AP Stats

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here, weird that some folks think I’m trolling, but thank you to those who offered helpful comments! In answer to the latter, DC’s other classes next year in addition to AP Stats would be as follows: AP Physics C, AP English, post-AP French, post-AP Computer Science, and post-AP Math (Number Theory). He’d be forgoing a History/Social Science class such as AP Government or AP Economics by taking AP Stats (he’s already taken AP US and AP Euro).

Wait, so he only takes 6 classes, not 7?

Correct, at our school students can only take 6 classes if they’re taking a lab science such as AP Physics (because lab time takes up an extra class slot).

Hmmm, then I think he should take a history/SS course instead of AP Stats to round out his core. Selective colleges look for the 5 core classes every year. Has he already taken AP World History? If so, then go with AP Government. If he truly wants to take AP Stats, then he should self-study for the AP Govt test and make sure he notes this in the "additional info" section on the common app.

3 years of humanities is fine for selective colleges. Check the CDS.

What, exactly, are you calling selective colleges? Are you trying to sabotage the poor kid's applications to T25 schools?

[Anonymous]

My kid is taking AP Stats and honors calculus. She was avoiding AP Calc because she's at a small school and didn't like the teacher who teaches it.

She has found AP Stats a lot harder than honors Calculus. She says it's all the writing. She's pretty good at math. Got a 700 on the math portion of the SATs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Current junior DC is pretty advanced in math (BC calc in 9th, MV in 10th, Linear Algebra in 11th, and will be taking Number Theory in 12th). He wants to also take Stats next year because he really loves math, but it’s going to be ridiculously easy for him. Will ad coms view this as a cop-out when he could be taking something more rigorous?

Of course he should take stats.

Being snobbish about this kind of thing resembles how a lot of us thought, in parent times, that taking French or German was better than taking Spanish because the dumb kids took Spanish.

Maybe the dumb kids took Spanish, but knowing some Spanish is important for all human beings.
Maybe dumb kids take stats, but everything we do involves stats. All people who can handle college-level stats should take it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AP stats is Pretty easy. Many kids take AP stats as an elective. Not as their main math course (number theory). But as an extra class.

Yes, he’d be taking Number Theory as his main math course and Stats as an elective (at the expense of taking a more rigorous elective).

He should drop number theory and just take stats.

[Anonymous]

AP Stats is an unholy agglomeration of economics, sixth-grade word problems, expository writing about hypotheticals, multiple-choice trickery, irritating nominalization jargon, and being subjected to the buzzing of mosquitoes and cicadas while trying to sleep in a woodshed. A good teacher makes it easy. An average teacher makes it tough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here, weird that some folks think I’m trolling, but thank you to those who offered helpful comments! In answer to the latter, DC’s other classes next year in addition to AP Stats would be as follows: AP Physics C, AP English, post-AP French, post-AP Computer Science, and post-AP Math (Number Theory). He’d be forgoing a History/Social Science class such as AP Government or AP Economics by taking AP Stats (he’s already taken AP US and AP Euro).

Wait, so he only takes 6 classes, not 7?

Correct, at our school students can only take 6 classes if they’re taking a lab science such as AP Physics (because lab time takes up an extra class slot).

Hmmm, then I think he should take a history/SS course instead of AP Stats to round out his core. Selective colleges look for the 5 core classes every year. Has he already taken AP World History? If so, then go with AP Government. If he truly wants to take AP Stats, then he should self-study for the AP Govt test and make sure he notes this in the "additional info" section on the common app.

3 years of humanities is fine for selective colleges. Check the CDS.

What, exactly, are you calling selective colleges? Are you trying to sabotage the poor kid's applications to T25 schools?

Do you know what a common data set is?

Look it up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Current junior DC is pretty advanced in math (BC calc in 9th, MV in 10th, Linear Algebra in 11th, and will be taking Number Theory in 12th). He wants to also take Stats next year because he really loves math, but it’s going to be ridiculously easy for him. Will ad coms view this as a cop-out when he could be taking something more rigorous?

It's a discouraging trajectory.l that screams overacceleration. BC Calc in 9th, but then spent a year in each of the 1-semester follow up classes? Number theory is a softball math elective -- middle schoolers take that at AoPS.

I hope he has a strong AIME + USAMO to show that he really learned the math and didn't just rush through cramming it.

Why call it discouraging? If the kid took these classes at school, they were likely full year classes. If through dual enrollment, then they would be similar to college classes which are semester-long anyway. Besides, a college level number theory class is no joke -- too many theorems!! The AOPS NT is just simple stuff that is covered in the first week of a college level class and is mostly algorithmic.

A strong middle school math team member could solve half this UMD 400 level final exam with no additional training or notes, and solve at least half the rest given a few weeks to go over the specific mateirial

https://www.math.umd.edu/~immortal/MATH406/exams/finalspring2020.pdf


This Harvard final exam is quite harder, on the other hand.
https://wstein.org/edu/Fall2001/124/final/examfinal2.pdf

Wow! Indeed these ARE easy for the appropriate student. My kid ran through the UMD exam easily and did half the Harvard one. He's a MOPr and NT is strongest subject.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Current junior DC is pretty advanced in math (BC calc in 9th, MV in 10th, Linear Algebra in 11th, and will be taking Number Theory in 12th). He wants to also take Stats next year because he really loves math, but it’s going to be ridiculously easy for him. Will ad coms view this as a cop-out when he could be taking something more rigorous?

It's a discouraging trajectory.l that screams overacceleration. BC Calc in 9th, but then spent a year in each of the 1-semester follow up classes? Number theory is a softball math elective -- middle schoolers take that at AoPS.

I hope he has a strong AIME + USAMO to show that he really learned the math and didn't just rush through cramming it.

Why call it discouraging? If the kid took these classes at school, they were likely full year classes. If through dual enrollment, then they would be similar to college classes which are semester-long anyway. Besides, a college level number theory class is no joke -- too many theorems!! The AOPS NT is just simple stuff that is covered in the first week of a college level class and is mostly algorithmic.

A strong middle school math team member could solve half this UMD 400 level final exam with no additional training or notes, and solve at least half the rest given a few weeks to go over the specific mateirial

https://www.math.umd.edu/~immortal/MATH406/exams/finalspring2020.pdf


This Harvard final exam is quite harder, on the other hand.
https://wstein.org/edu/Fall2001/124/final/examfinal2.pdf

Wow! Indeed these ARE easy for the appropriate student. My kid ran through the UMD exam easily and did half the Harvard one. He's a MOPr and NT is strongest subject.

This is not surprising; a typical Mopper already has an insane level of problem solving skills. In your case combine that with enough prior knowledge of this material due to being a favorite topic.