<p>I went to a large public high school in Southern California, class of '68. We were a mix of upper-middle class all the way down–we had issues when Martin Luther King was killed, and there were shootings during the Watts Riots. I didn’t take Calculus in 12th grade because I would have had to go to the local CC, which wasn’t feasible. Our school was only three years, and nobody took science in 9th grade, so I only had biology and chemistry. I do think my regular chemistry class in 11th grade was harder than my daughter’s (at a very good school in Northern California).
We didn’t have any AP’s. We had honors Social Studies in 12th grade as opposed to regular civics and economics; some of the info we studied (intro to psych and sociology) showed up in the general knowledge section of the MCAT’s I took four years later. Nobody took the SAT more than once and we all took three Achievement Tests. A lot of us went to elite schools–1 Harvard, 1 Yale, 1 Barnard, 8 Stanford, etc. In those days, UCLA wasn’t as hard to get into, so we had a lot of kids go there. Everygody joined a lot of clubs because that had been drilled into us as a pre-requisite for getting into good colleges.
I have scandalized my daughter with the information that our prom theme was “Purple Haze” (how in the world did we ever get that by the administration?)</p>
<p>Large NYC specialized high school. Graduated in the mid 70’s was in the 3rd group of girls to attend this formerly all male school (the old guard teachers felt that we were there to ruin the school). Took the most rigerous track, because it was pretty much an expectation. Got really up set when many friends transferred out after junior year already having more credits than they needed to finish high school and simply went locally to take gym and graduated 6 months early.</p>
<p>Rural high school in the south, class of 1980 (about 150 graduates)…No such thing as AP’s at our school. My classes were refered to as “accelerated” not honors and no weighted grades. Our report cards didn’t even show a gpa, only your actual average in the class for that quarter. </p>
<p>I wouldn’t even have known what a gpa was except that you had to have a certain average to be in the Beta Club. I was also in band but quit to be a cheerleader plus a bunch of meaningless clubs I joined to get out of class. We had “Club Day” the first Monday of every month. Different clubs met during each class period so if you joined enough clubs you could potentially get out of class the whole day. I was a club queen!</p>
<p>I had 4 years of English and Science, 3 years Math, Social Studies and French… also had typing, home ec, DECA, band, yearbook,PE…had 6 periods per day…only took 5 senior year, left school early for my DECA job. Took PSAT in 10th grade and SAT (once…totally unpreped) in spring of Jr. yr.</p>
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<p>Yes! A kid I knew saw me in the grocery store and offered to sell me the answers. :eek: I thought he was full of it until I heard the story on the news the next day!</p>
<p>Didn’t study for SAT’s just took them a couple times.
Didn’t take AP’s as they weren’t for regular kids (we thought), and no one suggested them to us.</p>
<p>Highest level courses were Alg II/Triginometry, College prep Chem and Physics, Econ, US History. They were all tough classes for me. Bio 2 was the most challenging class I took, and I loved it. That’s what made me choose Bio as my major.</p>
<p>Didn’t prep for SAT’s at all. The PSAT was called the NMSQT, and the SAT II’s were called “Achievement Tests”. Oh…I only listed what my school required. I also took music theory, sociology, a third year of French, business law, psychology, and civics. I REALLY wanted to take Home Ec, but college bound students were not allowed to take it. Oddly, I had a friend who wanted to become (and did so) a Home Ec teacher. SHE also was forbidden to take the course. ODD!!</p>
<p>Ok, I seem to be the senior responder–class of 1968 here, at the top public high school in Memphis. We had no AP–but had “enriched” classes; equivalent to Honors. I was lucky enough to have some outstanding teachers, but also some duds. We had already taken home ec/shop in 8th grade, so no issues for high school. I took typing in summer school so it wouldn’t crowd out academic classes–imagine an unairconditioned classroom and manual typewriters! Also, the teacher graded on the curve.</p>
<p>There was no SAT prep–and I applied early decision to a school that I never even visited until AFTER I was accepted. Why did I apply there? My mother said it would be a good school for me. It turns out that she was right.</p>
<p>I hung out with the “smart kids” but don’t recall a soul I knew taking Physics. I assume it was offered…or maybe not?</p>
<p>Tell me if I am remembering correctly. In the back of my mind, I seem to recall that for the purposes of the PSAT scores, the verbal was counted double (twice as much as the math). That is why all of the commended students and semi-finalists were the English geeks instead of the Math geeks. Can that possibly be true? And if so, when did it stop?</p>
