Do kids actually do well on an AP test after taking the class in summer school. That is not a thing here and it seems like such a long gap before the test would be bad.
@VickiSoCal valid point…I can only speak for myself but in our district, the AP exam is not mandatory. Taking the AP exam is encouraged, but doesn’t have any baring on the course grade. AP classes have a 1.2 multiplier for GPA and only core classes and AP classes count towards class rank. Since Texas has the top 10% rule for auto admit, in larger competitive school districts like ours every little bit helps so my son decided to take AP Psych over the summer to help boost his gpa & rank. I don’t think he’ll take the AP exam in May and I’m okay with whatever he decides to do. I know a lot of kids who have done the same and decided to skip the AP Psych exam.
Our district doesn’t care if you take the exam or not, but they do not offer any summer AP classes and the vast majority of students who take AP classes take the exams and do well. Since we don’t rank or have sal/val a summer AP class just to boost rankings is likely not attractive.
The % seems higher based on this thread because not everyone who takes the AP class sits for the actual AP exam (which the college board bases it’s calculation on). In our school seniors who got accepted to top schools which don’t give credit for AP exams might opt not to sit for the exam after they have taken the class. Our kiddo did not sit for 3 of her senior year AP class exams because it was not related to her major and she wasn’t going to get credit at her college.
The above was in response to post #32
In our school over 12 grad seniors took over 12 aps. Top 4 took 16-17. Between the top four there were 3 3s, 5 4s, and 57 5s ( 2 perfect scores). This has been a a significant jump in aps in the last 5-7 yrs (around 9 then), but the school has no plans to change course as “performance is more than satisfactory”. typical current plan is 1 frosh, 3 soph, 5-6 junior, 5-6 senior year.
There is no magic formula for how many APs a student should take. What top schools want to see is that students have challenged themselves and have generally taken the most rigorous courses available to them. This doesn’t necessarily mean that each and every course must be at the AP level – a laundry list of APs is not going to impress Adcoms, but you need to take into account the culture at your school and see how your transcript measures up against those of your peers. What you want is a well-balanced list of challenging classes –– APs and honors –– that demonstrates the ability to take the most difficult classes.
Some APs are more highly regarded than others –– AP Psych is less impressive than AP US / AP Euro / AP World. Likewise, APES is less impressive than AP Bio / AP Chem AP Physics. You certainly don’t need all three of those history or science APs (well more than 3 if you consider all of the flavors of AP Physics), but you’ll want a couple. For a non-STEM major, one AP science and an AP Math is fine. For a STEM major, one AP History and an AP English is fine.
You will probably want at least one English course to be at the AP Level (either Lang or Lit). For top schools you’ll want math through AP Calc AB (BC if you’re a STEM kid).
If you take an AP course, you should, as a general rule, sit for the exam (colleges will want to see that validation). Taking AP Exams without taking the course is a bit of a waste of time and money (unless the college you attend will give you credit for it).
It should neither be an AP arms race nor a competition about “Who takes the most APs?”
Anything beyond 8 to 10 APs is overkill.
Freshman don’t usually take them at our school. D20 took 2 sophomore year, 3 junior year, and 4 senior year (1 double block).
Only a very small percentage of students nationwide take more than 10 AP exams / courses. The data is available on the College Board website. Students are tempted to load up on AP’s and this is fine provided they can handle the academic workload while still getting top grades. My daughter graduated some time ago (2015). She took a total of 11 courses or something like that with a few more exams. I remember her studying almost every night until 11 PM at the earliest and many times I would wake up and turn off her desk light at 3 AM. She would catch up on sleep on the weekends. I’m an older parent who finished high school in the late 1970’s before AP’s became somewhat required and college admissions was as competitive as it is today. Although I worry about students working too hard I do think the study habits and knowledge gained will give them a leg up when in college.
Both of my children tested into AP Lang and AP Bio for freshman year. Maybe something else? If your school limits students to one AP course in freshman year what are they supposed to do? High schools have a duty to teach new material to students. Our school board is elected and not appointed. Our community would not tolerate capable students limited in the material presented to previous knowledge.
My advice is run your own race. If a student takes 2 AP course Freshman year and is not burdensome, why not take 4 Sophomore year. By senior year, that student may take 9 AP classes (7 class periods but 2 are 1/2 year courses).
In some ways, it reminds me of driving on the highway. People driving slower than you are idiots and faster are maniacs. Things is, unless you are never passed or never pass, you are simultaneously both to different people.
How do you test in to AP Lang as a freshman and then what do they take afterwards since state requires 4 years of English? My younger kid has never missed a question on a state standardized test in math or English, but I don’t feel like 9th grade Honors, 10th grade Honors, Lang 11, Lit 12 will hold her back in anyway nor do I think any kid is ever placed in a Language Arts class out of sequence.
You do not test in to AP sciences at our school. Once you get a A or B in Honors Bio and Chem, or an A in regular Chem and Bio you can take APES, AP Physics, AP Bio or AP Chem in any order or number desired.
I think like so many things it depends on the kid, what they are looking to do and their school. My kids took 15 and 17 AP exams respectively. They were not grubbing for APs. They were not in any type of arms race. Got As in all the classes and 5s on most of the exams, a few 4s and one 3 each. Those were the classes they wanted to take at the levels that made sense for them. May not make sense in other contexts with other kids.
Dual enrollment makes sense in certain cases. But I don’t think all. For my kids, the college option would have been a bad one. They would not have had true college basic courses. Area college that was available would not have prepared them as well as AP classes did. For some kids, college option is better with dual credit.
Like a lot of things that get discussed here, the answer is it depends.
Our school offers only a handful of dual enrollment classes and not for core requirements. They are in subjects like Sociology.
How many students make AP National Scholar in a year? That’s a more reasonable goal compared to insanity of students tripping over each other to make AP State Scholar where you just have to take highest number of AP exams.
According to this its about 34,000 for 2017:
https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/digitalServices/pdf/ap/ap-scholar-counts-2017.pdf
It’s not that common and even for the students who do it, it’s pointless since 6-8, total, is considered way sufficient for any elite school in the country
So, basically, students shouldn’t feel they have to take a million AP classes. 8-9 hours of sleep + significant ECs bare way more important.
(IB diploma students, obviously, are expected to do 6+6+TOK+case so would have 14 equivalents even without any 9-10th grade AP).
@VickiSoCal They tested into AP Foreign Lang as freshmen. Bio requirements are covered in middle school.
We live in a state with many small school districts. Middle school work varies. If you are on the math team in middle school you have most likely been exposed to higher levels of math than other students you will meet in high school.
Both of my children went to T20 unis and met peers on group projects that still wrote 5 paragraph essays.
I don’t think of it as a race, but when did differentiated instruction become such a bad thing?
I thought you meant AP English Lang. Foreign makes more sense.
At our school getting to APs is a natural progression. I am unaware of any student who has somehow tested out of the normal progression. Since the normal progression leads to 10 plus APs for honors students who stay on the honors/AP track without taking more than 6 classes a year or summer or online classes I don’t know what benefit would be gained.
No summer or online classes are allowed for credit at our school.