@Spiral7 Since your school doesn’t do class rank I think they should let you take as many as you want, but for a school that does rank it would be unfair to let one person be the exception to a rule because then everyone else would have a lower class rank just because they followed the rules. But this doesn’t apply to you because your school doesn’t rank. They should just let you take as many as you want. My school barely has any restrictions, you just have to have the prerequisites (and sometimes they let you in even if you don’t).
@dsi411 The 2 APs isn’t a rule though!!! It’s just my guidance counselor and teacher being super uptight!!! All teachers have different viewpoint, mainly depending on what students they see. Its just really annoying!
At my school, we have to get reccommended for honors and AP classes, and if we want to take a class we weren’t reccommended for, we have to get a series of signatures and write out a statement on why we want to take the class-- and not everyone who goes through that process gets into the class. We’re a small private school, though, and the administration prides itself on the rigor of our higher-level classes. I really don’t mind this policy because it assures that the level of discussion in, say, an honors English class will be sufficiently engaging for the entire class. There are a lot of successful, pressure-y parents at my school who would push kids to go into classes that they really aren’t ready for as well. At my sister’s school, they tried opening APs to anyone who felt like they could handle it, and it was a disaster. A lot of kids did /really/ badly. Essentially-- there are cases where lots of restrictions isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
However, this seems like the exact opposite of Spiral’s situation, especially because the 2 APs deal isn’t actually a rule. I’ve been trying to think of some reason why a school wouldn’t let a motivated student who is capable of doing the work take a third AP, and I’ve been coming up blank. My thoughts are with you, @Spiral7! I hope everything works out.
@Spiral7 Oh, whoops.
@Spiral7 That is crazy that your guidance counselor won’t let you take more than 2 APs. That hurts you in the long run and it’s not fair.
A lot of guidance consolers (at least in my experience) don’t seem to know what they’re talking about… this year my guidance consoler tried to convince me to drop out of AP Physics. It was the middle of the second marking period and i had a 99% for the first marking period and had a 98% for the second. She pulled me out of my math class (which she shouldn’t do anyway) to bring me to her office to convince me to drop out of my best class THAT WAS HELPING MY GPA TREMENDOUSLY because she thought I needed a little more “me” time (What does she even mean by that??). She even called my mom to try to have my mom convince me to drop it (at which point my mom told her nicely to basically mind her own business, I was fine). Thank god i didn’t listen to her cause its still my best (and favorite) class. Moral of the story: guidance consulors can be wackjobs so if theres a way to get around them and talk to someone higher up to get into the class, id figure out a way to do it.
At my school, you just have to get teacher signatures, and with the exception of for Calc BC, they are relatively easy to obtain (even for Calc BC, I’m pretty sure it’ll be easy for me–my teacher thinks I’m smart and I got an A- last semester, despite my horrible grade in the class right now). I’m a little worried about getting my Chem teacher’s signature for Chem and Physics (apparently he tells people who are taking two sciences that they won’t get As in both); most people take only Chem and Bio (which is marginally easier than Physics and not math-based), not Chem and Physics. At my school, they sort of expect that you’ll pace yourself. People who are on the smarter side generally take ~4 APs/UC weighted (not all honors courses are weighted–only H. English and H. Precalc; DE classes (level 3 languages and above, college math) are also weighted) courses a year junior and senior year. If they take more, they’re generally easier courses (I know a girl who’s taking 6 weighted, but two are filler classes–Spanish 3 and AP Stats, and she has the BS teacher for AP Bio). I’ll be taking between 4 and 5 weighted courses next year (depending on whether I get into Journalism, which is technically a better course + I’ll have a leadership position senior year).
Thank god my school didn’t implement an AP limit. Although we have to have a personal talk with the counselor if we want to take more than 1 AP.
@KE3299 lol, a lot of my friends are in the same position.
At my school, your parents have to write a petition letter and then you have to personally talk with the vice principal in order to take more than two AP/Honors classes.
At my school everyone meets with the counselor in a brief meeting to discuss classes for next year. To take APs you need a parent signature and the counselor has to say yes. They usually do, unless you have really bad grades or something.
in my school we can just do whatever lol. all my counselor said was “are you ready to not have a life”
@SallyStephens what are you taking next year?
all ap’s lol @pseudoprimal
@SallyStephes What your counselor said was priceless. What tone of voice did she use?
At my school, people sort of know what they’re getting into… And even if you think you do, it’s usually worse xD It’s impossible to take more than 5 APs a year junior and senior year, since there’s always one required class for which no AP is offered. And almost nobody takes more than three hard APs a year.
Most of the top kids at my school do the IB program so in 11th and 12th grade they’re pretty much doing the equivalent of taking all AP classes. But you are not expected to get all As, very few people have all As at my school and there are around 3600 kids here. So it is pretty common among top students to take all APs or all IBs at my school. They are the only weighted classes and everyone wants a high class rank!
In my school, sophomores can take 1 AP class (US Gov) and then after that they don’t really care what classes you take. I wanted to take AP World in addition to my other 3 APs, but my guidance counselor strongly advised against it since I swim and run for the high school. The only kids who take 4 or 5 APs are the ones who take an AP language, since at my school it doesn’t have much work tied to it.
Anyone else off today!?!
I’m off! Good thing too because I have a lot of AP Physics work to catch up on.