Talk to me about your HS students experience with different AP courses

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Humanities courses require more note taking. Calc BC is curved so you don't need to get 100% correct to get a 5. AP Physics C are harder and Calc based. Psyche, Human Geography and Enviro - can be self studied and are considered filler APs.

I have never understood why would people take both Calc AB and Calc BC?

Why not? What course progression should they do instead?

If they take Calc AB what should follow?

If they skip Calc AB and just do Calc BC what should follow?

In FCPS, the stronger math students commonly take Alg 2 as freshman, then Precalc, then Calc BC, then Multivariable Calc. They also usually take AP Stat during their junior or senior year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Humanities courses require more note taking. Calc BC is curved so you don't need to get 100% correct to get a 5. AP Physics C are harder and Calc based. Psyche, Human Geography and Enviro - can be self studied and are considered filler APs.

I have never understood why would people take both Calc AB and Calc BC?

My kid wanted to take calc bc in her junior year. I wouldn’t sign off on it because I wasn’t sure she really got precalc. She took Calc AB. And in her senior year, she took calc bc. Getting the fundamentals sound was great. She is working on her PhD in physics. She told me recently that she is really glad that she put in the time to master the basics of calc. So that is who might take both calc AB and BC

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Humanities courses require more note taking. Calc BC is curved so you don't need to get 100% correct to get a 5. AP Physics C are harder and Calc based. Psyche, Human Geography and Enviro - can be self studied and are considered filler APs.

I have never understood why would people take both Calc AB and Calc BC?

Why not? What course progression should they do instead?

If they take Calc AB what should follow?

If they skip Calc AB and just do Calc BC what should follow?

In FCPS, the stronger math students commonly take Alg 2 as freshman, then Precalc, then Calc BC, then Multivariable Calc. They also usually take AP Stat during their junior or senior year.

My kids are in FCPS. My oldest did not due this. He took Alg 2 as freshman, then Precalc, then Calc AB, then Calc BC. He is a sophomore at Duke majoring in CS. I don't think doing AB and then BC hurts a student.

[Anonymous]

^ Did not "do" - typo

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Humanities courses require more note taking. Calc BC is curved so you don't need to get 100% correct to get a 5. AP Physics C are harder and Calc based. Psyche, Human Geography and Enviro - can be self studied and are considered filler APs.

I have never understood why would people take both Calc AB and Calc BC?

Why not? What course progression should they do instead?

If they take Calc AB what should follow?

If they skip Calc AB and just do Calc BC what should follow?

In FCPS, the stronger math students commonly take Alg 2 as freshman, then Precalc, then Calc BC, then Multivariable Calc. They also usually take AP Stat during their junior or senior year.

My kids are in FCPS. My oldest did not due this. He took Alg 2 as freshman, then Precalc, then Calc AB, then Calc BC. He is a sophomore at Duke majoring in CS. I don't think doing AB and then BC hurts a student.

I was just answering the question of what is usually taken after Calc BC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My "average" 10th grade kid is taking regular English, regular Algebra 2, Honors Chemistry, Honors World History, and Spanish 3 and has all As and 1 B+. His goal is to have about 4 AP courses by the end of high school so that he can be accepted into JMU. He will take AP Calc and AP Govt during his senior year. Any recommendations on which AP classes he should take as a junior? He would love to take AP Human Geography, and he hopes that there is enough interest for his FCPS HS to offer that class. He was also thinking about AP Psych or AP Biology or AP Enviro. He is worried that AP Physics might be too hard and is planning to take Honors Physics next year. He has no idea what he wants to major in at college.

AP Bio and AP Envio ties in well with each other. AP Bio is a lot of memorization also.

Is AP Physics harder than AP Bio or AP Enviro? Or are they all about the same level of difficulty?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Humanities courses require more note taking. Calc BC is curved so you don't need to get 100% correct to get a 5. AP Physics C are harder and Calc based. Psyche, Human Geography and Enviro - can be self studied and are considered filler APs.

I have never understood why would people take both Calc AB and Calc BC?

Why not? What course progression should they do instead?

If they take Calc AB what should follow?

If they skip Calc AB and just do Calc BC what should follow?

In FCPS, the stronger math students commonly take Alg 2 as freshman, then Precalc, then Calc BC, then Multivariable Calc. They also usually take AP Stat during their junior or senior year.

At our FCPS school Multivariable Calc is DE and costs $450 to get the credit. Of course you don't have to take it DE, but rather just do AP Calc AB and BC.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Humanities courses require more note taking. Calc BC is curved so you don't need to get 100% correct to get a 5. AP Physics C are harder and Calc based. Psyche, Human Geography and Enviro - can be self studied and are considered filler APs.

I have never understood why would people take both Calc AB and Calc BC?

Why not? What course progression should they do instead?

If they take Calc AB what should follow?

If they skip Calc AB and just do Calc BC what should follow?

In FCPS, the stronger math students commonly take Alg 2 as freshman, then Precalc, then Calc BC, then Multivariable Calc. They also usually take AP Stat during their junior or senior year.

At our FCPS school Multivariable Calc is DE and costs $450 to get the credit. Of course you don't have to take it DE, but rather just do AP Calc AB and BC.

At our FCPS school, Multivariable Calc is just a regular course open to juniors and seniors.

