Why are AP classes harder than College classses?

[Anonymous]

Major?

[Anonymous]

I kind of see the opposite. I remember APs being challenging, but watching my kid whiz through them now, the expectations seem a lot lower.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Major?

Business Administration

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Personally I am not a fan of the AP format. It's a lot of unnecessary pressure on a single test. We use them for my kid mainly to filter her classmates. I don't worry about whether or not she passes the actual AP tests. If she does, awesome. If not, it's not the end of the world. Now that she will be driving soon, I'm going to push for her to do more dual enrollment courses instead.

Dual enrollment is a great idea. She will be exposed to professors and classmates she will never encounter in high school. Also, she may be able to take advantage of internships only available to students enrolled at the university.

Yeah she's planning on majoring in Legal Studies and then going to Law school. She is just a sophomore right now but she has a part time job lined up at a local law office starting this summer. She basically just needs AP classes to knock out the core classes in undergrad.

Whatever she does, have her major in something useful other than "legal studies." History, economics, literature, basically anything other than a made up program like "legal studies." She can always take some of those classes as electives and will be in much better shape for law school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not sure about ELA and social study APs, but as a STEM major PhD, my HSchooler’s AP stem tests are way too easy than a normal college entry level core class in my view.

My kids are at UCs, one engineering and 1 Econ/.Poli Sci. The math courses are much harder than AP courses. Lots of kids who aced BC/5 are ecstatic to get a B, relieved to get a C and it’s not uncommon to fail and have to retake. The political science courses aren’t easier or harder from the type of material but it’s different, more weight on papers, 1 mid term, 1 final often with curveball questions that require you be well read beyond the basic text and lecture information. The AP classes now are basically run as intense test prep courses. College courses are not..or least not at more rigorous schools. The only writing required is the format desired on the AP essay section. This omits the more important skill of a thoughtful, well constructed term paper.

The value in AP courses is the standardized test and consistency of material covered. For many public schools, it’s their only exposure to a cumulative exam.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Major?

Business Administration

Business administration is kind of like legal studies, mostly survey classes. College classes were not harder than AP classes because of the lack of depth of classes as someone stated above. Please have your DD not follow the same path. She will be better prepared for law school if she picks a different major.

[Anonymous]

I dunno about MCPS or about recent info, but my AP classes in a different district in the late '90s were definitely not harder than my college classes at a top 20 school in the early 2000s. Kind of surprised that the OP thinks theirs were.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Major?

Business Administration

Business administration is kind of like legal studies, mostly survey classes. College classes were not harder than AP classes because of the lack of depth of classes as someone stated above. Please have your DD not follow the same path. She will be better prepared for law school if she picks a different major.

Hi, I think you may be confused at who you are responding to. The pp who is talking about her daughter is not me-the OP. I never stated whether I Have a son or daughter nor the grade nor what they plan on majoring in when they go to college.

Business administration was a great major and led me to great opportunities so i’m not sure why you are implying otherwise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Personally I am not a fan of the AP format. It's a lot of unnecessary pressure on a single test. We use them for my kid mainly to filter her classmates. I don't worry about whether or not she passes the actual AP tests. If she does, awesome. If not, it's not the end of the world. Now that she will be driving soon, I'm going to push for her to do more dual enrollment courses instead.

Dual enrollment is a great idea. She will be exposed to professors and classmates she will never encounter in high school. Also, she may be able to take advantage of internships only available to students enrolled at the university.

Yeah she's planning on majoring in Legal Studies and then going to Law school. She is just a sophomore right now but she has a part time job lined up at a local law office starting this summer. She basically just needs AP classes to knock out the core classes in undergrad.

Whatever she does, have her major in something useful other than "legal studies." History, economics, literature, basically anything other than a made up program like "legal studies." She can always take some of those classes as electives and will be in much better shape for law school.

She doesn't want a degree in any of those because she is not interested in any of those. Like I said, her main goal is to be a paralegal and legal researcher for a while before attending law school and hopefully getting into entertainment and literary agent work.

[Anonymous]

They aren't. Not even close.

[Anonymous]

In no particular order:
1. AP classes vary in difficulty. AP Gov, for examples, is a semester class, but it is stretched across the year for MCPS so it will be a "lighter" AP (and that's why most take in 9th grade).
2. The age/maturity of a HS student is different than a college student (in theory anyway) so a class can seem more difficult in HS than college because students are young and learning.
3. Classes meet on different schedules in HS than college. I remember thinking the actual work and standards for grading were harder in college (T10), but there was so much more time to do the work.
4. Depends on the college/subject matter. DCs are both STEM kids and I can assure you that their AP classes in high school were significantly easier than what they are doing in college. They are at very selective schools so perhaps their experience would be different at Eastern Alabama or whatever.