My son took 6 APs during senior year, but not double science in that year. He did AP Calc BC junior, then AP Stats senior. AP Chem Junior and AP Physics C Senior. AP Calc BC is going to be super easy the first semester, as it’s a complete repeat of AP CALC AB for the most part. In our school you either did AB or BC - you didn’t do both because of that.
The two science classes are tough, and taking them together would require 3 class periods to cover, correct? Both of them were a period and a half at our school for each because of lab requirements.
BTW - he was able to 6 per year because some of them were only a single semester class. The most he ever took for full year credit courses I believe was 4 for the year he did AP Calc BC, AP Chem, AP Language and Comp, and APUSH. All 4 of those were full year classes. The year he did 6, 4 of the classes were one semester each. His workload senior year was much lighter than junior year, even though he had fewer AP classes that year.
AP sciences take no more class time than any other classes. I just don’t get how two sciences can be tough for the well prepared (ie having previous courses in the school system) who is good in science. I do see a well-roundedness problem with loading up on desired science classes instead of including other fields. HS is a time for learning all sorts of things unrelated to what one most enjoys.
Again, each child is an individual. Even among gifted kids there are vast differences in abilities. You start dealing with fractions of a percent while even the best regular HS needs to lump that top 5/3/1 % together. We’re getting to the past 2 standard deviations on the Bell curve, a territory the vast majority of parents do not deal with.
This depends entirely on the school. The OP has not indicated how DD’s HS structures, but it is not uncommon for bio and chem (and sometimes for physics c) to have extra time to cover labs. Sometimes this is accomplished through double blocking the class on some days. Some schools have before/after school labs. As with many things that are discussed on this site, the situation is often “it depends.”
@wis75: there’s no indication were talking of a PG child here though.
Did I miss something? It seems OP’s child took 2 APs last year and is jumping to 6.
When I hear about kids taking a boatload of AP’s, I always think about quality of life. What about playing sports (or any exercise), SAT prep, EC’s and just enjoying attending other HS events with friends?
imo it’s very manageable, Calc BC and Physics C Mech shouldn’t be bad as she’s already taken AB…APCSP is a joke, and Lang/French are more school dependent. Chem may be hard, but if she’s already taken honors chem, then it doesn’t seem that bad.
There was a huge jump in work load and difficulty in content between honors and AP chem at my D’s school.
Thanks for the input! I will definitely update at the end of the year as to how it all worked out. For those that wondered, my child is not PG (profoundly gifted) but in the HG (highly gifted range) per her IQ.
That is what she is thinking. I know that AP Chem is harder but she literally breezed through honors chem last year (never studied and got an A+). She also got an A+ in AP Bio and a 5 on the AP test (same for Calc).
If she’s highly gifted then the situation’s different from a top 10% achiever. Just make sure she’s not overextended - she may breeze through it but there’s always required work that takes time no matter how fast you read/write/type/test. So, it wouldn’t be the material’s level and quantity, but rather simply the quantity of work assigned and time to spend in the lab.
Again- think highly (actually likely midrange or she would have finished college by now) gifted kid here. When my gifted son was in HS he was able to handle APs (well taught- able to get 5’s on AP exams), cross country/track, music and academic teams. Plus far too much computer time (parents vs teen led to some real clashes). There isn’t necessarily much more work doing the advanced classes as there would be doing the regular ones. AP sciences (and math) are taken with mastery of material in previous classes. Writing skills are usually developed well so doing papers not as daunting. The top kids will go on to an elite school or honors program and thrive on doing more than the other 90+%.
Think outside your box folks. The gifted ARE different. Often they do not need to work hard to accomplish what most in their honors/AP classes work hard for. Think about athletes. The HS stars don’t all make the college teams and few of the college players will make it to the pros (even fewer become stars). The top academic students do go to top tier colleges but all are not equal.
My S19 took 5 IB classes plus AP physics and TOK during junior year. He played two varsity sports and had other ECs and didn’t have problems keeping up. A lot depends on your daughter’s motivation and if you think she can balance the load with other things in which she is interested and enjoys.
That sounds like a lot! Will there be anything left to take senior year?
For senior year she will take AP Physics E/M, AP Eng Lit, AP Economics, AP Computer Science A, AP Statistics (or a multivariate calculus class at a local college).
A little update! Six weeks into the school year and so far so good. She has As in all her classes (A+ in both Physics and Chem) and still maintaining her rigorous ballet schedule.
At least in my son’s school, AP Chem and AP Phys C are double periods. One of those can wait.
Next year she can do the other one and comp sci.
AP lang at my son’s school was a high volume course (not sure why there was so much volume versus less volume and more quality writing).
Six is too many.
and… even if BC calc is a review, there will still be many problems to solve for homework every night. Might not be the cakewalk she thinks.
4 or 5 is different from 6.
So far she seems to handling the work load and has A’s and A +’s (in both science courses). Calculus has indeed so far been relatively easy for her as it is mostly review at this point. She just took the SAT this morning and hoping that it will be one and done and she won’t have to worry about that for the remainder of the year.
Thanks for the update!
Calc classes can vary. My older son’s calc teacher had suggested homework, but said, just do as many problems as you need to until you feel confident you are comfortable with the material. He never checked it.