<p>Class of '69, public school in a lower middle class part of the San Fernando Valley of LA. The year after I graduated, our school was the only non-inner city HS to lose accreditation in the LA city school district.</p>
<p>Requirements? We don’t need no stinking requirements! While I’m sure there were a few, it couldn’t have been much. I never took the PSAT or SAT and graduated a half year early (I was a Feb graduate which they were ending and gave us the choice of getting out early if we had enough credits) since I was sick of school.</p>
<p>Thank goodness for the California CC and UC system! As a late bloomer, I now have more letters after my name than my HS career would ever have predicted.</p>
<p>Private school, Buffalo, 1974. I had sort of a weird, tailor-made curriculum, reflecting the perception that I was the best student in the school and would decamp to boarding school if I weren’t kept entertained. I also took my sophomore year in a program for juniors and seniors in Spain, so that kind of messed up my progressions. I took four years of English, three of history, two (!) of science, four of math (ending in calculus), three years of Spanish, and two of French. (I also had two years of Latin and Spanish in middle school, and a semester of Catalan.) We didn’t have “AP” courses, but I took the APs in Spanish, French, and Calculus. </p>
<p>My school was pretty competitive and challenging, and I took the hardest courses possible, with lots of skipping around. (I only had two courses at grade level in 9th grade, and one of those was math where I couldn’t attend class so I just did the homework, met with the teacher for 10 minutes a few times a week, and took the tests during my lunch period.) I took a 300-level university Spanish course in 11th grade, and started French in French IV. However, my senior year I decided to take Music Theory instead of Physics (which interested me not an iota). Several of my friends did that, too. We had a great time, and no one suggested that we would have college admissions problems because of it (we didn’t).</p>
<p>I think I actually did more work in high school than my kids – or at least one of them – did. We were given tons of writing assignments, with substantial term papers in all English and History courses, and read more books. I did a fair number of ECs – everything involving writing, including being the editor-in-chief of the literary journal, lots of acting, glee club, and service work – plus it was a school where everyone did sports every season. All the history and Spanish classes I took were actually taught by PhDs. I did not feel unprepared for college at all.</p>
<p>SAT prep? Nah . . . never heard of it, except for taking the PSAT. I did take the SAT twice, once in 10th and once in 11th grade. Taking it twice was pretty common, usually spring 11th grade and fall 12th grade.</p>
<p>I applied to two colleges . . . those two. Harvard, where I was a legacy several times over (and it mattered more, then), was my safety school. It was a more innocent time.</p>
<p>Class of '79, suburban non-competitive HS in Georgia (not the Atlanta area).</p>
<p>Graduation requirements were 18 credits – we had special dispensation because my HS was on double session due to overcrowding, and we had a five-period day as a result. Usual requirement was 21.5 with a six-period schedule. I graduated with 31 credits, ranked 10/300. Would have been ranked higher if I’d just taken what I was supposed to… 
SAT was 1300 (old scale, before recentering) – 2nd highest in the school. I have an old Kaplan SAT test prep book – I used to cry at how tough the vocab was, and that was my strength!! I took the SAT twice for colleges, and a third time the day of my senior prom to try to qualify for a scholarship. (Don’t try this at home.)</p>
<p>Took three years of math, two years of science (exempted freshman year science, took two years of Bio) – due to schedule conflicts, I couldn’t get more. Wish I had taken more math. HS did not offer any foreign language, math beyond pre-calc, or APs. </p>
<p>They did have ISC, which was Independent Study for the gifted kids. Most kids used it as a study hall or as time to play chess and did their ISC coursework (usually US Hist) at home. For me, it was a safe haven where I could explore other areas. The teacher ordered curricula from various places – mainly in the social sciences – and they were basically writing courses. Since I was a polisci/history/journalism sort, this was fabulous preparation for college. I usually took 7-8 classes per semester. People thought I was nuts. Wound up with about 7 credits in English and 10-11 in Social Studies.</p>
<p>The teacher also ordered AP coursework in USH and Brit Lit from the University of Nebraska – which I completed, but noone told me about the AP exams. Grrr. I did get credit through my ACH and placement scores for the work, though, once I got to college. </p>
<p>Also threw myself into ECs, both to get out of the house and to do something stimulating. Chorus, flag line, EIC of yearbook, photographer, Beta Club, class secretary, model UN, Governor’s Honors, Century III Leaders, student council, did a major historical project for the HS’s 50th anniversary, etc. I didn’t sleep much. I didn’t want to.</p>
