APs as a 9th grader

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hello, I know there are lots of posts about next year’s classes, but this one hasn’t come up as much. How hard are AP comp sci and AP Human Geography for a freshman? This is at oakton. She’s going to be taking all hns, alg 2 hns, summer p.e which gives her an extra elective, spanish 2, and the one elective left we are thinking about AP comp sci if it is manageable. Thoughts?

At Oakton, AP CSA is the most dropped AP class. Would not recommend it for a freshman. Wait at least til 10th, but only if they have Java coding experience.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hello, I know there are lots of posts about next year’s classes, but this one hasn’t come up as much. How hard are AP comp sci and AP Human Geography for a freshman? This is at oakton. She’s going to be taking all hns, alg 2 hns, summer p.e which gives her an extra elective, spanish 2, and the one elective left we are thinking about AP comp sci if it is manageable. Thoughts?

Who is driving this schedule - you or your child? Make sure you’re not overloading her as she transitions to high school. The workload generally was a lot more than middle school for our kids.

My kid. She wants to do all APs and hardest classes possible, but i’m not sure that’s right for her given her work habits aren’t very good. That’s why i’m asking how hard these classes are.

People wondering who driving schedule I think because you wrote “we are thinking about AP…” it’s the phrasing of the “we” that would lead people to ask if kid wants this or parent

Course load isn't a decision a kid who has never been been to high school should be making by themselves. It should be a joint decision between parent and child. Whether the parent is the one who suggested it, the kid is the one who suggested, or the middle school teacher or counselor is the one who suggested it, "we" is still the appropriate pronoun because all of them should be involved in the decision.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hello, I know there are lots of posts about next year’s classes, but this one hasn’t come up as much. How hard are AP comp sci and AP Human Geography for a freshman? This is at oakton. She’s going to be taking all hns, alg 2 hns, summer p.e which gives her an extra elective, spanish 2, and the one elective left we are thinking about AP comp sci if it is manageable. Thoughts?

At Oakton, AP CSA is the most dropped AP class. Would not recommend it for a freshman. Wait at least til 10th, but only if they have Java coding experience.

What about AP computer science principles? Is that the “A”?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hello, I know there are lots of posts about next year’s classes, but this one hasn’t come up as much. How hard are AP comp sci and AP Human Geography for a freshman? This is at oakton. She’s going to be taking all hns, alg 2 hns, summer p.e which gives her an extra elective, spanish 2, and the one elective left we are thinking about AP comp sci if it is manageable. Thoughts?

At Oakton, AP CSA is the most dropped AP class. Would not recommend it for a freshman. Wait at least til 10th, but only if they have Java coding experience.

What about AP computer science principles? Is that the “A”?

AP Comp Sci Principles: python, "easier"
AP Comp Sci A: java, "harder"

[Anonymous]

My 9th grader is taking AP Human Gro at another school. It's a lot of work, but not "hard" - meaning the material is easy to understand, it just takes time to work through the assignments. It doesn't feel like busywork, though - it's interesting and each assignment has new material. It's just not like a math class, where if you struggle to understand the material you can quickly fall behind and it's almost impossible to catch back up in a fast-moving class. Human Geo is just about putting in the time to go through it all.

Not sure about Comp Sci. My other kid took it as a senior and thought it was easy, but I don't remember which version of the course it was. Probably the Python one.

[Anonymous]

I would let her take an honors class or 2 as she transitions to high school. The rigor is much higher in high school, especially foreign language. Oh and middle school honors is actually general education. It is not a true honors level class. Proceed with caution.

[Anonymous]

Some AP classes are actually quite easy.