Anonymous
Post 03/04/2012 17:06     Subject: Re:Parents of 10th and 11th graders...AP question
MY DS is in an engineering program at a highly competitive university. He was able to reduce his courseload somewhat in his Freshman year because he placed out of intro courses. This was a great benefit, as he was able to take more subjects he was interested in and less time fulfilling distribution requirements and prerequisites.
Anonymous
Post 03/04/2012 17:02     Subject: Parents of 10th and 11th graders...AP question
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:What browns me off is that, in addition to having to show some APs on the college application, a lot of colleges also want SAT IIs in the same subject. Why? If DD has good scores in AP Govt, World History, and Calculus, why do some colleges also require 2-3 SAT IIs in, wait for it, Govt, World History, and Math? Why, oh why?

Sorry, just finished paying for DD to register for all these. Maybe I'll ask this question on the College Forum. I'll grumpily pay for it all, but what really gets me is the additional stress on kids who have to take what seem like duplicative tests.


I think it is to facilitate "apples to apples" comparisons. Your kid's A minus in her World History class may be in a more competitive environment than a child in a less academically competitive area. Your child should logically do a lot better on the SAT II than that other student. Conversely, the kid with the A+ in the course from a poor school system who gets an 800 on the SAT II subject test will be "validating" her good classroom grade. I also think more colleges want to see SAT II tests (they like at least 2, generally) than require APs. Lastly, from observation, once the kid has studied for the AP they don't have to study more for the SAT II test and most of them think the SAT II test is fairly easy.


I kind of get this but most colleges assign regions to their admissions officers who get to know the schools very, very well. They don't compare kids from different schools, they look at applicants within the context of their current school. So maybe if there was an outlier from a school that is new on the radar but this is a long way to go for that reason.

All that money you are paying for the tests? Thats the reason. This is a big business.
Anonymous
Post 03/04/2012 16:43     Subject: Re:Parents of 10th and 11th graders...AP question
25 years ago I got a year's worth of college credit at my Big Ten school with my AP scores. I was able to graduate in 3 years. Huge financial benefit as I was paying for school myself. Interesting that schools aren't giving as many credits anymore.
Anonymous
Post 03/04/2012 16:37     Subject: Parents of 10th and 11th graders...AP question
Just one school -- here's how UVA handles AP in the College of Arts and Sciences:

http://college.artsandsciences.virginia.edu/ap-credit

The University of Virginia awards

Advanced standing credit (course exemption and academic credit hours) or
Advanced Placement (course exemption but no credit hours)
to entering students who have qualifying scores on the Advanced Placement (AP) tests. Students may receive credit in any academic discipline in which an AP test is offered so long as they take the test before the end of their senior year of high school.

Students may also earn course exemption (without credit) for qualifying scores on the SAT II Subject Tests in

English composition
Foreign language.
Anonymous
Post 03/04/2012 16:33     Subject: Parents of 10th and 11th graders...AP question
Anonymous wrote:What browns me off is that, in addition to having to show some APs on the college application, a lot of colleges also want SAT IIs in the same subject. Why? If DD has good scores in AP Govt, World History, and Calculus, why do some colleges also require 2-3 SAT IIs in, wait for it, Govt, World History, and Math? Why, oh why?

Sorry, just finished paying for DD to register for all these. Maybe I'll ask this question on the College Forum. I'll grumpily pay for it all, but what really gets me is the additional stress on kids who have to take what seem like duplicative tests.


And this is a little harsh but I don't think having to take those tests should be that stressful -- compare it to students in Asia who take a gi-normous competitive exam that is 100% determinative of getting into university. The kids should study, do their best, and move on. They'll have college classes in which 100% of the grade is the final, ditto for grad school -- getting used to taking tests is part of being a student in our society and god knows there are more resources than there have ever, ever been to help nervous test-takers prepare in advance.
Anonymous
Post 03/04/2012 16:29     Subject: Parents of 10th and 11th graders...AP question
Anonymous wrote:What browns me off is that, in addition to having to show some APs on the college application, a lot of colleges also want SAT IIs in the same subject. Why? If DD has good scores in AP Govt, World History, and Calculus, why do some colleges also require 2-3 SAT IIs in, wait for it, Govt, World History, and Math? Why, oh why?

Sorry, just finished paying for DD to register for all these. Maybe I'll ask this question on the College Forum. I'll grumpily pay for it all, but what really gets me is the additional stress on kids who have to take what seem like duplicative tests.


