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Official FLVS AP Thread
AimHigh2
553 replies47 threads Member
I've been looking around for over two hours and haven't found a single thread that talks about FLVS AP classes extensively. Hopefully, this thread will help to add information on AP classes taken on FLVS. Any and all are welcome to comment. At the end, I will gather all the information and create a post with each FLVS AP class and what everyone has to say about it.
429 repliesPost edited by AimHigh2 on
Replies to: Official FLVS AP Thread
AP Macro is a little harder than AP Micro. It's extensive.
AP Macroeconomics
Difficulty: Somewhat Easy
Annoyingness: Not Annoying
Lessons: Somewhat Informative
I took AP Macroeconomics on a complete whim in the fall of my sophomore year of high school. It was my first FLVS course, and as a result, I didn't work as efficiently in this class as I should have. Regardless, I got my A and my 5. However, I should note that the material really solidified upon taking AP Microeconomics the next semester, a course in which I did a much better job of thoroughly learning the material.
Mathematically, AP Macro is a joke; conceptually, it's not much harder. However, I found myself confusing every now and then the causes of and consequences of appreciation and depreciation. It's a lot to remember, especially since you aren't really given any sort of context in which to remember the material. Accordingly, the course could use many more real-world examples instead of simply being either concept-based or rooted in imaginary and over-simplified countries.
I found that the lessons were a bit sparse on communicating the necessary material. When I took the class, we were given an online copy of the Krugman / Wells Economics textbook. This book was much better in pedagogy. However, considering that I didn't read the textbook too well and I still managed to get an A without fully understanding the course material at the time, this speaks to the class's ease.
One should note that this class is themed around taking a vacation to the Macro Islands, in which you have to deal with somewhat unsavory characters such as "Mr. Scarcity" and "Mrs. Equilibrium." Gag me.
One should also note that all quizzes in AP Macro (and in AP Micro) can be reset up to three times if you are dissatisfied with your grade.
AP Microeconomics
Difficulty: Easy
Annoyingness: Not Annoying
Lessons: Somewhat Informative
After enjoying AP Macro, I took AP Micro in the spring of my sophomore year. I feel like it would have been smarter to have taken AP Micro first, but the order didn't affect me. I learned a lot more from AP Micro because I was already interested in the field of economics by this point, the course is designed a bit better, I had already dealt with an FLVS course, and I simply found the AP Micro concepts to be more worthwhile and interesting.
I harbor the same compliments and complaints about AP Micro that I do about AP Macro. It's themed to the Micro Islands and still has the same fictitious characters. The textbook is still useful, and I read it for every lesson. This is probably why I felt like I had a much better grasp of microeconomics than macroeconomics. Thankfully, reading the textbook and studying for the AP exams brought me up to speed on the macroeconomics concepts that I had blundered by being a bad student.
AP U.S. Government and Politics
Difficulty: Moderate
Annoyingness: Very Annoying
Lessons: Horribly Uninformative
I took AP U.S. Government on FLVS the summer before my junior year. This class is hilarious in how poorly it's constructed. The AP U.S. Government exam is a complete joke, yet this class was so tedious and detail-specific that the concepts were absolutely lost on me. I took good lesson and textbook notes, and yet I left the class not knowing government. (Thankfully, some serious prep book studying in March and April helped get me an easy five.) Why this dichotomy?
AP U.S. Government assignments draw from the lessons provided and require you to do your own research. This is a pretty good idea, although a lot of the assignments are too long and unnecessary to really be considered constructive. They focus on core concepts, though, which is what the entire class should do. On the other hand, the quizzes, which compose a plurality of the grade in the class, are based on OBNOXIOUSLY specific details from the textbook. Since the textbook is an online version with an extremely limited search function and no index, it becomes a chore to look up the un-memorizable answers to 25 unnecessarily detail-oriented multiple choice questions in the 30 minute time limit that you're given. As a result, I struggled to maintain a comfortable A. I just scraped by with a 91. Oh, and unlike in AP Macro and AP Micro, you can't reset quizzes in AP Gov.
