<p>Boy, the emphasis on sciences makes sense since he clearly loves them. But if he can’t switch easily…that is one very heavy schedule. I can’t imagine he could do sports or EC’s too… and if he struggles in one that could pull everything else down. Does this schedule sound fun to him? If it does then yes, damn the torpedos. But otherwise, knowing that it will be hard to switch out if he’s feeling overwhelmed…I’d lose one of those. I think he’ll be plenty impressive with only 4 APs as a junior…and less likely to burn out. It’s so different from person to person and school to school, though–it’s hard to say.</p>
<p>Javaac - My son is already taking Spanish 4, since he took high school Spanish 1 and 2 in middle school. He is contemplating taking AP Spanish (instead of one of the other AP’s junior year but is not sure because rumor has that is it near impossible if you are not a native speaker). Yes, he wants to take 3 sciences. This year he is taking 2 sciences and 2 maths, that is his interest and forte. Next year he can only take one math so that he leaves the final math class (available at our school) for senior year. When he graduates in 2012, he will have taken 32 credits (11 or 12 APs, 16 honors and 5 regular classes (PE, music appreciation, Spanish 1 and 2 and Algebra 1, which isn’t given as honors in 7th grade). So, he will have a minimum of 4 years in every core academic subject but extra math and science.</p>
<p>Since we’re talking about AP’s, does anyone know what colleges think of community college courses (physics, chem, etc) vs. AP level classes? We’re trying to free up more day time for our D to practice her sport. She is taking one of her classes through independent study this semester which enables her to leave campus at lunch.</p>
<p>Javacc, I did not know there is no more AP Lit. D course description is AP Lit. She will be taking Vergil next year.
I am going to let her do a couple of practice tests in AP Euro and decide from there.</p>
<p>FWIW, a non native can do well in AP Spanish. It really depends on the teacher. My oldest took it and did well. She was required to read a Spanish newspaper every week and watch a weekly show. She also read many books in Spanish.</p>
<p>there is no more AP Latin Lit (and no more * French* Lit) AP test from the college board. Perhaps your school is still teaching the curriculum? Nothing wrong with that, just that the test is no longer offered. There is only the Vergil test from this point forward. Still two Spanish AP tests.</p>
<p>Lots of science/math kids here. I find it interesting to hear what your children are doing, as I have one myself! </p>
<p>He’ll take AP Chem next year and continue on to Calc 3 at the local U. He’ll probably take AP English through his school as well. I’m not sure what he’ll do with his other 3 hours. Probably some sort of Govt/Econ class at HS, but he’ll apply for admission to take other classes at the U, so we’ll need to sit down with him to figure out what interests him. </p>
<p>He’ll be taking the AP Spanish exam this spring so could continue with a class at the U if there is room. He’s enjoying honors physics at HS this year so could take a more advanced physics class there as well. </p>
<p>Too many choices but it is nice to finally have that available!</p>
<p>seiclan –</p>
<p>Are you talking about the AP Spanish exam being very difficult for non-natives or the class itself?</p>
<p>I’ve heard it’s difficult for a non-native speaker to get a 5 on the exam. I’m looking at the statistics for last year, and nationally only 12.5% of non-native speakers got a 5 on the AP Spanish Language exam. 20.9% of non-native speakers got a 4 and 19.6% got a 3. That’s a total passing rate of 53%.</p>
<p>In contrast, the (much larger) group that includes heritage speakers had 25.6% getting a 5, 26.1% getting a 4 and 18.2% getting a 3, for a passing rate of 69.9%.</p>
<p>There were 110,723 total students taking the AP Spanish Language exam, and only 41,133 fit into the “standard group”, which means they received their language training in the school.</p>
<p>The passing rate spread between total group and standard group is larger for Spanish Language than for any of the other languages, although there’s a significant difference in the passing rate between the two groups for every language.</p>
<p>For anyone who wants to check me, the data is here:
[AP</a> Data 2009](<a href=“http://professionals.collegeboard.com/data-reports-research/ap/data]AP”>Higher Education Professionals | College Board)</p>
<p>Hi all. D is a sophomore and took the PSAT in 8th grade, freshman and sophomore years. She also took the PLAN in sophomore year. She is getting emails and hard mail and it started awhile ago. I don’t know if they are related to her testing or not. She may just be on their lists from all the years she has taken tests.</p>
<p>D just got into Summer at Brown and is going. We are using it as an opportunity to look at East Coast schools. I know some of you have college kids. I do too. My oldes is at UCLA. We are using the Brown summer program as an excuse for a tour of East Coast colleges. When I go pick her up, she and I will visit a bunch of schools. I waited to do the college visits with the first one until after junior year. I think that was too late. I think it is better to start the summer before junior year, so I’m doing the college tours this summer.</p>
<p>Tomorrow my soph. has a meeting with the SAT prep people to figure out a schedule for SAT studying this summer. But she won’t do any SAT prep now. AP Chem is enough work. Plus she plays sports. Its too much to think about studying for the SAT now.</p>
<p>On testing, for those of you who have not done this before, I would recommend you encourage your sophomores to take some subject exams (not the SAT) for this year, especially if your sophomore has AP tests. My soph will take Chem and World History in June when her classes are done. Also, my sophomore will be taking her first SAT in October of Junior year. My college D waited to take the SAT until March of her Junior year and it ended up being a horrible second semester of Junior year, with the SAT, AP and Subject exams. Not doing it that way again, especially since this one wants to take the ACT too.</p>
