I went to HS in the late 90s and took five AP tests, in addition to getting an IB diploma. It was worthwhile because I met peers who cared as much as I did about learning -- they are an impressive bunch who are doing great things in their careers now. It seems like people have gotten lazy -- they want their kids to have a super laid back childhood. Not my cup of tea but your life, your kids.

Anonymous wrote:I went to hs 20 years ago and took 9 aps. They had the best teachers and the most interesting curriculum. Things like enough lot and European history not to mention calculus etc. they were challenging and interesting and we had the smartest kids in school on them. Would have been bored and not challenged in regular and honor classes.

I went to school in the early-mid 80's and our MCPS high school only offered a handful of AP classes. You couldn't take 9 APs even if you wanted to. I took one and still got into a competitive school. Things are sooooo much different now.

I just want my kids to get into the working world as fast as possible. AP courses count toward a degree in a public university, which is where I intend to send my kids. I don't really care about class implications. I'm from a WC family but my income is DC area UMC. Sibling is a millionaire. Our other sibling, who was more of a class striver and chose colleges based on class aspirations, does relatively well makes the least of any of us by a long shot. So my kids will take the AP courses, get in and out of state school, and then start busting their butts at work.

Take all AP classes if possible. There are good teachers and very very bad teachers.

The best teachers will usually be teaching AP classes. An important key to learning is connecting the dots and making the content relevant to our lives. Rather than thinking of data as isolated points of information it is far easier to understand and remember information if it is part of a sequence or holistic picture.

Quality teachers connect all of those dots with pre-existing knowledge (what we learned in past assignments) and casually alluding to future impacts on our lives today.

AP course content is more detailed (more facts), but the teachers are more engaged and better at connecting the dots.

Using history for example, an AP. US History teacher will teach you practically everything of major consequence that happened in virtually every year in US history. It's sounds monumental, but it's not. It's not because it's a sequentially unfolding story that makes sense in its entirety, because it's a series of cause and effect stories.

In regular US History classes the assumption is that the students are either uninterested or unable to process that quantity of information. The result of this teaching methodology is that students are taught primarily the major events in US history which translates into the wars, slavery, assassinations, and the civil rights movement. All valid parts of history, but for the average student all disconnected events and all of which must be remembered as historical blobs floating in space with no chronology and no connection to their lives and personal realities.

I believe AP teachers are more fully engaged teaching their courses in a comprehensive way which in turn makes the material easier to learn and remember.

Good luck

Anonymous wrote:"Candidly, my private HS was more challenging than law school"

If this is even close to true, you took the equivalent of at least a dozen AP classes today.

Having the letter AP next to the name of the class means NOTHING.

School is not harder now than it was then.

It just seems that way because despite hearing about grade inflation you still think students must be working harder than you did if the are getting a 4.0.

Truth isn't Truth!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son's time was better spent graduating a year early from high school. Why put all the extra effort into AP?

Because it is a lot cheaper to pay for 1 AP exam than the equivalent college course.

You get what you pay for. One high school AP class is NOT equivalent to a college course. I mean if you want to be cheap with your kid's education go ahead.

Ok miss moneybags. This is the Maryland public schools forum. We are all people who by definition who are not picking the most expensive option for school. I had enough AP credits to start college as a sophomore.

My comparison is not whether AP is a college-level course or not. My kid is 15 and I would hope will be expected to do more when 19.

The relevant comparison is among the various sections offered by the HS. For my child, the honors courses are not challenging, period. She almost never has homework in them and tells me she doesn't learn much. If there were a real Honors course offered that contrasted with AP (for instance, an Honors section that had deep inquiry as an approach rather than the AP study-for-the-test approach, then I'd seriously consider it. In the meantime, I'm disappointed that there aren't more 10th grade AP courses offered (english, etc).

Anonymous wrote:+1 totally agree. We need well rounded caring citizens of the world. Not stress cases.

AP's didn't stress me 30+ years ago, and they don't stress my kid now. I was well rounded, and so is my kid. We both care about the world and spend a lot of time in service individually and as a family. This is a student specific question. If it doesn't work for your kid's best interests, don't let him take it, but don't translate that into 'no one' should take these classes.

Anonymous wrote:My DC is still to young to say but I took maximum amount of APs in HS. In retrospect, I should have chosen ones that were of interest and applicable to my future plans. I was a Humanities major in college and do nothing related to hard science in my career - killing myself in AP Physics in HS was a complete waste; taking Honors would have been just fine. Of course, kids who were more strategic in taking APs had artificially better HS GPAs.

All the kids I went to college with took lots of APs. No one got credit for them. If it’s top tier, then don’t count on saving money in college credit.

But it matters for college admissions purposes. Top tier schools expect a kid to take all APs.

Anonymous wrote:APs did nothing for my DDs college applications. SAT scores are significantly more important. If I had it to do over, I would have had her do hours of SAT prep rather than hours of AP homework.

How do you know this?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My son's time was better spent graduating a year early from high school. Why put all the extra effort into AP?

Because it is a lot cheaper to pay for 1 AP exam than the equivalent college course.

You get what you pay for. One high school AP class is NOT equivalent to a college course. I mean if you want to be cheap with your kid's education go ahead.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are not doing it to cut the cost of college for our kids, we are using APs as a signalling device to the colleges about how academically strong our student is.

Yikes @ how narcissistic this sounds.

No. Not narcissistic. Just pragmatic and strategic. Our kid is a high achiever who can easily take on the AP load. We really do not care what the parents of MCPS-average kids think. BTW, MCPS-average is slightly better than DCPS-average at least for now. In the next couple of years MCPS will be comparable to Prince George's Public School or DCPS.

I am referring to your use of the word “we.”

Well, educating your child is a family endeavor. Parents and students, both have to be committed and prioritize education. Is it easy? No. But you have to do your best for your children and not wing it. So makes sense to say "We", no? Especially, since WE are neither entitled nor will get free handouts.