Honors Classes in Private School vs. Public School
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Anonymous
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At our private the general assumption is that a kid will take the regular class. If a child is genuinely talented or invested in a subject, then they'll take honors. So there are a (very few) kids who are truly remarkable who take honors-everything, but generally kids take honors only in their strongest areas.
That's a change in philosophy from public where generally smart kids will take honors everything. The general classes are just different given the different populations because of admissions requirements. |
Anonymous
| DC was in all Honors at good public for every single class which I thought was strange except for PE and had all As. Switched to private, only class for Honors was their Algebra 2 and Foreign language. At the new private, averaged A for all classes except for Algebra 2 but DC themself shared how they had to work harder for the A in regular English and history in part because of different grading scales and more writing than Honors at public. They did pull out an A- in Algebra 2 because as they shared halfway through the class, they had to learn to study differently and no retakes or extra credit etc. Know not the same everywhere and realized probably made it harder to get As and limit some college choices but pleased they are learned to work harder yet surprisingly they seemed less stressed than in public. We could have challenged for more Honors but decided not to as they were happy with balance of classes and other activities. |
Anonymous
| Not in DMV, but DCs' independent does not offer AP - honors (though they did not use that term) only in language, math, and science except for senior year when they offer senior seminar in English - application only. The assumption is that all courses, even those that are not honors, are taught based on a college pedagogical approach and no need to offer APs - the final grade reflects the student's mastery of subject, not one test. |
Anonymous
| cool |
Anonymous
please elaborate. Is this good or bad? If a school has a hard cap on the number of APs a student can take without exceptions, is that good or bad? Does AO hold that against them? |
Anonymous
When your DC applies to college, the CC at your school sends information about the curriculum/requirements which includes information about freshman not being able to take APs or max number of APs etc. If the college sees your kid has done the maximum rigor wise and has done well that’s a positive. If they see the kid has not done as much as another applicant from your school that’s a negative. |
Anonymous
What is the logic for a school to have a hard cap on number of APs a student can take? It seems to be trying to work the system by allowing the student to claim they would take more but the school doesn't allow? |
Anonymous
| My child’s school got rid of AP and only has honors. They limit how many H classes you can take as they are demanding and time consuming. The kids average a 1450 SAT and do well in College placement so AOs understand how to calibrate. |
Anonymous
More APs doesn’t always mean better or more rigorous. Public schools use APs as a way to demonstrate rigor so it becomes an arms race with kids taking as many APs as possible yet, at least in mCPS, they don’t need to take the AP Exam. It’s a silly game. Private schools have different curriculum and standards so they establish rules around who can take what when. They might require freshman take a writing seminar, for example or want all the kids to have taken physics freshman year before taking AP physics junior or senior year. Additionally, not all AP classes work with a school’s schedule (eg some block schedules might not allow enough time for labs) so a school might create an honors class to replace an AP. DD took 6 AP classes at her private and that was pretty standard for students at the top of the class. |
Anonymous
Why did you bump a 4-year-old thread like this? |