<p>I agree about taking the October SAT if your child is planning to take both. My son will also start prep this summer for the Oct SAT. I don’t believe he has any shot of National Merit (due to previous poor performance on the CR section) so we won’t bother with any PSAT prep and will go right into SAT work. The plan is that he will take a total of 3 SAT’s, 2 ACT’s and 2 subject tests in total. His first subject test will be the Math 2 this June (since he is now in honors precalculus and that is the CC advice as to when to take it). He will begin to look at some practice tests for this after spring break in April but I don’t expect him to prep that much for the subject test. His second subject test will be after junior year and he will take either the chem or bio, depending on which AP he decides to take AND feels the most comfortable with. IF he takes APUSH, he may also take the US history subject test because the mavens at CC have said that it is closely aligned with the APUSH exam. His first ACT will be in February of 2011 and he will prep over winter break for that. Scheduling of subsequent exams will depend on how he does and how much further prep he needs. Both my daughters got thier highest scores on the MAY SAT, but I don’t know if this is a coincidence. </p>
<p>As for AP Spanish, Spanish 4 honors has just gotten much harder. My son got an A for first semester (and A’s in both quarters) with little effort but currently has a B in Spanish, halfway through the quarter. He says that it has gotten much harder and he will need to devote more time (ie. actually study) for Spanish. He thinks he can bring it up. My friend’s son and many others lost their AP Spanish motivation around this time last year. We will have to see what happens with DS.</p>
<p>We live in Florida and the applications for our state flagships are due early. He will need to apply to UF in July of 2011 (to be able to put a deposit down for housing, which is not guaranteed here) and FSU by Nov. 1 at the latest. Although he would like to go out of state for college, it is very important that he has these instate options. His sister is a graduating Gator and he may well choose Gainesville after all is said and done. For this reason, he must have at least 2 of this SAT’s done by the summer before his senior year. In fact, UF doesn’t even take senior year grades into consideration when making admissions decisions.</p>
<p>lilmom - in answer to your question about what colleges think of community college vs AP classes, your state University or other state U’s may accept the community college credit if it is the same catalogue number. Some private colleges say they will consider the community college classes for credit, most will not. </p>
<p>Example, University of Florida will accept our local community college classes for full credit up to 60 credit hours. Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Columbia, etc. won’t touch those credits with a 10 foot pole. Rice admissions says they will consider transfer credits on a case by case basis, so if your child is taking community college courses, your state U may take them, many others may not.</p>
<p>gnusasaurus, thank you for the info. There’s so much to consider.</p>
<p>lilmom –</p>
<p>Remember that your child may not want credit. She may want placement, or she may want exposure so that first year courses aren’t so overwhelming.</p>
<p>From an admissions perspective, sometimes people take community college courses because they’re (in some locations) easier than AP. Othertimes, the reverse is true. You have a defined reason for taking the college courses (schedule flexibility for sport). I’d just try to make sure that the counselor understands why your child is doing this and that the feeling from the guidance office isn’t that your child is trying to escape rigor, but to challenge herself both academically and athletically.</p>
<p>S2 is a sophomore who is considering applying to top tier math/science schools. He will take SAT subject test in Latin in June as it is his last year of Latin. Since he will sit for that I am wondering if he should also take the math 2 test. I think it would be nice to get a few tests out of the way but don’t want him to risk a mediocre math grade by taking it too early. He did score a near perfect on the PSAT math but I don’t think that necessarily indicates that he will do well on the SAT subject test.</p>
<p>Math 2 is best taken after pre-calc. High PSAT math scores correlate well with high math 2 scores, but I don’t believe you just want a 700+ high score. I think for top tier math/schools like Caltech and MIT, you are aiming for 780-800.</p>
<p>Hello. Just stopping by to say I’ll be joining this thread as I have a son who while graduate in 2012 from high school. Not possible to change my ID from “her” to “him”, but that’s minor. Looking forward to starting at the beginning and reading, listening and hopefully will contribute. Thanks for starting this thread. Time is marching fast.</p>
<p>Welcome, Giveherwingsmom!</p>
<p>mathinokc, yes, that makes sense. My daughter may not need or want the credit. And we’ll remember mentioning on her app and essays that she chose these classes to create more time for her sport.</p>
<p>Welcome to the new members of this thread! Things will be rolling fast from now on - the 2010 thread was going full speed until all the apps were sent out. Now, it’s nail biting time. I’ve been there for the past two years and it’s time to jump over to this one with my 2nd kid!</p>
<p>So yesterday, my son tells me that he wants to take AP Physics next year (on top of AP Calculus AB, AP chemistry, AP History, and AP Spanish). He wants to take AP Physics B as a junior and AP Physics C as a senior (with AP Bio and AP Calc BC). He is a lunatic. He will never be able to do anything else with a schedule like that…he will be mired in hw and studying. When I tried to point that out to him and told him that Junior year is the time to take lots of standardized testing and do well in his classes, he accused me of trying to keep him from challenging himself. I told him that I am trying to keep him from burying himself. Honestly, why does he really want this? I don’t get it. I don’t really know if he can handle this or not but our school is NOT good with schedule changes once you are in a class. We are going to sit down to a family meeting (DH, son and I) before class selection in March. What should I say or not say to make him understand?</p>
<p>Wow, seiclan, that’s a heavy schedule. I agree with you, something’s gotta give. Could this be one of those times when you recruit the GC to back you up? His/her professional opinion might carry more weight with your S than mom or dad’s (sorry). If that doesn’t work, maybe you could plan a study period into his schedule rather than an elective. </p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>seiclan - you were concerned with your son’s schedule this year also. As I remember he has a pretty heavy load. How is he doing? If he is doing well maybe he has a good reason to stretch himself. If not, maybe that’s a good reason to ask him to scale back. One thing to keep in mind is he would be required to take those AP exams on top of all other SATs.</p>