The midterm and final exams comprised the same kinds of questions from quizzes. Some were repeats, which I had anticipated and thus had made a Word document before taking each exam that had every quiz question so far, what I'd answered, and if it was correct or incorrect. However, it turns out that quiz and exam questions alike were drawn from the textbook's publishing company's test bank. If you can find this test bank online, you'll be on the way to a less stressful A. This is technically against FLVS rules and therefore I didn't do it, but a friend of mine found this test bank just by inputting quiz questions as a Google query.
Let me stress that I read and took notes on the textbook, and I still had trouble with the quizzes and how unnecessarily specific they were. They're completely irrelevant to the AP exam (unless you honestly think they're going to ask for the SCOTUS vote count on Texas v. Johnson - and yes, that was a real quiz question), so don't feel bad about fudging them.
Despite this, I don't regret taking AP U.S. Government, though. The summer assignment for my school's AP U.S. Government class was probably more work than I had to do for the entire FLVS course. Also, my school district requires a semester of economics and a semester of U.S. government to be taken to graduate. I'd already taken econ on FLVS (my school only offers regular and honors), so I figured I'd take government and free up an entire slot for something fun my senior year (this ended up being AP Art History, an absolutely incredible class to take).
AP Computer Science A
Difficulty: Extremely Easy
Annoyingness: Enjoyable
Lessons: Extremely Informative
AP Computer Science A on FLVS changed my life. I had never taken a programming course prior to taking this class the summer before my senior year, and yet I walked away absolutely loving computer science. It's most likely going to be one of my majors in college. Learning programming changed how I think. It made me better at math and science, and it made me both a more logical / algorithmic thinker and a more creative thinker.
Learning programming is so important because it's the only high school subject left where you're allowed to do things on your own and be creative. Math and science, you learn already-established techniques to solve trivial and close-ended problems. History and English, you learn and regurgitate the analyses of other people. Computer science, you learn a language and must tackle open-ended problems with real applications as efficiently as possible. There's a reason that Stephen Wolfram says that the future of education is replacing traditional mathematics courses in primary and secondary school with programming classes.
The class itself was the easiest I'd ever taken on FLVS. Not only is the material easy to pick up and retain (I did no programming from mid-August to mid-April, and yet I'd still remembered 95% of the Java I'd learned), but the class is extraordinarily easy to get an A in regardless of content. Homework assignments can be resubmitted until you get a perfect score. This is the case for all FLVS classes, but for AP Computer Science A, the purpose of doing this isn't to get a better grade, but to correct mistakes and inefficiencies in your programming. The better grade is just a side benefit. Quizzes are minimal and easy; tests are minimal and easy. You can also run test questions through a compiler. This is cheating, and I didn't do it, but if you really want to check your test answers (they're AP-style, and you obviously don't have access to a compiler ont he AP exam), go for it. I finished both semesters with an extremely high A (99 in the first semester, 98 in the second semester).
The lessons in this class are clear and excellent. Homework assignments take real problems and real data and have you work with them. There's a huge focus on concepts and understanding and thinking, not just brute programming. Tests are AP-style, which is great preparation for the AP exam. Honestly, I can't recommend this class high enough. Take AP Computer Science A on FLVS.
AP Statistics
Difficulty: Extremely Easy
Annoyingness: Enjoyable
Lessons: Extremely Informative
I took AP Statistics in the fall of my senior year. Much like with AP Computer Science A, AP Statistics is an excellent class. I'll try not to be as verbose as I was for AP Comp Sci A, but many of the same principles hold. Statistics is such a necessary subject to learn for almost any career or field of study. FLVS treats their AP Stats course correctly in that they put a huge emphasis on understanding as opposed to calculation. Courses that emphasize the latter are the ones in which students tend to treat the field as baby math. Courses that emphasize the former are the ones in which students understand that the field of statistics is a tool to be used.
