shared thoughts on Advanced Placement (AP) history classes

[Anonymous]

My DD is a sophomore in high school and is embarking on her final days of AP World History at a local public school. Last summer she approached this class with a lot of excitement and positive anticipation. She (and we as her parents) expected the class to be an intense, challenging and in-depth study of world history. We have been so disappointed. The reality has been that it seems to simply be a sprint through world history. The intensity and challenge seem to come in only the action of keeping up with the whirlwind and there has been little or no depth to the topic. Is this a rare experience?

Our current thoughts are that it seems that for her, perhaps we should save AP for only math and science classes where you are mostly dealing with absolutes and their is no real room to look at various slants on a topic.

[Anonymous]

I don't have direct experience with the AP world history class, but I think the problem probably comes from the fact that they are trying to do a "world history" class-- you could easily have an entire class on the United States (let alone South America), Europe, China, the Mediterranean, etc. etc. I can't imagine how you could possibly have a class called "world history" and cover the topics in any depth.

I can't say whether your daughter would like, say, AP English, but I expect it would be a very different experience (although again some of the challenge can be keeping up with the expected volume of reading).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't have direct experience with the AP world history class, but I think the problem probably comes from the fact that they are trying to do a "world history" class-- you could easily have an entire class on the United States (let alone South America), Europe, China, the Mediterranean, etc. etc. I can't imagine how you could possibly have a class called "world history" and cover the topics in any depth.

I can't say whether your daughter would like, say, AP English, but I expect it would be a very different experience (although again some of the challenge can be keeping up with the expected volume of reading).

Thanks for your thoughts. She is a ravenous reader, so she is open to AP English. Her only concern in her words "I once loved history, but AP has taken that from me. I don't want to lose my other true love." That other true love is English, she is a bit of a drama queen. ; D

[Anonymous]

I took AP World History and AP US as a high school student and it was with the experience gained in the two classes that I decided to major in history in college. Yes, the volume was extensive and we didn't cover in depth "everything" but if the class is well taught it can be a great experience. I had phenomenal teachers for both classes and performed well on the AP exam.

As an additional benefit taking the classes in high school allowed me to skip out of all the early college requisites in history and jump right in to the higher level courses/honors seminars where I really learned topics of interest to a greater depth.

[Anonymous]

I agree with the PP. I did not have World only US history at my high school, but I loved the fact that it allowed me to not have to deal with the US history survey in college. I could just go ahead and take more in depth classes in my major. I do remember there being a lot of reading and a lot of work, but in retrospect it was worth it.

I also took AP English and was so grateful I did not have to take basic freshman comp.

[Anonymous]

OP here - I agree PP's that is a benefit to taking AP. Tho 2 of the colleges my DC is interested seem to be pretty "iffy" when it comes to accepting AP credit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't have direct experience with the AP world history class, but I think the problem probably comes from the fact that they are trying to do a "world history" class-- you could easily have an entire class on the United States (let alone South America), Europe, China, the Mediterranean, etc. etc. I can't imagine how you could possibly have a class called "world history" and cover the topics in any depth.

I can't say whether your daughter would like, say, AP English, but I expect it would be a very different experience (although again some of the challenge can be keeping up with the expected volume of reading).

Thanks for your thoughts. She is a ravenous reader, so she is open to AP English. Her only concern in her words "I once loved history, but AP has taken that from me. I don't want to lose my other true love." That other true love is English, she is a bit of a drama queen. ; D

There is something to the idea that you don't want them to burn out on AP classes before they even get to college, but the flip side of course is that doing advanced work can set up to do more advanced work in college. My school would let you try to take most classes (except, say, grad student classes as a freshman), so it wasn't so much that having AP meant you could skip a year, or skip an intro class, it was more that if you found an upper level class you wanted to take you would be more likely to swim rather than sink.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't have direct experience with the AP world history class, but I think the problem probably comes from the fact that they are trying to do a "world history" class-- you could easily have an entire class on the United States (let alone South America), Europe, China, the Mediterranean, etc. etc. I can't imagine how you could possibly have a class called "world history" and cover the topics in any depth.

I can't say whether your daughter would like, say, AP English, but I expect it would be a very different experience (although again some of the challenge can be keeping up with the expected volume of reading).

Thanks for your thoughts. She is a ravenous reader, so she is open to AP English. Her only concern in her words "I once loved history, but AP has taken that from me. I don't want to lose my other true love." That other true love is English, she is a bit of a drama queen. ; D

There is something to the idea that you don't want them to burn out on AP classes before they even get to college, but the flip side of course is that doing advanced work can set up to do more advanced work in college. My school would let you try to take most classes (except, say, grad student classes as a freshman), so it wasn't so much that having AP meant you could skip a year, or skip an intro class, it was more that if you found an upper level class you wanted to take you would be more likely to swim rather than sink.

