Yeah, AP World is a tough class. There’s an enormous amount of information to process, in addition to learning historical thinking approaches that probably aren’t part of a typical student’s skill set. Students who take this class typically haven’t had much rigor in their history classes up to that point, and the information is mostly new, so there’s a lot of context necessary to make it make sense. A lot of reading, too, which at that age means learning how to read at higher levels and get something out of it.
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My daughter took AP Euro as a sophomore and didn’t do very well on the exam. I chock that up to two thing, having to move in the middle of sophomore year and basically having 4 weeks less in the school year because of the different school starting and ending schedules and being less mature and less familiar with AP tests in general. She took World History as a senior but opted not to take AP. Same teacher taught AP World and asked her why she didn’t take it and she told him she had too many APs that year. She became his teaching asst and he just loved her and wished she’d taken AP. He was her favorite teacher, she still stays in touch with him and she’s 13 years out of high school.
But it wasn’t an easy class. She did well because she loved the teacher and the subject. I think she would have done well on the exam because she was older and more used to the format as a 17 year old and not a 15 year old (with a change in schools).
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Now I’m curious again! If Dance is an academic course, what would be an example of a course that isn’t academic?
At our kids’ high school, gym class is an example of a class that isn’t considered academic, while dance class is classified with visual and performing arts. Dance is an elective, but it is considered an academic elective, like photography, stagecraft, theater, orchestra, etc.
Health and PE are typical examples that are not considered academic courses for college prep.
When high schools offered things like auto shop, wood shop, home economics, and the like, those were other typical examples.
I wonder if it has a textbook - i.e. you are defining it (I think) as a physical activity whereas there might be theory or history or other components of the course. It’s likely different school by school.
I don’t know if by AP Comp Sci, you’re talking about principles of CS or AP Comp Sci A. My son took the latter sophomore year and I really wish he hadn’t because it was incredibly challenging and stressful for him. Skip the APs freshman year.
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It is AP CS principles for this thread.
For most students, AP CS A should only be taken if (a) the student is strongly interested in a CS major, and (b) the student has had prior computing experience or CS course work (AP CS principles would count).