I think it is to facilitate "apples to apples" comparisons. Your kid's A minus in her World History class may be in a more competitive environment than a child in a less academically competitive area. Your child should logically do a lot better on the SAT II than that other student. Conversely, the kid with the A+ in the course from a poor school system who gets an 800 on the SAT II subject test will be "validating" her good classroom grade. I also think more colleges want to see SAT II tests (they like at least 2, generally) than require APs. Lastly, from observation, once the kid has studied for the AP they don't have to study more for the SAT II test and most of them think the SAT II test is fairly easy.
Anonymous
Post 03/04/2012 16:08     Subject: Parents of 10th and 11th graders...AP question
What browns me off is that, in addition to having to show some APs on the college application, a lot of colleges also want SAT IIs in the same subject. Why? If DD has good scores in AP Govt, World History, and Calculus, why do some colleges also require 2-3 SAT IIs in, wait for it, Govt, World History, and Math? Why, oh why?

Sorry, just finished paying for DD to register for all these. Maybe I'll ask this question on the College Forum. I'll grumpily pay for it all, but what really gets me is the additional stress on kids who have to take what seem like duplicative tests.
Anonymous
Post 03/04/2012 15:50     Subject: Parents of 10th and 11th graders...AP question
From my impression -- and talking to current college kids -- the APs are all about college admission and have little relationship to college course options/choices.
Anonymous
Post 03/04/2012 15:29     Subject: Parents of 10th and 11th graders...AP question
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:APs are a racket, BTW. Its a money-making deal for the organization and causes at least some teaching to the test. It would be nice if schools phased this out. Rigorous, challenging courses are great, but to focus on a test is ridiculous.


Scoring well on an AP exam allows the student the option of placing out of the big lecture classes (BIO 101, ENG 101, etc.) in college and taking another course instead.
o
Fewer colleges give credit for APs. I guess thats not the same as using it for placement purposes but there should be other ways to handle this. If you've studied Frnech for 5 years, why would you take French 101 even if you didn't have the AP?
Anonymous
Post 03/04/2012 14:46     Subject: Parents of 10th and 11th graders...AP question
Anonymous wrote:APs are a racket, BTW. Its a money-making deal for the organization and causes at least some teaching to the test. It would be nice if schools phased this out. Rigorous, challenging courses are great, but to focus on a test is ridiculous.


Scoring well on an AP exam allows the student the option of placing out of the big lecture classes (BIO 101, ENG 101, etc.) in college and taking another course instead.
Anonymous
Post 03/04/2012 13:58     Subject: Parents of 10th and 11th graders...AP question
PP again. I think Andover abolished APs for the reasons I cited.
Anonymous
Post 03/04/2012 13:58     Subject: Parents of 10th and 11th graders...AP question
APs are a racket, BTW. Its a money-making deal for the organization and causes at least some teaching to the test. It would be nice if schools phased this out. Rigorous, challenging courses are great, but to focus on a test is ridiculous.
Anonymous
Post 03/04/2012 12:43     Subject: Parents of 10th and 11th graders...AP question
Anonymous wrote:Do most of your DC's classmates enroll for these classes? Or are they discouraged from enrolling?


At our school it is generally a combination of teacher recommendation (especially in math/sciences) and student/parent interest (sometimes the school will counsel against a student taking an AP but allow the student to try if he/she is really committed/gung ho). The academic advisors play a big role in looking at the student's over-all performance and specific potential in the AP class they want to take. Generally it's seen as better to be a B/B+ student in a non-AP then to be scraping by in a C in an AP class. Lastly, at our school there are relativetly few APs in English/history, by school preference -- it is mostly a math/science/upper level foreign language phenomenon.[
Anonymous
Post 03/04/2012 11:45     Subject: Re:Parents of 10th and 11th graders...AP question
At one of my DCs school (private) it is basically by invitation or application. Most kids are in the regular classes and there is usually one AP class. So in that case they don't discourage it but its also not something everyone does. No 10th graders take APs.

At my other DCs school (public) many kids start with APs in 9th grade. some kids will have 10-12 APs by the time they graduate. Mine will have 8-9 and that's pretty normal.
Anonymous
Post 03/04/2012 11:12     Subject: Parents of 10th and 11th graders...AP question
Do most of your DC's classmates enroll for these classes? Or are they discouraged from enrolling?