Impending Significant Change in AP Tests

marite
Sat, 30 Jan 2010 15:43:55 +0000

^I don’t know. But the math/science curriculum in China is far more demanding than the curriculum for the corresponding grade in the US.

I recently talked to a young Vietnamese girl who is spending the year here, in 8th grade. Although her English is not quite idiomatic (she began studying in 6th grade), her math is far more advanced than the curriculum, at least by one grade level. In Vietnam, she is in a class of 54. Here, her class has 22 students. There are aspects of her education here that she really values, in particular, class discussions and the willingness of her teacher and fellow students to entertain different points of view. Of course, class discussions would not be possible in a class of 54 (or 80). She also says that students here do far far less homework than in Vietnam. Chinese students also do a lot more homework. I imagine that all this homework gets corrected!