How many APs do TJ students take?

[Anonymous]

My child will take AP Calculus BC, AP Bio, AP Chem, and AP Physics as a 10th grader. Honors English/History and PE. (Foreign language over the summer).

[Anonymous]

FCPS will only pay for 6 AP tests throughout the 4 years so think about whst classes your kid wants to take for college credit (assuming he'll do well on the exam), verse raking an AP classes for course vigor or just be be prepared to pay out of pocket.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My son is a freshman and had less AP options this year than at his base school. He will take at least 15 AP classes to qualify for the Early College Scholars Program. Sophomore year he will take AP Physics + either AP Bio or AP Chemistry, AP Calculus BC, AP English/AP US Government. Planning on at least 5 AP classes each year between 10th-12th.

It is 15 credits, not 15 AP classes for the Governors Early College Scholars Program. Minimum credit for an AP exam is 3 and can be higher depending on the AP and the score. So, max will be 5 AP's assuming minimum credit of 3 each.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My child will take AP Calculus BC, AP Bio, AP Chem, and AP Physics as a 10th grader. Honors English/History and PE. (Foreign language over the summer).

Wow. When does your kid sleep?
Mine did BC calc, AP Physics (normal TJ course not the new replacement for honors), AI and APUSH last year in junior year and it about did them in.

[Anonymous]

Parent of a junior here.

Building a curricular plan that aligns with your kid’s senior lab is really important at TJ. Sometimes that means “sacrificing” APs for pre-requisites. We also encourage our kid to have some recharge time over the summer—enrichment/fun in areas they enjoy so they aren’t completely burnt out when school resumes. For any new TJ parents out there it’s a myth that the kids are all doing academic work over the summer. Many do. Many don’t. There are many ways to be successful at TJ and it’s not all APs. Other types of enrichment (e.g., volunteering, jobs, travel, creative projects) are also important for college and life.

(And if all APs is your kids path, that’s great if it works for them.)

[Anonymous]

pseudonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the new AP seminar?

Are freshman allowed to take AP classes if they want?

You can read a description of AP Seminar at the College Board's web site. At TJ, it is replacing Honors English 10. Students actually have a choice of electing to stick with English 10, though I'm not sure how many would want to do that, given that AP classes give a +1.0 boost to the weighted GPA, whereas it's +0.5 for honors.

Freshmen are allowed to take AP classes, though it would only make sense in some narrow circumstances (e.g., if the student had taken Algebra II in 8th grade, they'd be in AP Precalc).

There is only one section of English 10 honors and only one section of US VA History Honors this year. Meaning less than 30 students in each class are not taking AP Sem and APUSH.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

pseudonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the new AP seminar?

Are freshman allowed to take AP classes if they want?

You can read a description of AP Seminar at the College Board's web site. At TJ, it is replacing Honors English 10. Students actually have a choice of electing to stick with English 10, though I'm not sure how many would want to do that, given that AP classes give a +1.0 boost to the weighted GPA, whereas it's +0.5 for honors.

Freshmen are allowed to take AP classes, though it would only make sense in some narrow circumstances (e.g., if the student had taken Algebra II in 8th grade, they'd be in AP Precalc).

There is only one section of English 10 honors and only one section of US VA History Honors this year. Meaning less than 30 students in each class are not taking AP Sem and APUSH.

Thank you for posting this. As a freshman parent I didn’t realize pretty much the entire 10th grade would be taking AP Sem/APUSH. Have any other 10th graders taken 6 AP classes sophomore year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:FCPS will only pay for 6 AP tests throughout the 4 years so think about whst classes your kid wants to take for college credit (assuming he'll do well on the exam), verse raking an AP classes for course vigor or just be be prepared to pay out of pocket.

We can pay for the additional AP exams, I’m sure a lot of families have to do that at schools like TJ, Langley, Oakton, McLean, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child will take AP Calculus BC, AP Bio, AP Chem, and AP Physics as a 10th grader. Honors English/History and PE. (Foreign language over the summer).

Wow. When does your kid sleep?
Mine did BC calc, AP Physics (normal TJ course not the new replacement for honors), AI and APUSH last year in junior year and it about did them in.

Currently a freshman, this is for next year. The bus ride is pretty long so there is time before and after school every day. Plus there should be plenty of time on weekends and after school on nights without sports.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parent of a junior here.

