Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are elite colleges using an A in BC Calc junior year and A in Linear Algebra senior year as the current gate-keeping mechanism? Grades in those courses certainly have a much higher ability ceiling than the SAT.

grade inflation makes those grades almost meaningless. I would imagine colleges look at the AP exam scores, as well as grades.

In MCPS, a student can turn in assignments late and get full credit; do retakes and exam corrections to get a higher grade. I know some kids cheat on assignments and tests. Grades have almost become meaningless here.

Interesting. DC’s mcps math teacher only allows one retake per MP and it has to be on an exit ticket or quiz. The high point value tests cannot be retaken.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are elite colleges using an A in BC Calc junior year and A in Linear Algebra senior year as the current gate-keeping mechanism? Grades in those courses certainly have a much higher ability ceiling than the SAT.

grade inflation makes those grades almost meaningless. I would imagine colleges look at the AP exam scores, as well as grades.

In MCPS, a student can turn in assignments late and get full credit; do retakes and exam corrections to get a higher grade. I know some kids cheat on assignments and tests. Grades have almost become meaningless here.

Same for FCPS, all of the above and at my kid's school (Madison) grades are dropped and replaced, classwork & homework don't count. Suddenly, everyone's grade went up a letter grade at end of year. Teachers let kids make cheat sheets to use during tests, and then kids are also just cheating. Another tab open while taking test on laptop. This could easily be shut down, but now that classwork and homework no longer count, I don't think anyone wants to police it, because the truth of what kids really learned may be too scary to handle.

Wow. I'm a Madison grad, and it was not like this back in the day! I also have a kid in MCPS, and there aren't any cheat sheets available to her and classmates in her program and I don’t see how cheating would even be an option in some of her classes. (And her peer group is comprised of do-gooder nerds, so I don't see that as a likely scenario there). Classwork and homework count. Late assignments are penalized unless pre-excused (not sure where the other poster's kid is). I like the retake model. My kid's chem teacher was a very hard grader and didn't do a lot of in-class teacher, so the retakes became kind of the trial/error needed to learn the content. Yeah, MCPS has grade inflation due to semester grading policy, but I have found my kid's classes to be quite rigorous. I suppose much depends on school/program climate and individual teacher.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AP Calc AB as junior
AP Calc BC as senior
Princeton as CS major

Just curious what you think most helped your student get accepted to Princeton CS? That would be one of my DDs dream options

Not sure at all - DC took AP CS A as a senior and had no STEM EC. Mostly performing arts. Got into other ivies as well. Really wish I had an idea what helped most as younger sib would also love to go to Princeton.

Where are you located? I wonder if some of it is due to location? But, maybe the ECs, recs and essays were spectacular.

Intro to Calculus. Not AB level. Accepted at Northeastern, GW, Brandeis, UVM.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AP Precalc is new for 2023-24. That means that your kid will be able to take precalc as a junior and have a math AP score for college apps. Kids applying this year didn’t have that option.

This is bizarre. Lots of colleges consider precalc remedial, so they don’t offer it for credit.

It’s not for credit, it’s for the score. Taking AP Precalc junior year gives you a math score to put on your application even if you don’t or can’t submit your SAT.

AP Precalc exam is mostly Algebra 2 topics, majority of kids taking the exam are expected to be seniors, and it is designed for all students (honors and non-honors) so an AP Precalc score will be different from other AP scores. LCPS does not allow kids to take AP Precalc if they're headed to Calc BC because it doesn't prepare them well enough; those kids will take Math Analysis instead.

For my current college freshman...
Junior = AP Calc AB
Senior = AP Calc BC + AP Stats

Virginia Tech in a math-heavy major and was required to repeat Calc 2, which was probably a good thing because he thought it was easy which got him off to a good start in 1st semester.

AP Calc A/B - VA Tech

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are elite colleges using an A in BC Calc junior year and A in Linear Algebra senior year as the current gate-keeping mechanism? Grades in those courses certainly have a much higher ability ceiling than the SAT.

grade inflation makes those grades almost meaningless. I would imagine colleges look at the AP exam scores, as well as grades.

In MCPS, a student can turn in assignments late and get full credit; do retakes and exam corrections to get a higher grade. I know some kids cheat on assignments and tests. Grades have almost become meaningless here.

Same for FCPS, all of the above and at my kid's school (Madison) grades are dropped and replaced, classwork & homework don't count. Suddenly, everyone's grade went up a letter grade at end of year. Teachers let kids make cheat sheets to use during tests, and then kids are also just cheating. Another tab open while taking test on laptop. This could easily be shut down, but now that classwork and homework no longer count, I don't think anyone wants to police it, because the truth of what kids really learned may be too scary to handle.

AP Calc AB for a politics major at UVA

AP Calc BC as a junior
AP Stat as a senior

likely social sciences/humanities major
headed to Middlebury

AP Calculus AB
AP Statistics (instead of AP Calculus BC)

Northeastern CS

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:AP Calc AB as junior
AP Calc BC as senior
Princeton as CS major

Just curious what you think most helped your student get accepted to Princeton CS? That would be one of my DDs dream options

Not sure at all - DC took AP CS A as a senior and had no STEM EC. Mostly performing arts. Got into other ivies as well. Really wish I had an idea what helped most as younger sib would also love to go to Princeton.

AP calc AB Junior
AP calc BC Senior
School does not offer anything higher

Purdue CS

Anonymous wrote:Are elite colleges using an A in BC Calc junior year and A in Linear Algebra senior year as the current gate-keeping mechanism? Grades in those courses certainly have a much higher ability ceiling than the SAT.

grade inflation makes those grades almost meaningless. I would imagine colleges look at the AP exam scores, as well as grades.

In MCPS, a student can turn in assignments late and get full credit; do retakes and exam corrections to get a higher grade. I know some kids cheat on assignments and tests. Grades have almost become meaningless here.

Multivariable Calculus and Differential Equation
(taken at a local college online)

Duke Engineering