Holding to this principle, the lessons and assessments in this course focus on things like understanding why certain assumptions are made and conditions are checked, looking for valid and invalid data, etc. Poor statistics courses will simply ask a student to grind out a p-value and then reject or fail to reject the null. The FLVS course makes sure students understand why they're doing this and what the significance (har har har) of their methodology and choice is.
Unlike in AP Computer Science A, there are no homework assignments. The entire class is quizzes and tests. Quizzes are usually only four questions and can be reset four times. They're not hard, nor are they AP-style, but they're great tools for both learning and assessment. Tests are AP-style, and they're put together fairly. I got a very high A both semesters of this class. I highly recommend taking AP Stats on FLVS.
AP Environmental Science
Difficulty: Moderate
Annoyingness: Beyond Frustrating
Lessons: Extremely Informative
AP Environmental Science was the worst FLVS AP class I've taken. I took it in the summer and fall of my senior year. This was the first time the class was offered, and since it wasn't offered at my school, I'd figured that I may as well take the course. This was a bad decision. Do not take this course. Here are some reasons why.
First of all, the lessons are way too long. They're basically filled with too much information for the AP exam. It's not that they provide unnecessary facts like AP U.S. Government's textbook did; it just goes too in-depth. This makes the quizzes and tests challenging because you have to basically dig through the lesson / your notes to find answers. But for someone who likes learning, like me, this is excusable. Also, quizzes can be reset unlimited times, which is a big thumbs-up if you want an easy A.
Next, the final exam was ridiculously long. It had over 100 multiple choice questions and exactly 33 free responses. It took me something like four hours to do, if I remember correctly. This is unnecessary.
But finally, and most importantly, this class had a RIDICULOUS amount of busywork. Homework assignments were usually either obnoxiously giant lab reports to fill out (usually about computer simulations, which were really boring to conduct and were slow-moving) or immensely cumbersome writing and creative projects. I cannot even begin to enumerate the number of times I wanted to break my computer screen because of the amount of work I had to do for such little payoff. The homework assignments were worth a lot of points, and my teacher gave me a 100 on everything without even reading it, but because the tests weren't horrible, these extra points weren't really needed. These giant homework assignments served no purpose. They didn't teach the materials effectively. They didn't provide a new insight on the coursework. They were just, as I said above, beyond frustrating.
The AP exam for AP Enviro is hard. Don't let people tell you otherwise. I walked away with a five, but I thought I got a four. Prep books don't go into enough depth to be useful, and this class goes into too much depth to encourage anybody to want to study the lessons. So essentially, the class was worthless. I was surprised at how much information I retained, but a lot of stuff got lost because taking this class was akin to swimming in a water park's wave pool - you're wading through ****.
Summary
Definitely take AP Comp Sci A and AP Stats, regardless of what career field you want to go into; they're great endeavors for the mind, and they're useful on a broad spectrum. Take AP Micro and then AP Macro if you think you might be interested in economics and you don't mind reading a little. AP Macro is also useful just to get a feel for global economics, but the course won't give you any real-life and / or modern examples to help extrapolate the class concepts to the real world. I don't recommend AP U.S. Government unless you can't fit it in your school schedule, and I REALLY don't recommend AP Environmental Science unless you're a masochist like me who wanted the weighted GPA boost and extra exam for State AP Scholar.
1) I completely agree with his major points. There is a TON of busywork. If boredom doesn't get to you, then your eyes will get to you. Make sure you have a bottle of eye drops nearby - you really have to spend an inordinate amount of time staring at the computer screen typing up lab reports, doing simulations and whatnot.
2) Minor Correction? Quizzes cannot be retaken after the first module. That's the way it is for me. In other words, you can retake the quizzes if your on the first module, but after that, no more retakes.
