How many freshman take AP Gov or History?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At Blair, APUSH is for the first time offered to 9th grader, who had to chose between Honor US history or APUSH. As what I can tell, quite a lot of SMACS kids chose APUSH together with Functions. They are going to be really tortured this upcoming year.

How could you know this? School has not even started yet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At our school, Kennedy, they push the "gifted" kids to take AP Gov in 9th grade and AP US History in 10th grade.

In my opinion, having just done through this with my son, I don't think kids should be taking AP courses in 9th grade, with probably a few exceptions here and there.

Most kids aren't ready for that kind of rigor or discipline and unfortunately, the lax attitudes of the pandemic from their middle school transition years really didn't prepare them for the reality check that comes with an AP course with regard to study habits and test taking intensity.

That being said, MCPS seems intent on cramming more and more kids on the advanced tracks sooner rather than later, even if the kids flounder and aren't ready. I assume this is because they think it makes them look good, but also because they have such liberal retake/reassessment policies that even if kids do struggle, they have multiple chances for do-overs, so in the end, they can still end up with a B or an A.

However, the truth lies in the AP exam scores, and if you look at the MCPS students taking these AP courses and the exam, a lot of kids are flopping with 1's or 2's on the exams, even though they've got a good classroom grade.

This right here. When your kid is getting an A in an AP course in MCPS and getting a 3 or lower on the test that gives them credit, well it looks pretty bad on the school and the student.

Some top colleges are only accepting 5's on exams now and most that kids that want to push themselves into only take 4's on the exams.

AP classes and honors classes count the same on a weighted scale. They shouldn't, but MCPS does anything for inflated grades.

No reason to take AP Gov and APUSH unless your child is intelligent enough to guarantee 4 and 5's on test.

That's false information right there. Over 70% of MCPS kids got a score of 3 or higher in AP tests.

The overall rate for the school districts masks a lot.

At Kennedy, only 34 percent of students scored a 3 or higher on AP exams.

At Watkins Mill, only 32 percent of students scored a 3 or higher on AP exams.

At Seneca Valley, only 40 percent of students scored a 3 or higher on AP exams.

At Springbrook, only 36.5 percent of students scored a 3 or higher on AP exams.

The overall rate for the district is distorted by the W schools that have 80 percent or more of their kids scoring a 3 or higher, but that rate is in no way shape or form evenly dispersed throughout the county.

What is the percentage of 4 or more? Ever college my 2019 kid applied to, you needed a 4 or more to get credit.

Also the W schools have high percentages because they have tutors. Not better teachers

Ummm... probably not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At Blair, APUSH is for the first time offered to 9th grader, who had to chose between Honor US history or APUSH. As what I can tell, quite a lot of SMACS kids chose APUSH together with Functions. They are going to be really tortured this upcoming year.

Was not a problem for my kid

[Anonymous]

PP again. Actually they took AP Govt. To me this makes more sense than doing APUSH in 9th.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At Blair, APUSH is for the first time offered to 9th grader, who had to chose between Honor US history or APUSH. As what I can tell, quite a lot of SMACS kids chose APUSH together with Functions. They are going to be really tortured this upcoming year.

Was not a problem for my kid

Yes it wasn’t a problem for your kid because your kid hasn’t taken APUSH and functions because this is the first year it’s been offered.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:At Blair, APUSH is for the first time offered to 9th grader, who had to chose between Honor US history or APUSH. As what I can tell, quite a lot of SMACS kids chose APUSH together with Functions. They are going to be really tortured this upcoming year.

Love the way that overbearing 9th grade Blair parents already know the schedules of an entire cohort of 100 kids and school hasn’t even started yet.

My history loving, avid reader, going to Blair listened to the teachers/staff and did NOT sign up for APUSH, or frankly functions because 9th grade isn’t a race or a competition. They very strongly recommended against taking APUSH. If you’re right I predict a large number of them dropping down in the coming weeks/months as happens every year. Why do this to yourself??? All for one extra semester of electives which you can also gain by taking a class over the summer. Oh, I guess it’s actually for bragging rights? Well the bragging subsides when you’re one of the 40 percent that can’t hack it and moves down to precalculus.

[Anonymous]

Freshman Honors history is for the non-college kids?!

I would advise DD to relax, and do not let her overload with APs, even next year as a sophomore.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At Blair, APUSH is for the first time offered to 9th grader, who had to chose between Honor US history or APUSH. As what I can tell, quite a lot of SMACS kids chose APUSH together with Functions. They are going to be really tortured this upcoming year.

Love the way that overbearing 9th grade Blair parents already know the schedules of an entire cohort of 100 kids and school hasn’t even started yet.

My history loving, avid reader, going to Blair listened to the teachers/staff and did NOT sign up for APUSH, or frankly functions because 9th grade isn’t a race or a competition. They very strongly recommended against taking APUSH. If you’re right I predict a large number of them dropping down in the coming weeks/months as happens every year. Why do this to yourself??? All for one extra semester of electives which you can also gain by taking a class over the summer. Oh, I guess it’s actually for bragging rights? Well the bragging subsides when you’re one of the 40 percent that can’t hack it and moves down to precalculus.

