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[quote=Anonymous]Certainly APs are more thoughtful and comprehensive tests, however, they have some problems as well.  The content covered for some APs is so outdated and rigid (for instance biology, is finally being updated, but had stressed topics that have not actually been relevant to biology since the 1950s! As a scientist I was pretty horrified to see some of the practice tests) that many local independent schools refuse to even call classes "AP" and feel their own class content is more relevant and challenging, and leave the kids to study on their own for APs in most subjects if they wish to take them. This works well for English, where the kids can write on just about anything they have read and most kids at these schools seem to get 5s if they take the English AP whether or not they were even in a class called "AP", however more of a challenge in more fact-based classes. But still the kids in my experience that took them did well since simply being a good writer on the APs goes a long way.  Sidwell doesn't call any classes AP except does have a BC vs an AB calculus set of classes.  GDS has some APs but lots of other classes that are not called AP but many kids still take the exam (for instance European history).  These schools can "afford" to get rid of the AP moniker and curriculum if they choose because the colleges clearly understand that the kids are well-prepared for college, they know the classes at the schools are rigorous, or at least which are rigorous even if not called AP, compared to large general high schools. However, would suspect if Blair and TJ suddenly dropped APs, the colleges wouldn't care either, they similarly know the curriculum at these schools is very rigorous.  But right now suspect that kids in the independent schools take quite a few less official AP classes and somewhat fewer exams, because just not emphasized as a very important metric. 
Anyway, both top independent and the magnet publics in this area provide great educations and college preparation, but as Jeff said comparing things like SAT scores may be somewhat skewed by the processes of getting into these schools in the first place being so different in terms of timing and what is being evaluated. [/quote]

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