<p>In our high school, you must get an A in a course in order to qualify for AP. </p>
<p>This has precluded my son from taking almost any AP he would actually want to take next year, unfortunately. (He is getting an A in regular Physics but does not want to take AP Chem or Physics as he has heard they are brutal.)</p>
<p>Is this typical? Just wondering…</p>
<p>At our high school, students must attend a “pre-AP” meeting where they learn about the coursework and amount of work expected. Some teachers make students talk to upperclassmen taking the AP course to discuss workload. Then the teacher must sign a form allowing the student to take the AP course.</p>
<p>But I’ve never heard of grade being the determining factor. It seems unfair to me.</p>
<p>At my school you generally have to get a teacher signature for an H/AP/IB class the following year. I understand a grade requirement–it seems like a similar thing.</p>
<p>APs are generally open enrollment at the counselor’s discretion. Take them as you please. It shouldn’t be like that, though, since in my AP Chem class, one student dropped out and took an E for the year, another two have D’s, I think. We have 6 people in the class (AP Chem is the hardest course at our school). In my AP Lit class, a few people have C’s, and I think one has a D (we only have 11 students).</p>
<p>RockAndRoll - You should talk to your school’s guidance counselor about forcing your child to be in the courses they want. We have the option of a parent override, but the stipulation is that the student can’t drop out of the course if it’s too hard.</p>
<p>At my school, you have to apply to all of your AP classes. You attach your transcript and you write a 300 word essay and you hand it in to the department head of that specific AP class. That person then bases their decision to admit you or not on the essay/transcript, but also, talks with the teachers individually about who is the best fit. So the teachers can put in a good or bad word, and maybe help out a less fortunate kid who doesn’t have all A’s. Then there’s a wait list for those who don’t get in.</p>
<p>At my school there is no blanket requirement to take APs but usually you need an A- or above to move up. Sometimes Bs and B+s can take APs with approval from various teachers, counselors, and parents.</p>
<p>Well… teacher’s recommendation is required with pre-requisite courseload. </p>
<p>However, every teacher has different standards so it’s pretty random.</p>
<p>At my school you have to apply to every AP, but an A in a previous course will always get you in. If you have a B, you get in if the teacher of the course you are applying to wants you, or if your previous teacher recommends you. If you get a B in a course becuase you had problems with the teacher, you’re screwed.</p>
<p>Also, if the teacher is having a hard time finding enough students (four?) to run an AP class, they let anyone in.</p>
<p>Yup, ready to roll…around here you cannot take an AP unless you have at least an A- in the preceding honors class; never mind if you want to take it from college prep (they won’t even let you into honors)…SOme students attempt to override that and if successful, are not allowed to drop the AP the following year if it proves too challenging…Yes, we have very limited AP enrollment and yes, it affects college admissions but our administration doesn’t really get that…(or doesn’t really care)</p>
<p>Montgomery County Maryland Public Schools has open enrollment for AP courses and for Honors courses. In fact, those few kids who are lurking along in only on-level courses are hunted down and heavily encouraged to challenge themselves with at least one tougher class. In the first week or two each semester, there is some shifting up and down between the levels at Happykid’s school, but after that there is no moving up or down until the semester ends. Some individual teachers and departments are known to make dropping down at the semester very difficult, but that is not school policy, it is just some folks being obnoxious.</p>
<p>There is a lot of evidence that fairly “normal” kids do just fine in AP classes, and can achieve decently on the AP exams. Jay Mathews has written extensively about this in his articles for the Washington Post. He’s also got a couple books out on AP and what it does for the classroom. Look for them on Amazon.</p>
<p>The question you have to ask yourself is whether it is worth your effort to pursue this AP thing with the school district. Are there enough parents in your situation to have the momentum for a real fight if it comes to that? Or, would you rather just send your kid to the community college so he/she can take a true college level course for all-but-guaranteed college credit instead?</p>
<p>At our school anyone can take any class. We get teacher recommendations but they don’t even matter because even if the teacher says that you shouldn’t take AP, you still can. </p>
<p>If our GC thinks that you will do bad in an AP class, they will definitely let you know and steer you away from it.</p>
<p>our school allows anyone to take any AP test they want. last year a girl i know took pretty much all the science ones and managed to pull a 3 on the biology; for chemistry, she drew a very nice picture</p>
<p>however, our calc teacher has challenged us to beat or equal last year’s average of 4.5, so for awhile we tried to make sure the kids who weren’t doing well would either shape up or not take the test. so far so good.</p>
<p>My school lets you take whatever you want. AP, IB, you could be a straight D/F student (Which I’ve seen) in IB. I’m a fan of letting students do as they please, I for one actually do better in the more challenging courses than regular academic classes.</p>
<p>At my school, honors and AP courses are completely open enrollment. It’s a miserable policy.</p>
<p>If you don’t meet the pre-requisite for an AP class, normally you can request to be put in them anyway. Check with the counselor’s office.</p>
<p>same here borb</p>
<p>my school is like take it if you want, but you can’t drop the class</p>
<p>My school (which is a Catholic, private, competitive school) has pretty strict criteria for getting into the majority of AP classes:</p>
<p>1) Fill out an application, and get signatures from your instructor in that class
2) You must have a current high grade in the current class that you’re taking for that subject
3) You must have a high cumulative GPA in that particular subject (for example, english or social studies) to get into the AP course for that subject
4) You must have a high cumulative overall GPA
5) You must take a Qualifying Exam (from my experience, I found it to be harder than the SATs itself and what sucks about it is that there’s no way you can study for it) and you must get a certain grade (I think it’s a 75% or above)</p>
<p>Failure of any of those requirements usually results in not getting into that particular AP class. It’s because of these requirements that so few people even take AP classes in my school. </p>
<p>The only AP classes that I’ve been able to take are the one’s that don’t involve steps 3-5, and they’re really limited. I’ve tried getting into more AP classes my senior year, but my cumulative GPA and my Qualifying Exam score didn’t qualify (but for some reason, my score qualified for AP Gov. and Honors Economics). After telling an instructor how much I wanted to take AP Gov’t and Honors Econ, she put me on a waiting list–where there were already 15+ people before also trying to get into the class so I the end I didn’t get into both classes because my cum. GPA wasn’t enough (and only 25 or less people can get into AP classes in my school and those people are usually those who met all criteria and had the highest GPAs and exam scores). So I ended up taking the college prep courses for Gov. and Econ., which were challenging at my school (like every other college prep course), but I’ve done really well in those classes (I got an A in Gov. and I currently have an A in Econ right now). I just wish I could’ve been given the chance to challenge myself even more by taking those advance courses. I’ve been able to take 2 APs throughout my high school career and you’re considered lucky or extremely smart if you even qualify for one AP. So yep, that’s my school.</p>
<p>At our H.S., AP and honors sections are open enrollment. If you want to take an ap class, you can. This does not cause any problems. </p>
<p>Our guidance counselors are really very good; perhaps they help advise people to take the right level course to make sure no one takes a class they really won’t be able to deal with.</p>