It is funny, but DD's take on the situation is not that she feels that she is suffering from "burn out", but the class was not something she could sink her teeth into and that she didn't really learn anything new. She felt the teaching was dry and uninspiring. This was the only AP class offered at her school at the sophomore level, so she thought she should take it despite just taking and excelling an honors world history course her freshman year.

[Anonymous]

World History is a survey class, mirroring lower level college courses. So don't expect too much in-depth analysis. You're more likely to examine patterns and trends and to make connections among some major historical events.

If your daughter loves in-depth analysis, AP language is the way to go. It's a junior level course in Mo Co.

[Anonymous]

I am a historian. My AP history classes in high school were similar to what your daughter describes, made bearable by teachers who were excellent engaging lecturers. I took them to get a sense of the broad sweep of history, to force myself to learn some names and dates, and to get AP credit. Luckily, college and grad school classes (beyond the surveys) were much better. For me, it didn't matter so much whether the college accepted the AP credits (I didn't actually want to graduate early because I loved my college!), but having had the survey meant that I could take more in-depth classes. In my opinion, the best part of doing history is the research, and that's a subject that an AP course doesn't really touch.

I was able to keep my passion for history alive through other means--as a younger child, I loved Cobblestone magazine. In high school, I took a fabulous history class over the summer at Duke's TIP program (similar to Johns Hopkins' CTY.

[Anonymous]

It is funny, but DD's take on the situation is not that she feels that she is suffering from "burn out", but the class was not something she could sink her teeth into and that she didn't really learn anything new. She felt the teaching was dry and uninspiring.

I could understand that frustration, but other posters make an excellent point that one important reason to take AP classes is to escape the dry-as-dust cattle-call lectures that most college freshmen are forced to endure. The relatively small-scale AP class in high school may well be far better (or less bad?) than the intro course at many (but certainly not all) colleges. Perhaps this is just one of those "suck it up" moments.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

It is funny, but DD's take on the situation is not that she feels that she is suffering from "burn out", but the class was not something she could sink her teeth into and that she didn't really learn anything new. She felt the teaching was dry and uninspiring.

I could understand that frustration, but other posters make an excellent point that one important reason to take AP classes is to escape the dry-as-dust cattle-call lectures that most college freshmen are forced to endure. The relatively small-scale AP class in high school may well be far better (or less bad?) than the intro course at many (but certainly not all) colleges. Perhaps this is just one of those "suck it up" moments.

OP here - most definitely it is. though fortunately it is almost behind us now. my post was mostly thrown out there to see if our situation is unique. : )
She must take AP Latin next year as there is nowhere else for her to go with the subject. I am hoping it will be a more fruitful experience.

[Anonymous]

I'm not too far removed from high school and here's my take on AP classes: except for math and language, they were all B.S. My teachers taught whatever material was needed to pass the AP exam. There was no encouragement on formulating opinions, learning to draw conclusions or thinking deeper into the material that was spoon fed to us -- only busy work. I ended up repeating English and World History my freshman year in college because I didn't take the AP exams. Even though I went to a large state school, those classes were like night and day compared to high school. I was encouraged to think rather than recite information I would forget 5 minutes after the exam was over. Kudos to your daughter for taking these classes for enrichment and not just for credit. It's unfortunate that AP classes are almost expected for competitive college applications nowadays, otherwise I would never encourage my DC to take them.

[Anonymous]

Loved and got a lot out of my AP French and English classes. Started French in college at the 300 level; everyone else in my first class (literature) was a junior or senior and I got higher marks on my papers than they did.

My college had a separate track for students who had passed the AP English exam; instead of the 2 semester freshman course we had a one semester class that was much smaller and more interesting.

I did take AP American History but didn't take the test--did not feel prepared for it. There were 2 teachers for AP history at my high school; the students in the other teacher's class did better on the test, so I think that does make a big difference.

[Anonymous]

My high school (10 + years ago) had no good math, science, or foreign language AP teachers, but some of the the English and History teachers were great. I still remember my AP world history class. The teacher was a fantastic and humorous story teller, and I just loved his lectures. Moreover, he took the AP label seriously. We read a college level text (without picutres!) and were given many assignments involving review and analysis of primary source documents. I did tons of writing for the class. I loved doing my homework!

It all depends on the teacher though. I hated AP US History--it was such a let down after my world history class. The book was simplistic, the work was worksheets and memorization, and the teacher was boring. I had to cram and read most of my textbook the weekend before the exam because I just hadn't been that engaged throughout the year.