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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I’m blown by hearing about all these kids taking 10+ AP classes in HS. First, my high school never had that many classes. But more importantly, there was A LOT of work, lots of assignments and projects that took a lot of time. More of a college workload in terms of readings etc but without the extra study time that comes with not having a full day of classes. There is no way people could handle so many AP classes at once, just from a time perspective. Are AP classes the new Honors?

People who took a handful of AP classes went on to Ivy and top 25 schools. Now, kids need so many!

Have classes gotten easier, is there grade inflation, or are [b]kids truly overwhelmed with increased expectations[/b]? [/quote]

It's this. My kid is only in 10th and taking 1 and it is a LOT of work. DC is taking 3 next year. But we've encouraged opting out of the AP rat race. It's absurd. If a college wants to pass on my kid as not "college ready" bc she took 6 or 7 APs (and the rest honors) instead of 10-12, so be it. There is zero reason to take APs in classes DC has no interest or as high an aptitude. And colleges should be ashamed of themselves for requiring it of these kids, many of whom are stressed out and not enjoying their HS years. It's grotesque.[/quote]

I agree it’s a grotesque arms race that only seems to reward kids that are willing to forego sleep. My sense is that the difficulty of the classes varies, as it did when I was a teen in the late 80s, but they tend to be a lot of work even if not overly difficult. I hate that the kids feel they have to take them to keep up with the pack and the college board keeps adding more (like the new AP pre calc). [/quote]

In fairness, at some public schools there is either AP or grade level in the core subjects.  Grade level is a joke and there is not even Honors, so essentially AP is your only option.
[/quote]

My kid's HS had Honor ENG in 9/10th, once there was AP there was just reg and AP.  History was Honors for 9th and then onto AP in 10th+ or you take regular.  My kid said screw it, I hate history and English, and while I could do the extra work, I will never sleep.  So they took regular English/history.  Would have liked to have an honors option, because there really should be something in between "general population" and AP. 
But my very smart kid skipped the APUSH/AP Eng and is at a school ranked in the 30s (if rankings matter to you).

At a very good school (and the right fit for them) and most importantly came out of high school with their mental health intact.  Adding 20-30 hours of extra homework per week for the 2 APs in 11th grade would not have been healthy.  I think AP Calc, AP CS, AP Chem, AP Bio are enough of a workload[/quote]

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