useful is extremely difficult. (I would say almost impossible even for an adult!)
Book is loaded with useless terminology. Formulas are following from sky without much sense. Looking at Barrons, it is the same on exam.
No good technical school will give you credit for this AP class. Most colleges do not give credit at all. UMD CP gives credit for STAT100.
For my kids's program class was required, otherwise they would never take it.
It is waste of time. If you are interested in Statistics - take calculus based real statistics in college.
If you are interested in easy math course - avoid AP Stat at any expense.

Thanks, this is about what I was expecting from looking at the exam. Our HS counselor warned us it looks terrible as a final HS math course, because it doesn't involve enough math to maintain skills going into college. I also didn't like the emphasis on terminology and things like types of graphs that appear to be an emphasis of the the test. But, then a lot of MCPS math has a similar drive, so it should at least be familiar to students. If anything getting credit for STAT100 sounds too generous. It looks like a better course, since it's software based and might help someone math adverse at least put stats to work in their own field and there the instructor would have depth of knowledge beyond the course topics. Oh well.

What are you supposed to take as a final math course then, after Calc BC junior year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have two children in AP Stat class now. Both are very technical kids who do not struggle in normal advanced Math.
I have Math degree with concentration in Statistics. In my opinion this is absolutely terrible class. This is not math course, it is social studies badly presented.
At least in our school AP book is terrible. You suppose to read through 20 pages of really crappy text, and get out of it what is useful is extremely difficult. (I would say almost impossible even for an adult!)
Book is loaded with useless terminology. Formulas are following from sky without much sense. Looking at Barrons, it is the same on exam.
No good technical school will give you credit for this AP class. Most colleges do not give credit at all. UMD CP gives credit for STAT100.
For my kids's program class was required, otherwise they would never take it.
It is waste of time. If you are interested in Statistics - take calculus based real statistics in college.
If you are interested in easy math course - avoid AP Stat at any expense.

Thanks, this is about what I was expecting from looking at the exam. Our HS counselor warned us it looks terrible as a final HS math course, because it doesn't involve enough math to maintain skills going into college. I also didn't like the emphasis on terminology and things like types of graphs that appear to be an emphasis of the the test. But, then a lot of MCPS math has a similar drive, so it should at least be familiar to students. If anything getting credit for STAT100 sounds too generous. It looks like a better course, since it's software based and might help someone math adverse at least put stats to work in their own field and there the instructor would have depth of knowledge beyond the course topics. Oh well.

What are you supposed to take as a final math course then, after Calc BC junior year?

It depends on what's offered at the HS. Many do have multivariable. Another option is a community college class. But if the goal isn't to get ahead, may as well take calc as a two year sequence with BC senior year. Just don't take AP Stat as the culminating class, it doesn't look rigorous--at least that's what we were told.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have two children in AP Stat class now. Both are very technical kids who do not struggle in normal advanced Math.
I have Math degree with concentration in Statistics. In my opinion this is absolutely terrible class. This is not math course, it is social studies badly presented.
At least in our school AP book is terrible. You suppose to read through 20 pages of really crappy text, and get out of it what is useful is extremely difficult. (I would say almost impossible even for an adult!)
Book is loaded with useless terminology. Formulas are following from sky without much sense. Looking at Barrons, it is the same on exam.
No good technical school will give you credit for this AP class. Most colleges do not give credit at all. UMD CP gives credit for STAT100.
For my kids's program class was required, otherwise they would never take it.
It is waste of time. If you are interested in Statistics - take calculus based real statistics in college.
If you are interested in easy math course - avoid AP Stat at any expense.

?

Statistics that doesn't require calculus is fake statistics? This isn't real, for example? https://www.khanacademy.org/math/statistics-probability/analysis-of-variance-anova-library

Here's the actual course description: https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/ap-student/course/ap-statistics-2010-course-exam-description.pdf

[Anonymous]

If want college credit, go for dual enrollment and take Multivariable Calc, Differential Equations, or Intro to Linear Algebra.
If you do not care about credit, take Multivariable Calc in school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have two children in AP Stat class now. Both are very technical kids who do not struggle in normal advanced Math.
I have Math degree with concentration in Statistics. In my opinion this is absolutely terrible class. This is not math course, it is social studies badly presented.
At least in our school AP book is terrible. You suppose to read through 20 pages of really crappy text, and get out of it what is useful is extremely difficult. (I would say almost impossible even for an adult!)
Book is loaded with useless terminology. Formulas are following from sky without much sense. Looking at Barrons, it is the same on exam.
No good technical school will give you credit for this AP class. Most colleges do not give credit at all. UMD CP gives credit for STAT100.
For my kids's program class was required, otherwise they would never take it.
It is waste of time. If you are interested in Statistics - take calculus based real statistics in college.
If you are interested in easy math course - avoid AP Stat at any expense.