+1 The repeated high anxiety, micromanaging posts from parents on this board are scary. I don't think everyone takes Functionsfor bragging rights. The Functions kids DC knows actually like math and are great at it but DC does not know that many kids in the program yet so they could be exception. DC is happy with not taking Functions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Freshman Honors history is for the non-college kids?!

I would advise DD to relax, and do not let her overload with APs, even next year as a sophomore.

Well, it’s an honors-for-all model, so that’s going to be what the non-college going kids take.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At our school, Kennedy, they push the "gifted" kids to take AP Gov in 9th grade and AP US History in 10th grade.

In my opinion, having just done through this with my son, I don't think kids should be taking AP courses in 9th grade, with probably a few exceptions here and there.

Most kids aren't ready for that kind of rigor or discipline and unfortunately, the lax attitudes of the pandemic from their middle school transition years really didn't prepare them for the reality check that comes with an AP course with regard to study habits and test taking intensity.

That being said, MCPS seems intent on cramming more and more kids on the advanced tracks sooner rather than later, even if the kids flounder and aren't ready. I assume this is because they think it makes them look good, but also because they have such liberal retake/reassessment policies that even if kids do struggle, they have multiple chances for do-overs, so in the end, they can still end up with a B or an A.

However, the truth lies in the AP exam scores, and if you look at the MCPS students taking these AP courses and the exam, a lot of kids are flopping with 1's or 2's on the exams, even though they've got a good classroom grade.

This right here. When your kid is getting an A in an AP course in MCPS and getting a 3 or lower on the test that gives them credit, well it looks pretty bad on the school and the student.

Some top colleges are only accepting 5's on exams now and most that kids that want to push themselves into only take 4's on the exams.

AP classes and honors classes count the same on a weighted scale. They shouldn't, but MCPS does anything for inflated grades.

No reason to take AP Gov and APUSH unless your child is intelligent enough to guarantee 4 and 5's on test.

Question - does the score get sent to colleges? Meaning unless you choose to disclose the score would colleges know? Or would they simply know that you took an AP course and whatever grade you received?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At our school, Kennedy, they push the "gifted" kids to take AP Gov in 9th grade and AP US History in 10th grade.

In my opinion, having just done through this with my son, I don't think kids should be taking AP courses in 9th grade, with probably a few exceptions here and there.

Most kids aren't ready for that kind of rigor or discipline and unfortunately, the lax attitudes of the pandemic from their middle school transition years really didn't prepare them for the reality check that comes with an AP course with regard to study habits and test taking intensity.

That being said, MCPS seems intent on cramming more and more kids on the advanced tracks sooner rather than later, even if the kids flounder and aren't ready. I assume this is because they think it makes them look good, but also because they have such liberal retake/reassessment policies that even if kids do struggle, they have multiple chances for do-overs, so in the end, they can still end up with a B or an A.

However, the truth lies in the AP exam scores, and if you look at the MCPS students taking these AP courses and the exam, a lot of kids are flopping with 1's or 2's on the exams, even though they've got a good classroom grade.

This right here. When your kid is getting an A in an AP course in MCPS and getting a 3 or lower on the test that gives them credit, well it looks pretty bad on the school and the student.

Some top colleges are only accepting 5's on exams now and most that kids that want to push themselves into only take 4's on the exams.

AP classes and honors classes count the same on a weighted scale. They shouldn't, but MCPS does anything for inflated grades.

No reason to take AP Gov and APUSH unless your child is intelligent enough to guarantee 4 and 5's on test.

Question - does the score get sent to colleges? Meaning unless you choose to disclose the score would colleges know? Or would they simply know that you took an AP course and whatever grade you received?

The score only gets sent it you choose to send it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At our school, Kennedy, they push the "gifted" kids to take AP Gov in 9th grade and AP US History in 10th grade.

In my opinion, having just done through this with my son, I don't think kids should be taking AP courses in 9th grade, with probably a few exceptions here and there.

Most kids aren't ready for that kind of rigor or discipline and unfortunately, the lax attitudes of the pandemic from their middle school transition years really didn't prepare them for the reality check that comes with an AP course with regard to study habits and test taking intensity.

That being said, MCPS seems intent on cramming more and more kids on the advanced tracks sooner rather than later, even if the kids flounder and aren't ready. I assume this is because they think it makes them look good, but also because they have such liberal retake/reassessment policies that even if kids do struggle, they have multiple chances for do-overs, so in the end, they can still end up with a B or an A.

However, the truth lies in the AP exam scores, and if you look at the MCPS students taking these AP courses and the exam, a lot of kids are flopping with 1's or 2's on the exams, even though they've got a good classroom grade.

