Anonymous wrote:Wondering what to start with in 9th grade, if the goal is to satisfy 3 years of Social Studies requirements with all APs (Gov, US history, World History).

APUSH is much harder and it's not close. 9 units compared to 5 units and format of writing is significantly harder. AP Gov is designed to be taught in a semester and MCPS teaches it for the whole year so the reading/HW is less intense. You likely will not get to choose which class they take as a 9th grader. Whatever AP the school offers to 9th graders you will have to take. I don't understand why it's not unified for MCPS to have the same course sequence across schools.

Anonymous wrote:I don’t understand why they offer them in a different order at different mcps schools. It seems like something that should be standard.

It’s not standard because you aren’t required to take an AP History class. Further, they are not pre-requisites to one another so in theory a student could take them in any order they want. Folks are just providing advice on the best path to take them based on difficulty.

I don’t understand why they offer them in a different order at different mcps schools. It seems like something that should be standard.

Anonymous wrote:Wondering what to start with in 9th grade, if the goal is to satisfy 3 years of Social Studies requirements with all APs (Gov, US history, World History).

While there are always exceptions, AP Gov is generally considered more doable than APUSH for ninth graders.

More objectively, consider:

1. UMD gives 3 gen-ed credits for scores of 3,4,5 in the AP Gov exam. But for APUSH, for a score of 3, UMD gives you only 3 lower level elective credits (NO gen-ed credits), for a score of 4, 3 gen-ed credits, and for a score of 5, *6* gen-ed credits.

2. Some school districts have a one semester AP Gov class for seniors - I have family in the midwest, and their school district did it this way. (Some other posters have also pointed out how they did AP Gov in one semester.) I doubt any school district would offer a one-semester APUSH class.

So, relatively speaking APUSH seems more content heavy and more important from a college credit pov, meaning, if there is a choice, AP Gov is better as the first AP course for a freshman.

CAVEAT - for college credits I am using only UMD. It may be different if you look at other universities.

Anonymous wrote:It's sad to see so much college credit for what used to be college prep classes.

Most colleges only accept some AP’s but will give a few for elective credits. Mist want 4 or higher. Some top schools only accept 5’s.

High school has been ruined by AP’s. Kids over achieving and less electives. Less personal interest in class selection. It sucks

Anonymous wrote:Take AP Gov first. APUSH is definitely more challenging and harder. Kids should not be taking it in 9th grad but our school kinda only allows it in 9th and most kids do horrible. But, there is grade inflation. Average score is a 3. But grade is an A.

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That’s typical for MCPS. Kids get A’s but don’t pass the AP’s. That’s why they took away midterms and finals

Anonymous wrote:You can take any AP test without actually taking the course. Just pick one!

Most kids can't handle that.

It's sad to see so much college credit for what used to be college prep classes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:APUSH covers two semesters while AP Gov covers only one semester.

Is AP Gov a full year class?
In my school (elsewhere) we did AP Gov for 1 semester and AP Microeconomics for 1 semester.

As a pp said, MCPS covers AP Gov in one year. Our school (like others mentioned) uses Gov as the intro to AP classes because it is covering less material. Then students can step up to APUSH in 10th grade.

Anonymous wrote:You can take any AP test without actually taking the course. Just pick one!

Not what OP asked.

Anonymous wrote:APUSH covers two semesters while AP Gov covers only one semester.

Is AP Gov a full year class?
In my school (elsewhere) we did AP Gov for 1 semester and AP Microeconomics for 1 semester.

Our MCPS HS does AP Gov (NSL) in 9th, APUSH in 10th. My nieces in another state do the reverse. Find out what your HS does, and do that so your kid is not such an outsider.

Anonymous wrote:My school does AP world freshman year,
APUSH sophomore, AP Euro junior, and AP gov senior. AP gov is only one semester so you’re done before senioritis kicks in

My son is currently taking AP government (NSL) in MCPS. It is a year long class. He finds it interesting but he has a tough teacher.

Anonymous wrote:Wondering what to start with in 9th grade, if the goal is to satisfy 3 years of Social Studies requirements with all APs (Gov, US history, World History).

You should try google. This is well-documented. APUSH is harder. APNSL is pretty moderate at best.

Anonymous wrote:My school does AP world freshman year,
APUSH sophomore, AP Euro junior, and AP gov senior. AP gov is only one semester so you’re done before senioritis kicks in

In MCPS, AP Gov is a full year.