Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They focus on study design? Ugh.

I’m just sniping from the sidelines here, but stats for highschoolers should really be foundational: distributions, expectations and parametrization, distributions over multiple variables and all the relationships between conditional and joint distributions. That sets kids up for a lot of different directions: social psych inference and stats (study design), or stochastic processes (temporal domain), or filtering and linear systems, or engineering inference, or machine learning (prob in the linear algebra setting), etc. Plus it teaches kids how to think about uncertainty and variation and how we deal with it.

Its too bad if kids taking AP stats get specialized into social psych in the course.

Here you go, PP: https://apstudent.collegeboard.org/apcourse/ap-statistics/course-details

Read this before you snipe from the sidelines.

Anonymous wrote:They focus on study design? Ugh.

I’m just sniping from the sidelines here, but stats for highschoolers should really be foundational: distributions, expectations and parametrization, distributions over multiple variables and all the relationships between conditional and joint distributions. That sets kids up for a lot of different directions: social psych inference and stats (study design), or stochastic processes (temporal domain), or filtering and linear systems, or engineering inference, or machine learning (prob in the linear algebra setting), etc. Plus it teaches kids how to think about uncertainty and variation and how we deal with it.

Its too bad if kids taking AP stats get specialized into social psych in the course.

Anonymous wrote:It depends on your kid's math sequence. It is easy if s/he takes it after Calculus, harder if after Precal, and extramely hard after algebra II.

Anonymous wrote:

I disagree with the above statement.

My DD shows a strong preference towards math and science (As). And is weaker in the humanities (B+). With the exception of AP Stats, my DD got straight As in all of her high school math and science classes including As in AP Calc BC and AP Physics. The lowest grade that she ever got throughout all of high school was AP Stats. The math in Stats is certainly not difficult (basic 4-function and very basic algebra). But its a lot of writing (which she hates), and everything has to be just perfect. So, if you have a nitpicky teacher (which my DD did), the student may struggle. I've known other students besides my DD who are also strong in calculus/physics type classes who have struggled in AP stats. I think a student's success depends on how strong the student is in writing (many don't even consider this a math class--this is often taken by humanities focused students). And it is also very teacher dependent.

I think for those students who are strong in all subjects (show no particular preference), or non-STEM students who are good writers/effective communicators, AP Stats would be fine. For STEM type students that demonstrate a significant disparity between math/science and humanities grades, it may be a difficult class.

Hope that helps.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How hard is it? Is it a tedious slog? When should it be taken relative to other Math classes?

How hard depends on the student. If they are math/science oriented it is one of the easier APs. My oldest took it as an elective his senior year and my youngest took it in as an elective in his sophomore year. (Which meant they were taking the class at the same time) They both also took the next sequence in their math. However, there were plenty of seniors taking it as their math class.

I disagree with the above statement.

My DD shows a strong preference towards math and science (As). And is weaker in the humanities (B+). With the exception of AP Stats, my DD got straight As in all of her high school math and science classes including As in AP Calc BC and AP Physics. The lowest grade that she ever got throughout all of high school was AP Stats. The math in Stats is certainly not difficult (basic 4-function and very basic algebra). But its a lot of writing (which she hates), and everything has to be just perfect. So, if you have a nitpicky teacher (which my DD did), the student may struggle. I've known other students besides my DD who are also strong in calculus/physics type classes who have struggled in AP stats. I think a student's success depends on how strong the student is in writing (many don't even consider this a math class--this is often taken by humanities focused students). And it is also very teacher dependent.

I think for those students who are strong in all subjects (show no particular preference), or non-STEM students who are good writers/effective communicators, AP Stats would be fine. For STEM type students that demonstrate a significant disparity between math/science and humanities grades, it may be a difficult class.

Hope that helps.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How hard is it? Is it a tedious slog? When should it be taken relative to other Math classes?

How hard depends on the student. If they are math/science oriented it is one of the easier APs. My oldest took it as an elective his senior year and my youngest took it in as an elective in his sophomore year. (Which meant they were taking the class at the same time) They both also took the next sequence in their math. However, there were plenty of seniors taking it as their math class.

Anonymous wrote:How hard is it? Is it a tedious slog? When should it be taken relative to other Math classes?