9th grade AP physics at Blair

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AP Physics 1 is one of the more difficult AP courses. It's not about the math level - it has a lot of deep conceptual reasoning that is challenging for younger teen brains. College Board adjusted it to remove a couple of units that were sort of disconnected, so there should be less time pressure next year. It's not a course I would recommend for 9th grade, but Blair does its own thing.

-AP Physics 1 teacher

I asked a Blair counselor about this and they said don't worry about it, the kids they place do well. Do you think this is true for the most part? Any idea why Blair does this?

Because the demographics in Blair (the usual suspects) will take a lot of sh1t from Blair administration and teachers (since they want the LOR for college), and the parents will make up for all the knowledge gaps by teaching everything themselves to their students or by getting them tutoring.

Let me be more clear - the problem with having Asian American students in any classroom is that they will not complain even if the quality of education is craaap. They will quietly take on the burden themselves and sacrifice time, resources, peace of mind, money - to educate their child themselves. The school does not care because on paper their stats look AMAZING and makes them look good. MCPS loves to have Asian American students because they require no effort in teaching. However, they also hate them because they don't want to give them any resources.

When AA or HI or poorer WH kids come to Blair, believing that there is something magical in the air, they are left underperforming because they don't realize that there is zero help from the teachers, and Asian Americans are only doing well because they are killing themselves and their mental health doing the entire hard work at home.

Not at Blair, and don’t agree with the racialized analysis in the PP post, but I do agree that in MCPS high schools there are a plethora of harder classes where the MCPS curriculum and teaching is pretty crappy and middle and upper income parents don’t say anything and just hire a tutor. Classes where this frequently happens are math from Algebra I up, sciences like chem, physics and any harder AP science, and AP Lang and LIt plus some AP history classes.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Blair really pressures students taking Algebra II to simultaneously take AP Physics (so much so that even though my child registered for a different science class, the school enrolled her in AP Physics in the summer and DC had to contact them to switch it back). DC took Honors Bio instead and is very happy with that decision. Even before virtual learning, DC had heard horror stories about AP Physics in 9th grade and I'm sure being virtual made the class even more challenging.

Is Algebra II standard for Blair SMAC 9th graders?

No - they take magnet precalc or magnet geometry or magnet functions.

(Also, since SMAC 9th graders do not take AP Physics, I doubt OP's question is about SMAC ninth grade.)

[Anonymous]

This is OP. Correct. This is not a SMAC question; my kid is not in that program. I know this is the new science "track" that Blair uses for non-SMAC accelerated math students. Besides having a good study group (which seems like a great idea), how many of you actually hired a tutor to get your kid through the class (especially if your kid was 9th grader)? I'm all for taking tough classes but it seems ridiculous to presume a tutor will be necessary as a prerequisite to successful completing the class because (i) the content is too difficult for the majority of the students, and/or (ii) the teaching of the content is suspect.

[Anonymous]

I have a DD headed for AP Physics in 9th grade at Blair next year. I don't know how we'll feel about this when the time comes, but do students who want to take the AP exam take it in the year they took the course? In other words, if my DD wanted to take the AP Physics exam, would she do so as a 9th grader? Back in my day (when dinosaurs roamed the earth) it was rare to take an AP exam even as Junior, so I'm curious what the practice is now.

[Anonymous]

Yes they would take the AP exam the same year they take the class. The teachers provide review sessions to help prepare for the exam. As for PP’s question about tutors, Our older son who had taken AP Physics 1 at another HS so helped DD and her Blair study group on occasion. He served as a physics tutor at his own HS, helping freshmen, so I guess he served as DD’s tutor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes they would take the AP exam the same year they take the class. The teachers provide review sessions to help prepare for the exam. As for PP’s question about tutors, Our older son who had taken AP Physics 1 at another HS so helped DD and her Blair study group on occasion. He served as a physics tutor at his own HS, helping freshmen, so I guess he served as DD’s tutor.

Same PP here. DS did not have a tutor, and none of DD’s friends had a tutor either. The key is to ask lots of questions and make sure you understand each step of the way.

[Anonymous]

AP Physics 1 is not a great class for 9th graders. They may do ok but they will get much more out of the class if they take it when they are a bit older. Math is not emphasized in this course but somewhat surprisingly, conceptual physics is difficult to grasp. Will it be all 9th graders or a mix of all grades? If mixed grades, then 9th graders will be at a disadvantage as their abstract reasoning skills are not yet as well developed as older students. I am not sure what the advantage is of taking this class in 9th grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AP Physics 1 is one of the more difficult AP courses. It's not about the math level - it has a lot of deep conceptual reasoning that is challenging for younger teen brains. College Board adjusted it to remove a couple of units that were sort of disconnected, so there should be less time pressure next year. It's not a course I would recommend for 9th grade, but Blair does its own thing.

-AP Physics 1 teacher

I asked a Blair counselor about this and they said don't worry about it, the kids they place do well. Do you think this is true for the most part? Any idea why Blair does this?

Because the demographics in Blair (the usual suspects) will take a lot of sh1t from Blair administration and teachers (since they want the LOR for college), and the parents will make up for all the knowledge gaps by teaching everything themselves to their students or by getting them tutoring.

