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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]FWIW, most of the AP's my kid took at HB were AP only - there wasn't a subsection of "regular" in the same room. And most seemed rigorous (AP Chem, AP Spanish, AP Env. Science, AP US History, AP Calc to name a few) for my kid, who did ok-to-well on exams.

There was one exception where they were mixed in with non-AP in the same room, explained to us as because they didn't have enough kids to make a non-AP section of the course but still wanted the non-AP kids to have a chance to be exposed to the material. Those kids had a different level of rigor and expectations in their assignments, according to the teacher, but they learned the AP curriculum alongside the AP kids, not the other way around.[/quote]

The social science AP classes at HB are absolutely not rigorously taught and the math/science AP classes are not that rigorous, either. Yes, we've been told that a bunch of kids struggle in these classes, but that's not because of the the class, it's because those kids shouldn't be taking those classes but unfortunately, the default option for HB kids is to be "self-placed" into AP classes because the alternative doesn't exist in most cases for normal kids. Thus, the mixed (AP) Lang classrooms will be 80-90% AP enrolled for the entire grade (excepting some FL and sped kids), which obviously doesn't make sense for any school. One of the classes that one of our kids was enrolled in had only a few non-AP kids total.[/quote]

I've had a kid at a regular high school and HB.  The AP classes at HB are not as rigorous in my experience watching my kids.[/quote]

Interesting. Which classes did you get a chance to compare? [/quote]

I'm not going to give you the blow by blow for every class my one kid took AP World at regular high school (not even offered at HB).  Very hard class and all the testing was the AP format of MCQs, DBQs, SAQs, and LEQs.  Nightly reading and quizes in every class to be sure they're doing the reading.  It is a difficult class.  Most of them fail the first test.  My kid did.  They figure it out as the year goes on (and some of them don't).

They move on to APUSH which is the same AP test format and they keep on rolling and they are much better at the whole thing.  My HB kid, APUSH junior year was...not that.  The AP classes at the regular high schools from what I have seen, they are teaching to the AP exam all year.  The kids get to the end and yes they have to review content but there is not a lot of "studying" for the AP exam they've been doing the AP exam over and over all year.[/quote]

Ok, I was sort of wondering if this was self selection into easier classes. It sounds like your HB kid didn't take the hardest classes. AP Chem, AP Physics, DE Multi are quite difficult according to my kid. And no I don't think the classes were watered down based on their AP scores. [/quote]

APUSH is not one of the easier APs.  At all.[/quote]

I had two kids take it and neither one thought it was all that hard. And before you tell me it was because HB was less rigorous, I'll stop you right there because they got 4s/5s on the APUSH AP exam.

Did your kids take AP Chem, AP Physics C - Mechanical, or DE Multi? I could see a kid thinking APUSH was hard if they hadn't taken the harder ones and didn't have them to compare it to. [/quote]

Me again. Sorry, as I realized that was unclear. One of them was at HB, the other was not. But neither one thought APUSH was all that hard compared to other APs. [/quote]

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