This right here. When your kid is getting an A in an AP course in MCPS and getting a 3 or lower on the test that gives them credit, well it looks pretty bad on the school and the student.

Some top colleges are only accepting 5's on exams now and most that kids that want to push themselves into only take 4's on the exams.

AP classes and honors classes count the same on a weighted scale. They shouldn't, but MCPS does anything for inflated grades.

No reason to take AP Gov and APUSH unless your child is intelligent enough to guarantee 4 and 5's on test.

Question - does the score get sent to colleges? Meaning unless you choose to disclose the score would colleges know? Or would they simply know that you took an AP course and whatever grade you received?

The score only gets sent it you choose to send it.

Under this advice, I would and have encouraged my kids to take APs and not stress about the exam. I think the goal should be taking classes with a strong cohort and getting a great grade on your transcript. If you then get a 4 or 5 great but its all about the class showing up on the transcript from what I am learning. Not sure why anyone would care about the test grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son at Einstein took AP US as a freshman. He got a 2 on the AP but that was during COVID and it was a weird online home test shortened to forty five minutes. He took AP govt the next year and got a 5

Can he retake the AP exam? Wondering how this works as I have a child headed to Einstein.

I don’t know, actually. Didn’t think about that.

My main advice to Einstein parents is, unless your kid really wants to take IB, go with APs. If you want to hear my reasoning let me know and I will elaborate.

Yes, I would appreciate that if you don’t mind elaborating.

First, he will not get credit for any of the IP exams he took. He took six IB exams and got between fives and sevens on them and his college is not giving him credit. His college does give credit for AP. We were making the decision about whether to take IB courses during virtual learning and this was not explained to us. We only heard from Einstein that colleges would view AP and IB equally.

Second - and for some kids this may be a good thing - IB is more intense and stressful than AP. Of course that depends somewhat on the course and teacher, but it’s mostly true. I do not think his ninth and tenth grade education prepared him adequately for the IB courses. He barely wrote at all leading up to eleventh grade and then he was thrown into writing a lot. He wasn’t prepared for that. Some kids might want that challenge. For him, it increased his already existing anxiety. So it was a bad fit.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:At our school, Kennedy, they push the "gifted" kids to take AP Gov in 9th grade and AP US History in 10th grade.

In my opinion, having just done through this with my son, I don't think kids should be taking AP courses in 9th grade, with probably a few exceptions here and there.

Most kids aren't ready for that kind of rigor or discipline and unfortunately, the lax attitudes of the pandemic from their middle school transition years really didn't prepare them for the reality check that comes with an AP course with regard to study habits and test taking intensity.

That being said, MCPS seems intent on cramming more and more kids on the advanced tracks sooner rather than later, even if the kids flounder and aren't ready. I assume this is because they think it makes them look good, but also because they have such liberal retake/reassessment policies that even if kids do struggle, they have multiple chances for do-overs, so in the end, they can still end up with a B or an A.

However, the truth lies in the AP exam scores, and if you look at the MCPS students taking these AP courses and the exam, a lot of kids are flopping with 1's or 2's on the exams, even though they've got a good classroom grade.

This right here. When your kid is getting an A in an AP course in MCPS and getting a 3 or lower on the test that gives them credit, well it looks pretty bad on the school and the student.

Some top colleges are only accepting 5's on exams now and most that kids that want to push themselves into only take 4's on the exams.

AP classes and honors classes count the same on a weighted scale. They shouldn't, but MCPS does anything for inflated grades.

No reason to take AP Gov and APUSH unless your child is intelligent enough to guarantee 4 and 5's on test.

This weighting is not unique to MCPS.

It absolutely is

Nationally and all privates:

Honors is a 0.5 bump
AP is a full 1.0 bump

Between that and MCPS 89.5 and a 79.5 = an A - there is no other county in the country with inflated grades like MCPS. Not to mention the 50% and constant retakes teachers allow.

Burden of proof is on you to
provide evidence for your rant of made up numbers.

Or the person claiming it is not unique could also show proof that all school districts bump honors and AP classes the same.

I haven't found one other district in the area that counts honors and AP's the same, but for kicks and giggles.....

Every single local private school
Howard County
Fairfax County
Arlington County (slightly different but AP more than honors) Arlington doesn't give ANY bump for Honors/Intensified.
Loudoun County
PG County
DCPS
Frederick County

And almost all of the above have + and - GPA's to further distinguish the highest achievers.
And almost off of the above still have finals in their courses that count towards there final grade
And ALL of the above schools don't have the crazy chart that an A+B always equals an A for the semester grade
You get letter grades and they are divided by 2 for semester and 4 for final grade

So PLEASE stop with think what MCPS does is normal. It is a complete joke

[Anonymous]

Do most kids take the AP exam after the end of an AP course and send the scores to colleges?

Can you send only individual exam scores to colleges or do you have to send everything you took?

Does it look terrible to get an A in an AP course and get a 3 on the exam?