Let me be more clear - the problem with having Asian American students in any classroom is that they will not complain even if the quality of education is craaap. They will quietly take on the burden themselves and sacrifice time, resources, peace of mind, money - to educate their child themselves. The school does not care because on paper their stats look AMAZING and makes them look good. MCPS loves to have Asian American students because they require no effort in teaching. However, they also hate them because they don't want to give them any resources.

When AA or HI or poorer WH kids come to Blair, believing that there is something magical in the air, they are left underperforming because they don't realize that there is zero help from the teachers, and Asian Americans are only doing well because they are killing themselves and their mental health doing the entire hard work at home.

Why do you assume AA or HI kids don’t have educated parents or tutors?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AP Physics 1 is one of the more difficult AP courses. It's not about the math level - it has a lot of deep conceptual reasoning that is challenging for younger teen brains. College Board adjusted it to remove a couple of units that were sort of disconnected, so there should be less time pressure next year. It's not a course I would recommend for 9th grade, but Blair does its own thing.

-AP Physics 1 teacher

I asked a Blair counselor about this and they said don't worry about it, the kids they place do well. Do you think this is true for the most part? Any idea why Blair does this?

I heard they started doing this for the CAP kids who needed more of a challenge than regular Honors Physics. The CAP kids are bright, even in math and science. Plu, like the other PP said, they probably needed it for the non-magnet Takoma Park kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AP Physics 1 is one of the more difficult AP courses. It's not about the math level - it has a lot of deep conceptual reasoning that is challenging for younger teen brains. College Board adjusted it to remove a couple of units that were sort of disconnected, so there should be less time pressure next year. It's not a course I would recommend for 9th grade, but Blair does its own thing.

-AP Physics 1 teacher

I asked a Blair counselor about this and they said don't worry about it, the kids they place do well. Do you think this is true for the most part? Any idea why Blair does this?

If your kid is a good student - and they are, bc they were placed in this course!- they’ll be fine. MCPS is knowingly putting 14/15 year olds in courses like this and they do fine. The teachers know who they’re teaching to. My kid took AP US history as a freshman, and my son took AP Physics as a freshman. They survived and weren’t traumatized. I think they would have learned MORE and gotten more out of these courses as 16/17/18 year olds, but I would trust the system. I didn’t put my one kid in AP physics as a freshman thought they recommended it, and I regret it. It put her on this lower slower track that bored hee to tears and messed up her schedule. I would go for it and you can always pull out early in the fall semester if it doesn’t work out.

[Anonymous]

Math and Physics tutor here:

I think the AP Physics I is pretty difficult and is a lot for a 9th grader - even advanced students or those with access to tutors.

I am curious of the AP scores earned by 9th graders on the exam. The AP stats that I know don't break down the scores by grade level. Anyone know where to find them? I am sometimes asked for input to course selection and would love to know this information.

[Anonymous]

My child did 9th grade AP physics upon recommendation from her middle school teacher last year.

It was a mistake.
90% of the class were not fully prepared for taking physics at such a young age. Most of the students struggled in varying degrees. Some got tutors. The teacher made adjustments, the process was a slug. My child managed to navigate the class through the year, but it was a chore. First time to ever struggle with a subject of any kind.

I don't know if Blair made any changes this year or not, but I highly recommend of passing physics for 9th grade. There's little benefit to taking it freshman year. It's an experiment that Blair seems determined to make fit, whether it actually works or not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Math and Physics tutor here:

I think the AP Physics I is pretty difficult and is a lot for a 9th grader - even advanced students or those with access to tutors.

I am curious of the AP scores earned by 9th graders on the exam. The AP stats that I know don't break down the scores by grade level. Anyone know where to find them? I am sometimes asked for input to course selection and would love to know this information.

NYS published AP data for 2018-19: https://data.nysed.gov/

I looked up Kings, NY and Westchester county, which I am familiar with as I lived in NYC. A few kids took AP Physics I in 9th grade (across the state), others that didn't take as an upper-level course started in 10th grade. In Westchester, one of the wealthiest NYC suburbs, 82% of students passed with a 3 or higher. In Brooklyn, a few students (24) took the exam in 9th grade and 42% passed with a 3 or higher.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child did 9th grade AP physics upon recommendation from her middle school teacher last year.

It was a mistake.
90% of the class were not fully prepared for taking physics at such a young age. Most of the students struggled in varying degrees. Some got tutors. The teacher made adjustments, the process was a slug. My child managed to navigate the class through the year, but it was a chore. First time to ever struggle with a subject of any kind.

I don't know if Blair made any changes this year or not, but I highly recommend of passing physics for 9th grade. There's little benefit to taking it freshman year. It's an experiment that Blair seems determined to make fit, whether it actually works or not.

Did your child earn an A or B? Also, did your child take the exam?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child did 9th grade AP physics upon recommendation from her middle school teacher last year.

It was a mistake.
90% of the class were not fully prepared for taking physics at such a young age. Most of the students struggled in varying degrees. Some got tutors. The teacher made adjustments, the process was a slug. My child managed to navigate the class through the year, but it was a chore. First time to ever struggle with a subject of any kind.

I don't know if Blair made any changes this year or not, but I highly recommend of passing physics for 9th grade. There's little benefit to taking it freshman year. It's an experiment that Blair seems determined to make fit, whether it actually works or not.

Did your child earn an A or B? Also, did your child take the exam?

B

Yes, but the test did not actually count towards credit as it was a trial run for the class.