Anonymous wrote:Rising junior needs to pick classes for next year. Not an amazing writer, unenthusiastic reader, though he does reasonably well in English classes. Wondering whether AP Lang would be overwhelming or might actually be a useful learning experience? Don't want to him to overstretch junior year.

Well, what else is he taking? What are his aspirations? The class could be good for him since he needs to learn to write better. Also selective schools will expect it. Top kids can take multiple APs without being overloaded.

Anonymous wrote:I think the number of students in the class matters a great deal when teaching writing. Our FCPS school has 30 kids per class which means teachers are regularly grading 150 essays. (Five classes) There’s not really enough time to offer detailed individual feedback to these large classes. My advice: get in the smallest class, AP, IB, or honors — you’ll learn more there.

That seems like a large number of students per session and a large number of sessions per teacher!

The quality of teachers matters a lot for core classes. The best teachers never assign an excessive amount of work and yet the students still learn more. My son has two Calculus teachers. The first one was a Ph.D. and was pretty chill. The second one gives quizzes/tests constantly and yet students don’t learn nearly as much! That’s why the extra BS required by the IB Diploma may not be a good thing. Not to mention its inflexibility!

I think the number of students in the class matters a great deal when teaching writing. Our FCPS school has 30 kids per class which means teachers are regularly grading 150 essays. (Five classes) There’s not really enough time to offer detailed individual feedback to these large classes. My advice: get in the smallest class, AP, IB, or honors — you’ll learn more there.

AP Lang class was pretty easy for my kid (but didn’t get a top score on the exam). AP Lit was much more work and more difficult. I think for many kids, I’d recommend Lang but not Lit.

Ap lang teaches writing like it’s coding. I don’t get it, and I’m a writer myself. My daughter is doing ok, but her teacher isn’t great and her grading seems arbitrary. There’s some reading,
but mostly essays. I’m hoping AP lit will give her some exposure to the greats. She has little time for reading on her own.

Anonymous wrote:APLit Senior year was harder than AP Lang for my kid. He scored a 5 on AP lang exam, currently taking Ap lit and not as crazy about it. Teacher demands more. My older kid loved the same class/teacher.

They both did well- As and learned to write well.

Lit is known for being one of the more demanding APs. (IB English has similarities to both AP Lang and Lit.) My son will take AP Lang, and I kind of want him to take Lit, but don't want him too bogged down to do well in other classes. It's a tough decision.

I really wish MCPS had real honors so he could get a solid class that still allows time to focus on other reasonably rigorous classes. For so many people it's AP Bio, or Lit, or European History, etc.

Anonymous wrote:It's easy. AP Lit requires a lot more maturity and ability to bullshit your way out of classical text analysis in essay form. AP Lang is just basic rules of English and easier close reading of shorter texts.

It is not easy for most kids. The schools in my "well-respected" FCPS pyramid hardly teach writing at all. This is a structured, demanding class that teaches several different kinds of essays and, depending on the teacher, can be very challenging. My usually A with one or two A-minuses could very well end up with a B but it is worth it for what he is learning.

APLit Senior year was harder than AP Lang for my kid. He scored a 5 on AP lang exam, currently taking Ap lit and not as crazy about it. Teacher demands more. My older kid loved the same class/teacher.

They both did well- As and learned to write well.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s probably easy compared to International Baccalaureate English. We all know AP English is just rote memorization and kids are not capable of CRITICAL THINKING, ANALYSIS and SYNTHESIS.

You have to do IB Diploma if you want to learn how to write, the others classes are worthless, or at least one league below.

I’m puzzled as to why the IB Diploma is so overrated in this country. Where I grew up, some schools have the IB curriculum and it’s supposed to be a dumbed down version compared to the standard curriculum. The IB teachers are just regular high school teachers. How good can they be??

I grew up in a small country where only a minority of schools are IB schools. But a few of them consistently rank among the top 10-15 highest overall IB Diploma scores in the world!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s probably easy compared to International Baccalaureate English. We all know AP English is just rote memorization and kids are not capable of CRITICAL THINKING, ANALYSIS and SYNTHESIS.

You have to do IB Diploma if you want to learn how to write, the others classes are worthless, or at least one league below.

While this is an exaggeration, it's true that IB is famously more writing-heavy than AP.

Why is that an exaggeration, are they comparable or IB writing is much better than AP, because it can’t be both.

The statement that in the entire history of English, no one has ever learned to write without taking IB English, and that all other English courses are “worthless” is an obvious exaggeration.

I’m sure many IB English teachers didn’t take IB English in high school. So they must be poor writers.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s probably easy compared to International Baccalaureate English. We all know AP English is just rote memorization and kids are not capable of CRITICAL THINKING, ANALYSIS and SYNTHESIS.

You have to do IB Diploma if you want to learn how to write, the others classes are worthless, or at least one league below.

While this is an exaggeration, it's true that IB is famously more writing-heavy than AP.

Why is that an exaggeration, are they comparable or IB writing is much better than AP, because it can’t be both.

The statement that in the entire history of English, no one has ever learned to write without taking IB English, and that all other English courses are “worthless” is an obvious exaggeration.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s probably easy compared to International Baccalaureate English. We all know AP English is just rote memorization and kids are not capable of CRITICAL THINKING, ANALYSIS and SYNTHESIS.

You have to do IB Diploma if you want to learn how to write, the others classes are worthless, or at least one league below.

While this is an exaggeration, it's true that IB is famously more writing-heavy than AP.

Why is that an exaggeration, are they comparable or IB writing is much better than AP, because it can’t be both.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s probably easy compared to International Baccalaureate English. We all know AP English is just rote memorization and kids are not capable of CRITICAL THINKING, ANALYSIS and SYNTHESIS.

You have to do IB Diploma if you want to learn how to write, the others classes are worthless, or at least one league below.

I’m puzzled as to why the IB Diploma is so overrated in this country. Where I grew up, some schools have the IB curriculum and it’s supposed to be a dumbed down version compared to the standard curriculum. The IB teachers are just regular high school teachers. How good can they be??

In IBD you write a 4000 word essay. How much writing is in AP Lang? It’s not even comparable.

I hate to break this to you, but just because you’re required to write a longgggg essay doesn’t mean you’re trained to write better!

Then how much writing was in AP Lang, without hiding the truth.

We all know AP is multiple choice and rote memorization.

Anonymous wrote:It’s probably easy compared to International Baccalaureate English. We all know AP English is just rote memorization and kids are not capable of CRITICAL THINKING, ANALYSIS and SYNTHESIS.

You have to do IB Diploma if you want to learn how to write, the others classes are worthless, or at least one league below.

While this is an exaggeration, it's true that IB is famously more writing-heavy than AP.