Building a curricular plan that aligns with your kid’s senior lab is really important at TJ. Sometimes that means “sacrificing” APs for pre-requisites. We also encourage our kid to have some recharge time over the summer—enrichment/fun in areas they enjoy so they aren’t completely burnt out when school resumes. For any new TJ parents out there it’s a myth that the kids are all doing academic work over the summer. Many do. Many don’t. There are many ways to be successful at TJ and it’s not all APs. Other types of enrichment (e.g., volunteering, jobs, travel, creative projects) are also important for college and life.

(And if all APs is your kids path, that’s great if it works for them.)

I think the best path to having more choices of a senior lab. Getting the three major AP
Science classes out of the way by 10th grade, plus potentially DNA Science 1/DNA Science 2 will give a lot of options for Junior year labs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parent of a junior here.

Building a curricular plan that aligns with your kid’s senior lab is really important at TJ. Sometimes that means “sacrificing” APs for pre-requisites. We also encourage our kid to have some recharge time over the summer—enrichment/fun in areas they enjoy so they aren’t completely burnt out when school resumes. For any new TJ parents out there it’s a myth that the kids are all doing academic work over the summer. Many do. Many don’t. There are many ways to be successful at TJ and it’s not all APs. Other types of enrichment (e.g., volunteering, jobs, travel, creative projects) are also important for college and life.

(And if all APs is your kids path, that’s great if it works for them.)

I think the best path to having more choices of a senior lab. Getting the three major AP
Science classes out of the way by 10th grade, plus potentially DNA Science 1/DNA Science 2 will give a lot of options for Junior year labs.

Sure if they have wide ranging interests. DC never liked bio / chem stuff so had zero interest in those labs and APs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

pseudonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What is the new AP seminar?

Are freshman allowed to take AP classes if they want?

You can read a description of AP Seminar at the College Board's web site. At TJ, it is replacing Honors English 10. Students actually have a choice of electing to stick with English 10, though I'm not sure how many would want to do that, given that AP classes give a +1.0 boost to the weighted GPA, whereas it's +0.5 for honors.

Freshmen are allowed to take AP classes, though it would only make sense in some narrow circumstances (e.g., if the student had taken Algebra II in 8th grade, they'd be in AP Precalc).

There is only one section of English 10 honors and only one section of US VA History Honors this year. Meaning less than 30 students in each class are not taking AP Sem and APUSH.

Is that new this year? DC took World History HN 2 in 10th as did all her friends I think. And then took APUSH in 11th. She’s a senior this year though and I know Mumbai added a bunch of AP options.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Parent of a junior here.

Building a curricular plan that aligns with your kid’s senior lab is really important at TJ. Sometimes that means “sacrificing” APs for pre-requisites. We also encourage our kid to have some recharge time over the summer—enrichment/fun in areas they enjoy so they aren’t completely burnt out when school resumes. For any new TJ parents out there it’s a myth that the kids are all doing academic work over the summer. Many do. Many don’t. There are many ways to be successful at TJ and it’s not all APs. Other types of enrichment (e.g., volunteering, jobs, travel, creative projects) are also important for college and life.

(And if all APs is your kids path, that’s great if it works for them.)

Agree with all of this but noting that if your kid does band or orchestra - almost all those kids do summer classes (often PE and the extra SS credit) to make room for other stuff in their schedule.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Parent of a junior here.

Building a curricular plan that aligns with your kid’s senior lab is really important at TJ. Sometimes that means “sacrificing” APs for pre-requisites. We also encourage our kid to have some recharge time over the summer—enrichment/fun in areas they enjoy so they aren’t completely burnt out when school resumes. For any new TJ parents out there it’s a myth that the kids are all doing academic work over the summer. Many do. Many don’t. There are many ways to be successful at TJ and it’s not all APs. Other types of enrichment (e.g., volunteering, jobs, travel, creative projects) are also important for college and life.

(And if all APs is your kids path, that’s great if it works for them.)

Agree with all of this but noting that if your kid does band or orchestra - almost all those kids do summer classes (often PE and the extra SS credit) to make room for other stuff in their schedule.

Excellent point. I hope this further illustrates how there is not a “one size fits all” approach. (Or in this case, no “right” amount of APs.)

[Anonymous]

Another confused parent. My kid is doing the bio class. There is an option to take the AP exam at the end. So does this count as an AP course in that case?