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[quote=Anonymous]My ds is in 9th grade and I recall a lot of confusion last year trying to figure out the schedule.  The biggest question mark for most at my school is whether to take AP US history or Honor US history.  Let me tell you my ds's experience, which may help you navigate this more easily than we did.

APUSH is a LOT of work and it starts fast.  This year, classes began on a Tuesday and his first APUSH chapter test was the next Monday and another one was scheduled for that Friday (two tests the second week of school), and he got a C on both.  It's not that he didn't study, but that the test was hard, and a very difficult format than he was used to from Middle School.  (When he brought home the test, he reached out to everyone he could find to read questions from the test (to demonstrate how difficult they were).)  There are two sections to most chapter tests.  The first is easy-- basic multiple choice questions that you can get correctly by reading/basic studying.  The second are much more interpretation-based.  For instance, which was the BIGGEST cause of X (where all four m/c answers were causes and so you need to understand the subtleties of which was more important).  Or reading a passage from an author (for instance, Locke, Hamilton, etc) and being able to interpret subtleties of the arguments they are making.  So in addition to the workload (mostly reading/studying, not so much writing, but I know a lot of kids staying up til 12 or 1 just to get the reading done), he found it very frustrating because he felt like no matter how much he studied he didn't know answers to many test questions.

Having said that, there were places in the class that the teacher gave easy assignments that brought grades up, and he ended up with an A in the class (barely) but friends ended up with Bs and Cs.

Second quarter has been much easier, probably because he got the hang of how to study/prepare for the tests.  But the word on the street is that third quarter is the most difficult because the teacher removes some of the crutches kids have gotten up til now (for instance, receiving some of the reading passages a day ahead).

At our school, many students asked to move out of APUSH into Honors USH in the first few weeks.  As far as I know, they were all accommodated but some were panicking they may not be able to drop it because counselors were having a very difficult time finding courses to put them into.  I spoke with parents of kids who moved, who complained that the Honors course was way too easy-- more like a Middle School class (and at our MS, the kids didn't have much workload).  So it's a shame that there isn't a course in between these two levels.

If I were in charge of the curriculum, I wouldn't let kids take APUSH without having first taken a HS level US history course.  I don't think DS is coming out with the kind of understanding he needs in life, generally, and I will strongly encourage him to take US history in college, even if the AP credit 'gets him out of it.'  However, I am not in charge of the curriculum, and so given the givens, if I were doing it over I'd encourage him to do the same thing-- take APUSH instead of Honors.  It is a good course.  It is pushing the kids hard.  They are learning more than I would expect from a HS level course and also learning study skills.  And frankly, none of the other freshman courses are in any way difficult, so there is room in their day for this intense study.  I just think it does kids a disservice to make this their only COLLEGE level course in US History (since the AP test could waive US History at a lot of universities).  [/quote]

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