[Anonymous]

My son wants to major in computer science and multivariable calc is not necessary for CS so he wasn't going to waste his time taking it in HS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No. All AP classes were easy for my kid. Got all 5s. Well balanced course load.

Sorry, all 5s, except NSL (in 9th), which was a 4.

You need to start in the summer before because the exams are a month before school ends and so you do not get to prepare till the end of the school year. This was the big lesson learned in 9th grade.

Map out your entire HS courseload and be strategic about what you take when.

The regimen you describe is the opposite of what one does for an "easy" class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My "average" 10th grade kid is taking regular English, regular Algebra 2, Honors Chemistry, Honors World History, and Spanish 3 and has all As and 1 B+. His goal is to have about 4 AP courses by the end of high school so that he can be accepted into JMU. He will take AP Calc and AP Govt during his senior year. Any recommendations on which AP classes he should take as a junior? He would love to take AP Human Geography, and he hopes that there is enough interest for his FCPS HS to offer that class. He was also thinking about AP Psych or AP Biology or AP Enviro. He is worried that AP Physics might be too hard and is planning to take Honors Physics next year. He has no idea what he wants to major in at college.

AP Bio and AP Envio ties in well with each other. AP Bio is a lot of memorization also.

Is AP Physics harder than AP Bio or AP Enviro? Or are they all about the same level of difficulty?

That depends on the kid. Most say Physics C is the most difficult, but it has been the easiest by for for my oldest. Other say bio is easy, but not for this kid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DS has done 7 AP classes, including 4 now during his senior year. We're not big fans of the classes. The teaching is geared entirely to helping the kids do well on the AP test itself, which are multiple choice and short answer essays. It blows my mind that my kid will graduate HS without ever having written a real research paper despite taking multiple AP history and government classes, that he read only one book in AP Lang, that AP Stats tests are all multiple choice (so no partial credit for work.)

We have a younger kid and may send him to private - since most of the higher tier DC privates don't do AP tests because of the test-focused curriculum. Or we'll have him do the IB curriculum at his public HS.

I'm a big fan of the IB curriculum, which entails lots of research and analytical writing across the curriculum. Not a fan of AP.
--Professor who finds freshmen receiving AP credit woefully unprepared for college-level work in that subject.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Humanities courses require more note taking. Calc BC is curved so you don't need to get 100% correct to get a 5. AP Physics C are harder and Calc based. Psyche, Human Geography and Enviro - can be self studied and are considered filler APs.

I have never understood why would people take both Calc AB and Calc BC?

My kid wanted to take calc bc in her junior year. I wouldn’t sign off on it because I wasn’t sure she really got precalc. She took Calc AB. And in her senior year, she took calc bc. Getting the fundamentals sound was great. She is working on her PhD in physics. She told me recently that she is really glad that she put in the time to master the basics of calc. So that is who might take both calc AB and BC

My son did AB+BC too and is now majoring in data science. Senior year, it helped him that the beginning of BC was a bit of review from AB since that coincided with getting college apps done. He also had a really solid base of understanding when he went to college. Had to retake Calc 2 there (college doesn't let students skip that from AP credit) and it helped his confidence to finish it with a strong A. Kids who only took AB were dropping out of that to retake Calc 1. If you expect to be in a major that requires calculus and beyond there is absolutely no reason to rush through it. Solid understanding is much more important.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Humanities courses require more note taking. Calc BC is curved so you don't need to get 100% correct to get a 5. AP Physics C are harder and Calc based. Psyche, Human Geography and Enviro - can be self studied and are considered filler APs.

I have never understood why would people take both Calc AB and Calc BC?

My kid wanted to take calc bc in her junior year. I wouldn’t sign off on it because I wasn’t sure she really got precalc. She took Calc AB. And in her senior year, she took calc bc. Getting the fundamentals sound was great. She is working on her PhD in physics. She told me recently that she is really glad that she put in the time to master the basics of calc. So that is who might take both calc AB and BC

My son did AB+BC too and is now majoring in data science. Senior year, it helped him that the beginning of BC was a bit of review from AB since that coincided with getting college apps done. He also had a really solid base of understanding when he went to college. Had to retake Calc 2 there (college doesn't let students skip that from AP credit) and it helped his confidence to finish it with a strong A. Kids who only took AB were dropping out of that to retake Calc 1. If you expect to be in a major that requires calculus and beyond there is absolutely no reason to rush through it. Solid understanding is much more important.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS has done 7 AP classes, including 4 now during his senior year. We're not big fans of the classes. The teaching is geared entirely to helping the kids do well on the AP test itself, which are multiple choice and short answer essays. It blows my mind that my kid will graduate HS without ever having written a real research paper despite taking multiple AP history and government classes, that he read only one book in AP Lang, that AP Stats tests are all multiple choice (so no partial credit for work.)

We have a younger kid and may send him to private - since most of the higher tier DC privates don't do AP tests because of the test-focused curriculum. Or we'll have him do the IB curriculum at his public HS.

I'm a big fan of the IB curriculum, which entails lots of research and analytical writing across the curriculum. Not a fan of AP.
--Professor who finds freshmen receiving AP credit woefully unprepared for college-level work in that subject.

Yes, dear, we all would prefer an IB curriculum or, better yet, the education they could get at Sidwell or Georgetown or Andover! But those are simply not options for our smart kids and AP is all the high school offers. But thanks for telling us our kids are going to be unprepared for college! That’s a huge help!