AP classes are easier than when we were kids, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wonder that too. My AP classes were much harder than any class I took in college, even AP English. We were expected to do 2 hours of homework a night for those classes.

Today, kids who've taken 5-10 APs come back from college and tell us teachers that their first couple of years of college (Ivies included) are easier than junior and senior year of high school b/c of APs. They're still hard!

[Anonymous]

Quality of AP classes varies greatly from school to school.
At DC’s prior school, 3/4 of the AP teachers they had were phoning it in. Hardly any writing, rarely any homework, not aligned with the AP units. Had high enrollment—AP courses were weighted more than DE (which were also uneven quality).
The pass rate (3,4,5) for our school was poor, for most classes below 50%. Disappointing. We paid for a tutor and kid put in a lot of hours and got 5s.
We moved to a new district and the homework load is high, the teaching is strong and aligned to AP, and I feel that *finally* DC is experiencing a taste of the rigor and workload that awaits them in college.
College Board is a racket though!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I took two AP English classes at the same time my senior year of high school I don’t actually remember it being an insane amount of work. My DD took many APs throughout high school and I also can’t say that it was a crazy workload. It was more learning how to test in a certain way. She actually disliked APs, because she felt like learning the material to prepare for the test was valued over learning the material in general (especially in history classes).

This is also my objection to this AP arms race. I worry that critical thinking and writing suffers because they are taught to perform on tests not write analytical papers.

[Anonymous]

Harder, IMO. In my day (or at least my high school) they were over after you took the AP exam. As in, you had free periods until the end of the year. Not so for my kid -- classes will still meet and there will still be graded assignments. In fact, in APUSH there will be an extensive research paper.

[Anonymous]

It doesn't seem that difficult because you have more years to take them now. College Board wants money, and they have created lots of new AP classes. I heard LCPS is adding AP PreCalculus, which I don't see on the list.

The top cohort of students in my high school in the 90s took APs: Calculus, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, US History, English, and most took AP Spanish.
That is 7, and they all took World History and Political Science and these would have been APs if they were available then.
That is 7/9 APs routinely at a high school that did not send more than a few kids to top 50 colleges.

[Anonymous]

Not sure if the tests are any harder, but my school made a meal of the AP classes. History was the first one our school offered and that teacher built the class up into something with very exacting expectations. Lots of reading, writing, extra work, and extra Saturday classes in the winter and spring prior to the AP test. (In fairness to him, all of his students got 4s and 5s. At our 30 year reunion, the kid in our class who got a 3 got a mention.)

By the time I was a junior and senior in high school, they had a few more AP offerings at my school. I felt like those classes took their cue from the history teacher. But, ultimately, it was a mixed bag. The government test and class were easy. Calculus was hard because it was calculus. I bailed on taking the Computer Science AP test because I didn't have any confidence at all that I was learning what I needed to know.

My kid graduated high school last year and I was astounded by how many AP tests he signed up for. I want to say it was maybe 9 or 10. He got a couple of twos and threes, but ultimately, he ended up with something like 48 credits and satisfied most of his Gen Eds in college. Anyway, he didn't seem to struggle as much with the class load as I did. Could be he was smarter, but I think it's also a matter of schools just being better at administering the classes efficiently in a way that lets the kids succeed on the tests without being crushed by the class load.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder that too. My AP classes were much harder than any class I took in college, even AP English. We were expected to do 2 hours of homework a night for those classes.

Today, kids who've taken 5-10 APs come back from college and tell us teachers that their first couple of years of college (Ivies included) are easier than junior and senior year of high school b/c of APs. They're still hard!

My kid took 10 APs in HS; she was frankly shocked at how much harder college was than HS. It’s been a real adjustment for her. She’s at a good but not top 20 school. From what I can see, the AP courses at her HS (MCPS) are nowhere near as hard as the college classes she’s taken.

[Anonymous]

My kids have a lot of work for their AP courses. My DD's APUSH summer work was extensive. I had a packet that I did for APUSH back in the day and that was it and I think it was around 10 or so pages.

It's funny that the summer reading books for AP Lit have not changed much. They've both had to read many of the same that I did.

Anyway, it is not uncommon for them to be studying or doing work until after midnight. Luckily, we're in LCPS so their HS doesn't start until almost 9:30.

[Anonymous]

I remember having to take the subject matter first for most - exception English and some of obscure classes. Think I took AP Psych in 10th grade. MCPS late 90s.
You wouldn’t just take AP Physics or AP Calc, you had to take physics/calc first and then you took the AP version separately.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m blown by hearing about all these kids taking 10+ AP classes in HS. First, my high school never had that many classes. But more importantly, there was A LOT of work, lots of assignments and projects that took a lot of time. More of a college workload in terms of readings etc but without the extra study time that comes with not having a full day of classes. There is no way people could handle so many AP classes at once, just from a time perspective. Are AP classes the new Honors?

People who took a handful of AP classes went on to Ivy and top 25 schools. Now, kids need so many!

Have classes gotten easier, is there grade inflation, or are kids truly overwhelmed with increased expectations?

It's this. My kid is only in 10th and taking 1 and it is a LOT of work. DC is taking 3 next year. But we've encouraged opting out of the AP rat race. It's absurd. If a college wants to pass on my kid as not "college ready" bc she took 6 or 7 APs (and the rest honors) instead of 10-12, so be it. There is zero reason to take APs in classes DC has no interest or as high an aptitude. And colleges should be ashamed of themselves for requiring it of these kids, many of whom are stressed out and not enjoying their HS years. It's grotesque.

I agree it’s a grotesque arms race that only seems to reward kids that are willing to forego sleep. My sense is that the difficulty of the classes varies, as it did when I was a teen in the late 80s, but they tend to be a lot of work even if not overly difficult. I hate that the kids feel they have to take them to keep up with the pack and the college board keeps adding more (like the new AP pre calc).

In fairness, at some public schools there is either AP or grade level in the core subjects. Grade level is a joke and there is not even Honors, so essentially AP is your only option.

Maybe. That, however, is not the case for our school in FCPS. (I posted earlier about "opting out" of the arms race). Our college counselor basically told us that, unless DC takes ALL the AP classes she can (no honors) and does well in them, she can forget in state schools like UVA, W&M, and increasingly, VATech. That's F'ing ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

The AP classes I took weren't any more difficult than the other ones..I went to a private school. And there was no way they were even close to college level. I went to elite college so maybe that's why

[Anonymous]

I know that neither my kids nor I could have managed the grade school stuff my father was taught in his one room school house.

[Anonymous]

Yeah when you people walked to school, it was uphill both ways too. You are all total bad asses compared to the snowflakes of today.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At our local public HS, any kid who wants can elect to take an AP class. Many do because of the grade bump in college admissions. But it has made the classes much larger and easier.

This.

High schools are judged by how many students take AP classes, and they are under pressure to allow anyone to take them, so the classes have to be watered down. The top students subsequently have to take more AP classes to "stand out" from the crowd.

[Anonymous]

I have taught an AP class for over 20 years. It absolutely has gotten easier. When I first began, students were so much more independent and could think critically. Now students are only worried about the grade bump and doing the least amount of work possible. The amount of hand holding and spoon feeding is exhausting.