<p>Freshman year, everyone was required to take General Science. There was an honors option for English and Math, but everyone had to take General Science. It was taught by the baseball coach and as far as I can remember, it was roughly equivlent to what the regular (not pre-AP) 6th graders take now. I wonder why they thought that 9th graders couldn’t handle Biology?</p>
<p>As a high school teacher, I find this question very interesting. I often hear students complaining about the quality of some of their classes, instruction, and educational opportunities in our small school, but they have so much more available than I ever did, even without considering the technological advantages we have now. </p>
<p>There were lots of “business” classes in my high school curriculum–typing, shorthand, bookkeeping, even a course on how to operate a 10-key adding machine! That was in rural eastern WA, mid70s. Sometimes I wonder how any of us managed to end up with professional careers. I took a year of algebra, a year of biology, an experimental 2-year “humanities” course for gifted students that replaced the regular grades 11-12 English and social studies requirements, and other than that it was mostly a lot of fluff–music, drama, speech, home ec, yearbook, etc. There were no foreign languages or advanced math or science courses, and I never even heard of AP. I was the salutatorian in a class of 45 with a GPA of around 3.6! In the school where I teach now, that GPA would land a student somewhere in the second quartile.</p>
<p>I have no memories of ever studying, and there was very little homework, and only a couple of bigger projects. I can’t say I ever felt really pushed or challenged, but I always felt confident that the teachers were doing a good job. And somehow I attained the necessary skills to be very successful when I did finally enter college more than ten years later. Only a handful of my high school classmates went directly to college, but they went on to careers in education and health professions, so I guess that is an indication that our preparation was adequate.</p>
<p>I remember working as hard in high school as I did in college, which was not particularly hard for either - largely because I was on the newspaper and yearbook staffs and I spent tons of time on those because our school had won a bunch of national awards. We were in the middle of nowhere in rural Virginia. I graduated in 1972 and we had a few “accelerated” classes. We also had a journalism class that only the accelerated kids could take. We had world history and US history. I was the only girl in my graduating class who didn’t take home ec. I hated math so stopped at Algebra II. The 11th grade English teacher did vocabulary drills everyday for SAT prep but I wasn’t aware of any prep materials and took it cold. I have blocked out my math score but verbal was 730. The verbal score seemed to count more than the math score back then because I remember my guidance counselor suggesting that the much lower math score wouldn’t matter. I applied to one school - William and Mary - and got in early admission. My parents had no idea how easy they had it. Neither of them went to college and my Dad dropped out in 9th grade to farm so they didn’t see it as a problem that I applied to one school - I’d be in real trouble these days. I had never heard of an EC but I guess I had decent ones - I wouldn’t have wanted anyone to know I worked on the farm so that was never mentioned.</p>
<p>Class of 74, suburb of chicago. Our school got it’s first black student when I was a freshman. Now i live in Chicago and I’m amazed at the little United Nations that’s in my kids classroom. For history class, our senior year we watched TV …the Nixon impeachment hearings. Our US history teacher promoted this as history in the making. We had three maths offered but most of us took algebra and geometry . We had three sciences and i took all three bio, chem and physics. We were forced to take home ec and learn to cook, sew and babysit. Four years of English is the only reason that our high school was a four year school. I wanted to take challenge classes so the high school arranged to have me take college classes at the local JC. Hitchhiked at night to go to class and lived thru it. I graduated “early”. We had no college prep classes, no test prep, no AP. I wanted to go to college but had no means (translation no parents with money). I went to work after high school and then qualified as an independent student for financial aid. To get into college i just walked into a fairly well know University in Chicago and signed up for an accounting class, pulled out a check book and no one asked me for admission permission. I continued to take classes under my temporary student ID for two years before someone found me and asked what my major was. It took me another 4 to 5 years to gradute with a B.S. as i worked my way thru college. What a change now when I see my kid with so much access to so many choices and so much knowledge.</p>