3) Every exam is long. Not just the final. Each exam has like 6 essay questions and a ton of M/C questions. If your going to start an exam, make sure your not starting after the hour of 6 PM. Otherwise you won't get your sleep for the night
4) Depends on your teacher My teacher actually grades my work. My teacher actually double-checks my math. Good thing is that you can submit your assignments an unlimited number of times, so if you screw up (on accident or on purpose), you can always resubmit it with no penalty.
5) Pro Tip! Work ahead. I cannot stress this enough. Start over the summer and blitzkrieg the entire course or you'll regret it - you have to turn in 3 assignments every week even when school starts.
And don't worry if you don't get a 100 on every assignment. All you need is an A. 90, 91, 99, 100s are all the same in terms of your GPA ... they are all 4.0s (or 5.0s if your GPA is weighted). Don't fight for the last few points on assignments you get a 96 on or something. Get to the end of your course ASAP, because you'll want it over with, and if you have a B, just go back and correct all your assignments. Getting the last few points on some assignments will give you an excellent example of diminishing returns in terms of effort exerted and points earned
6) Pro Tip! Use your teacher! Exploit your teacher! Don't understand an assignment? Just turn in a half-assed piece of work. If your teacher is anything like mine, then he or she will point out all the errors and tell you exactly what you need to correct. So instead of trying to figure out an ambiguously worded lab (and there are many), your teacher will tell you exactly what you have left to do and what you need to correct! And remember, unlimited resubmits on anything other than quizzes and exams!
7) Pro Tip! Many of the labs are ripped off from other teachers. You can often find the answers to labs floating around on the Internet ...
IceQube is probably right since he seems to be in the class right now. I do remember being able to retake quizzes unlimited times beyond the first module, but my memory is probably foggy. This doesn't matter too much though.
This only holds true if there's giant text at the top of your quiz / test that says "DO NOT CLOSE THIS WINDOW OR YOU WILL BE LOCKED OUT OF THIS ASSESSMENT." If your assessment doesn't say that, you can enter and exit it at will, and your multiple choice answers (not sure about the essay answers) will be saved.
However, FLVS doesn't guard against multiple instances of the same browser. In layman's terms, feel free to use extra browser tabs or windows during a quiz or test. You won't be locked out if you open up the Lessons page to look up an obscure fact to answer a multiple-choice question.
I tried and failed to blitzkrieg through AP Enviro. I have immense willpower to perform self-pedagogy, but AP Enviro was just too much BS for me to deal with in large doses. I was able to blitzkrieg through AP Computer Science A in 8 weeks, though, while still learning absolutely everything I could pick up from the course, and still having a social life over the summer.
On the subject of pace in all FLVS classes (not just AP Enviro), you are "required" to complete 3 assignments per week. You're given a lot of leeway with this. Eventually, if you fall behind pace, your teacher will say something like "you have to do this many assignments by this date or I'll kick you out of the course." While I've heard of this threat being made many times, it seems to be rarely executed.
With that being said, don't fall behind pace. You'll feel like you can never catch up, leading you to procrastinate more, and you may be put in a really tough position where you won't be prepared for the AP exam or the FLVS course won't go on your transcript in time for college admissions / valedictorian calculation. Try to get ahead of pace; this way, you can slack some weeks if you're busy without any problems.
There is an option to put yourself on a faster pace within the FLVS infrastructure, but why bother doing that? You just end up getting punished if you slow down. Always elect to stay on the 3 assignments per week pace, and then do more work than that. FLVS sets a minimum pace but no maximum pace, so you aren't limited by anything but how quickly you can turn in assignments. Because of this, you have no reason not to work ahead. It's just less stressful. I used to do one assignment per class per day, and I did even more for comp sci and stats. Suffice it to say that on days when I just didn't feel like doing work or didn't have the time to do work, there were no consequences because I was so far ahead.
I'm about 25% done with the entire thing ... /disappointment.
http://i.min.us/icoNUS.png
Has anyone here ever taken AP Gov, AP Micro, or AP Lang/Lit on FLVS? what is it like?
Read the thread.
I got Angley