This is disappointed--my dd wants to take it next year as a second math class. Are you saying that students never actually run models (e.g., regressions)?

What models?
This class is paper and pencil... First semester is almost over, I have never heard about using any software. Not even Excel. (Forget about Minitab or SAS, I doubt that MCSP even have them..)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have two children in AP Stat class now. Both are very technical kids who do not struggle in normal advanced Math.
I have Math degree with concentration in Statistics. In my opinion this is absolutely terrible class. This is not math course, it is social studies badly presented.
At least in our school AP book is terrible. You suppose to read through 20 pages of really crappy text, and get out of it what is useful is extremely difficult. (I would say almost impossible even for an adult!)
Book is loaded with useless terminology. Formulas are following from sky without much sense. Looking at Barrons, it is the same on exam.
No good technical school will give you credit for this AP class. Most colleges do not give credit at all. UMD CP gives credit for STAT100.
For my kids's program class was required, otherwise they would never take it.
It is waste of time. If you are interested in Statistics - take calculus based real statistics in college.
If you are interested in easy math course - avoid AP Stat at any expense.

This is disappointed--my dd wants to take it next year as a second math class. Are you saying that students never actually run models (e.g., regressions)?

What models?
This class is paper and pencil... First semester is almost over, I have never heard about using any software. Not even Excel. (Forget about Minitab or SAS, I doubt that MCSP even have them..)

My kid's class isn't paper and pencil. They use their graphing calculators.

Also, it's not actually necessary to use statistical software in an intro statistics class - or even to do statistics. In fact, I think it's probably better that they don't use it. The goal here is understanding, not doing lots of advanced stuff with no comprehension.

[Anonymous]

I do not know where your kids are...
Mine are studying confidence intervals. Yes they use calculators for it.
So far calculator was mostly used to find z-scores and probability that in old days could be done using tables...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have two children in AP Stat class now. Both are very technical kids who do not struggle in normal advanced Math.
I have Math degree with concentration in Statistics. In my opinion this is absolutely terrible class. This is not math course, it is social studies badly presented.
At least in our school AP book is terrible. You suppose to read through 20 pages of really crappy text, and get out of it what is useful is extremely difficult. (I would say almost impossible even for an adult!)
Book is loaded with useless terminology. Formulas are following from sky without much sense. Looking at Barrons, it is the same on exam.
No good technical school will give you credit for this AP class. Most colleges do not give credit at all. UMD CP gives credit for STAT100.
For my kids's program class was required, otherwise they would never take it.
It is waste of time. If you are interested in Statistics - take calculus based real statistics in college.
If you are interested in easy math course - avoid AP Stat at any expense.

This is disappointed--my dd wants to take it next year as a second math class. Are you saying that students never actually run models (e.g., regressions)?

What models?
This class is paper and pencil... First semester is almost over, I have never heard about using any software. Not even Excel. (Forget about Minitab or SAS, I doubt that MCSP even have them..)

My kid's class isn't paper and pencil. They use their graphing calculators.

Also, it's not actually necessary to use statistical software in an intro statistics class - or even to do statistics. In fact, I think it's probably better that they don't use it. The goal here is understanding, not doing lots of advanced stuff with no comprehension.

Which means it's a statistical literacy class, and basically a way to avoid math for a year. Thing is, like most AP, the students who get credit for it are exactly the ones who would never be relegated to STAT100 and also the ones who would be interested in putting statistics to use.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Which means it's a statistical literacy class, and basically a way to avoid math for a year. Thing is, like most AP, the students who get credit for it are exactly the ones who would never be relegated to STAT100 and also the ones who would be interested in putting statistics to use.

You say that like it's a bad thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Which means it's a statistical literacy class, and basically a way to avoid math for a year. Thing is, like most AP, the students who get credit for it are exactly the ones who would never be relegated to STAT100 and also the ones who would be interested in putting statistics to use.

You say that like it's a bad thing.

^^^Also the AP Statistics course description sounds a lot like my one-semester intro to statistics class (except that we used the aforementioned tables to look up z scores and chi squared distributions). Which is just as it should be, in my opinion.

[Anonymous]

Parent of two kids who take AP Stat.
We opted to not register for AP exam. Waste of time, money and energy for nothing.
Since both kids are technical, they would have to take real Stat in college (calculus based.)
I guess this course is OK intro to Stat, but my kids definitely could use time more effectively in another class.
Since it was mandatory we had no choice...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parent of two kids who take AP Stat.
We opted to not register for AP exam. Waste of time, money and energy for nothing.
Since both kids are technical, they would have to take real Stat in college (calculus based.)
I guess this course is OK intro to Stat, but my kids definitely could use time more effectively in another class.
Since it was mandatory we had no choice...

I work as a statistician. "Real (calculus-based) stat" is not a thing that I have ever heard.