<p>I have no problem listening to the counselors telling the parents that the kids need 4 years of English/Math/Science/Soc. Studies/Foreign Language TO GET INTO a good college. But I admit that it does drive me crazy when they tell us that the kids need all that TO SUCCEED in a career.</p>
<p>Class of 74, rustbelt town in northern Illinois. Our district “bussed” so all schools were racially mixed. Unfortunately we saw much racial tension throughout middle and high school. I’ve often wondered why more people don’t mention this about their post-civil rights era school days, but perhaps only a small portion of us experienced this?</p>
<p>There was crowding. I shared a locker throughout junior high and high school. In junior high we had split shifts. School began at 11:20 and my first two classes were study hall and lunch! We were out by 5 or so. The halls were nearly impassible when both AM and PM sessions were in the school. We had 3 minutes to change before and after gym; I can still hear those gym teachers scream “Three minutes, ladies!”. We had to shower after gym, and they looked you over to see water droplets on your body, every day. We had those ‘romper’ gym suits too. I remember ripping the snaps open. Getting into panty hose while steamy hot - fun. We had the very first sex ed sessions in junior high. The teachers looked like they were going to die, poor embarrassed things.</p>
<p>I have to say that my DD’s high school has far better teachers than we did. There were several good ones when I went to school, but far too many bad ones. Not a lot of accountability or pressure to improve, IMO, and I had a general hatred of school for a very long time. My senior year Honors English teacher scarcely had us write. When one girl asked her why she didn’t have us write more, she said to us, “You just get these kids to write”. I never had a history teacher get much past the year 1900 (we had social studies for 2 years, then US history, then World history). My physiology teacher taught only 3 days total one semester. The rest of the time he talked about coaching wrestling, football, etc (he gave book tests, and walked around talking while we did dissections).</p>
<p>But I had good Earth Science freshman year - the smart kids took Biology, but I’m glad I had Earth Science. The physics teacher was great, but a blatant male chauvinist. We did dissections in regular biology; evidently nobody does that now. The middle two years of honors math were independent study. It was heavenly! But senior year the dept. head insisted on teaching us, and refused to teach one iota of Calculus - “that is for University”. So we had an entire semester of Analytic Geometry, a subject we grazed in our 3rd semester of Calculus. She and a couple of other teachers had it out for certain kids. Fortunately I haven’t seen that so far with my kid today.</p>
<p>I went to a private school - my public jr. high had been very integrated. My high school had three or four AA girls in my class of 80. I had an interesting conversation at some alumnae event with a woman in the class ahead of mine. It turned out she had been one of the girls that integrated our school. Apparently she hadn’t wanted to be part of the project at all, but her parents insisted. I had not a clue that my school had been lily white up until the year before I entered. A few years ago I read the book Black Ice which I think probably echoed her experiences quite closely.</p>
<p>Treetop - interesting that you mention the racial component. My high school in southern Virginia integrated in the middle of the school year my sophomore year - 1970. We went home for Christmas break from a 100% white school and returned about a week later to a 6o/40 black/white mix. There was a lot of worry about unrest and the National Guard was on standby, but it was completely peaceful.</p>
<p>I appreciate my high school experience more now than I did when I was living it. I went to 3 schools during high school - a large public school on Long Island for 9th, a small private school on LI for 10th and 11th, and Eugene Lang college in NYC for 12th. 9th grade was ok - a bit dull, but I lucked out with a good math teacher for GeometryR and a good science teacher for Earth Sci. R. In 10th grade I had an excellent class on Dramatic Literature and a great history teacher. The science teacher was good, but the class went much too slowly (1 year of chemistry was covered in 2 years). Math was OK the first year at school #2, but the school was too small for math more advanced than algebra 2, so I did math by mail. The college classes were great - it was wonderful being able to finish high school by not being in high school. I didn’t have much college counseling - researched all that on my own. Decided which tests to take and when on my own. I didn’t know what AP exams were. I think I took the SAT twice (10th & 11th) - went up 40 points the 2nd time, and did not take senior year. I did have to take both versions of the English Ach. test - without essay to meet an early app deadline and with essay because my dad insisted. I still don’t know why. We did a lot more writing than my kids do (much of the blame is mine since I homeschool, but they’ve taken outside classes as well that do not seem very writing-intensive).</p>