Anonymous wrote:My kids go to BASIS DC, the school that DCUM loves to hate. My older child took a dozen AP courses. My younger child took two in 8th grade and is taking one this year in 9th grade. I think there will be five next year and another five in 11th grade and then kids are done. BASIS kids generally don't take AP courses in their last year of high school.

BASIS requires a lot of APs and has few options to take non-AP classes. It isn’t a selective group of students when everyone is required to take the AP classes. Then they adjust the final grades based on the AP test scores, like a C can get bumped up to an A. Starting AP in 8th and 9th grade is unnecessary, and could come back to haunt your student if they get a lower score than they would if they took it later in high school. AP is a money-making scheme that the top private schools are doing away with. It makes sense that BASIS locked into AP when it helped them with the rankings.

My kid is the abnormal one in his group of friends with not too many APs.
9th AP Comp Sci A
10th AP World, Comp Sci AB
11th AP Econ, AP Physics 1, AP Psych
12th AP Calc, not sure what else yet...

He has friends taking 5-6 per year both Junior year and senior year. One girl in a club with him took SEVEN as a junior. I find it utterly ridiculous. This is why the average GPA at UVA is so freakin' high (75% percentile of last years class is something like 4.2)

Also FYI Physics 1 is algebra based, Physics 2 is calculus based, then there is Physics E&M which is extremely difficult from what I have heard.

Mine took:
2 in 10th - World History, Calculus BC
6 in 11th - APUSH, Comp Sci A, Statistics, English Language, Physics 1, Chemistry
4 in 12th - English Lit, Physics 2, Government, Biology
so 12 altogether.

Mine child has taken/will take:
1 in 9th
3 in 10th (micro and macro Econ is 2 AP exams)
5 in 11th
Has 3 on her schedule for next year plus two MC classes at her HS

Plays a varsity sport and a club sport, is well rounded (volunteer work,friends, boyfriend). She is applying for/hoping to get in to a top college

Anonymous wrote:It's ridiculous and not necessary. I pushed back every time the school tried to put my son in AP English and AP Spanish.

One per year is fine, and he had no issues getting into his college of choice with four APs.

That's good to hear as my DS will finish HS (next year) with probably 3 APs. Our (small, private) HS counselors actually dissuade many kids from taking APs, knowing they're taking them just to take them and not particularly ready for some of them.

My kids go to BASIS DC, the school that DCUM loves to hate. My older child took a dozen AP courses. My younger child took two in 8th grade and is taking one this year in 9th grade. I think there will be five next year and another five in 11th grade and then kids are done. BASIS kids generally don't take AP courses in their last year of high school.

Mine (smart and relatively hard-working but not a total superstar) did 12. Three sophomore year, 5 junior year, 4 senior year plus dual enrollment at a university for a class for semesters. At some public schools, there are only two options for the core classes: AP or on-level. At her school, on-level effectively meant remedial (teachers admit this) so she chose the all-AP route to the level allowed by her school. It all worked out and she wasn’t driven crazy by the workload, except for AP chemistry. She did not get into her first choice school but loves the second choice one and her AP credits are making it possible for her to do a dual major in two very different disciplines. Good luck deciding. There is no one correct answer.

Anonymous wrote:Some posters mention that their kids are taking 9-10 AP classes in high school. How is this even possible? You need to take bio, chem or physics before you take those APs, so that's only 1-2 AP sciences, max. And then maybe AP English, Government, a language, comp sci? that's still only 6. How do kids do it? And doesn't it mean a killer schedule?

Your premise on prereqs is not true of every school.

Anonymous wrote:DS is taking 2 as a sophomore, will have 4 as a junior next year, and probably more as a senior, so not that hard to get to 9. Some AP classes are taken over two years.

+1 also our school doesn't require bio as a prereq to AP bio and some kids are in AP calc by sophomore year, almost everyone by junior year. Everyone has to take 7-8 academic classes per semester, so it isn't surprising that a lot of them end up being AP classes by senior year.