<p>Congrats to seiclan and son! Having two AP’s under his belt should give him more confidence on future AP’s. We are still waiting for D1’s scores :(.</p>
<p>The AP scores arrived here yesterday and S was thrilled to get a 5 in both APUSH and AP Spanish. He definitely didn’t expect it. </p>
<p>I’m happy to have some sense of where he is compared to others. He’s very good at figuring how much work to do for a given grade and not doing much more than that. He has 3 AP’s and 3rd semester calculus on his plate for next year so will need to put in some hard work. We also signed him up for his first real U class in the fall which will either be the next level of Spanish or a geology class. </p>
<p>I hope the AP scores arrive soon for those of you who are still waiting. I wish they would figure out a way to post the scores online.</p>
<p>Congrats on all of the AP scores!</p>
<p>Congrats to your son, NorthernWoods!</p>
<p>Hi everyone! I’m new to this thread. I have a son who just graduated and is heading off to University of Rochester in the fall, and son #2 is ready to head into his junior year. </p>
<p>Are any of your kids taking AP Lit this year? I guess I’m not surprised that my son had summer reading to do, but the assignment to go with it is overwhelming! He has two books to read, and with each book he has to do at least two notebook pages of notes for every chapter. The left page is a combination of notes and answering specific questions like, “Discuss the importance of weather in a specific literary work that you’ve already read, but not in terms of plot.” This is for every chapter (52 chapters total). On the other page he has to do his ‘metacognition’ writing - “note times you are surprised by the text, see patterns, recognize a literary tool the author uses.” </p>
<p>And - the assignment has to be all handwritten in a spiral notebook - no computer. And they grade for neatness. My son has terrible handwriting, even when he tries. </p>
<p>So does over 100 pages of handwritten notes over the summer with deep literary analysis BEFORE he takes the class that teaches him how to do deep literary analysis seem like a little much to anyone besides me? My son works 40 hours a week in the hot sun and participates in a non-school sport that has him busy most weekends. </p>
<p>I’m just wondering - is this the normal summer assignment for kids heading into AP Lit? My older son had a similar assignment for AP Lang, but the writing wasn’t nearly as involved and demanding - he just had to take notes on each chapter, but they were pretty minimal and could be done by hand or on the computer.</p>
<p>PinotNoir - I think my son would drop the class if he ended up with that much writing in the summer. He is taking AP Language this coming year. His summer assignment is comprised of reading two novels and writing a compare/contrast essay. He will also have an objective exam over the reading the first week of school. </p>
<p>How does your son’s teacher even have time to read that many notebooks?</p>
<p>My D2 is taking AP Language and will do AP Lit as a senior. D1 who is off to college in the fall had to read 6 books by American authors the summer before her junior year for her AP teacher. D1 was in the gifted program so she had a different AP Language than D2 will have. D1 also had to write 6 book reports which I believe had certain prompts she had to respond to, but I think the reports only had to be 3 pages in length. If I remember correctly the reason her AP Language teacher wanted them to read the American authors was becasue they don’t get a chance to read them otherwise.</p>
<p>D2 had to read and outline the first four chapters for APUSH this summer. She started SAT prep class last weekend and announced that her summer is now over!</p>
<p>^ With that kind of summer reading, D1 must be heading to a top school this fall.</p>
<p>mom2010grad - I wondered the same thing about the teacher having time to grade these! </p>
<p>And to top it off, my son’s school is REALLY inflexible about dropping classes. Students finalize their schedule for the following year and can make changes until May 1st. May 1st! Then it’s nearly impossible to make a change. He couldn’t drop the class now unless his Sophomore teacher and/or dept head wrote a letter saying it was poor placement and he really isn’t capable of the work, and even then I’m not sure he could. </p>
<p>This is a hug (4400 kids) public school in a fairly affluent midwestern suburb that spends an awful lot of time telling anyone who will listen that they’re one of the best schools in the country. There is an wide spread philosophy here that the best way to serve gifted or even regular-old-smart kids is to give MORE homework. </p>
<p>Wow - I didn’t realize how much I had to vent about this assignment! I’m trying not to let my negativity color my son’s attitude about this class.</p>
<p>It is probably an honor system where assignments are given but not checked. At my D’s HS, they don’t even check math or science homework.</p>
<p>What’s the difference between lit and lang?</p>
<p>English Lit is for literature focused.
English Lang is more non-fiction focused.</p>
<p>Thank you. My D was taking Lit in that case. Her HS has only one english course.</p>
<p>DD is planning on taking the English Lang exam this year. There are no classes labeled AP at her school, but after looking at the College Board AP prep book, she decided that she could study for the English Lang. exam on her own. (She’ll be taking a bunch of other AP exams too, but will have more formal support for those exams.)</p>
<p>Any advise from those who have BTDT?</p>
<p>IJustDrive –</p>
<p>All the free response questions for the AP Language Exams (form A & B, but not the makeup exam) are available on the College Board website:
[AP:</a> English Language](<a href=“AP English Language and Composition Exam – AP Students”>AP English Language and Composition Exam – AP Students)</p>
<p>They have scoring guidelines on that same page (not for this year yet).</p>
<p>Be aware that they added a new type of free response question (I think it’s the synthesis question) just a couple of years ago. So, she won’t see that in the older exams.</p>
<p>You can buy a full released exam from the College Board store, but it’s pretty pricey – around $25.</p>
<p>Mine will be working towards that exam also this year. I don’t know how much support the school will give (her new school has no AP designated classes also), although I know a good percentage of students historically take the AP Eng Lang exam.</p>
<p>PinotNoir… When I was in h.s., I had to do the same thing for APUSH and AP Lit. I had to read a lot and was tested when I got back to school. I wish my D’s school did the summer reading. Because they don’t, my D is trying to read the classics I read that she finds interesting (like Main Street, Madame Bovary, Crime and Punishment) over the summer. She sits on her bed, or at the beach, and reads.</p>
<p>As for SAT review, showmom, my D said the same thing about her SAT prep sucking the life out of her summer. 300 vocab words per week with a 95% or better the only acceptable score. One SAT practice test per week. Homework (lots) and then test corrections. I kinda feel bad for her, but at the same time, she has several friends in the class and so they commiserate together. </p>
<p>Honestly, she has decided that she wants the Ivy…and if she wants it, she has to work hard to get it, and even then, its a pipe dream, in my humble opinion. But if she didn’t try, then she would always wonder, “what if?” So I support her…</p>
<p>It can be very helpful, if not essential, for a student to take advantage of the summer weeks to prepare for the SAT, etc., but parents need to guard against burn-out. Junior year GPA is very important and there are a lot of standardized tests, especially in the spring. Each child is different, so you have to read your child, but the summer is important for rest and relaxation too, in order to guard against exhaustian and loss of motivation in the spring. We are encouraging our DD to read, but have a lot of fun time. The SAT prep class starts in August and runs into Oct.</p>
<p>We would struggle with that much writing as well. If they could type their journal entries that would be an entirely different situation. I wish more teachers would come on board that are kids are tech adapt! </p>
<p>Does any one have AP Gov or AP World History summer assignments?</p>
<p>D has summer assignments in APUSH, English HL and will be doing the Math SL assignment (that one is on her–she’s thinking of changing classes). She did have a World History summer assignment, but they take that class as an honors level as freshman so I doubt the rigor is the same. As I recall it was mostly reading. The APUSh requires multiple essays and is worth a LOT of points. She’s ok with it, has a lot of friends in the class, so they commiserate together. In order to avoid burn out, she sets one day a week for homework/SAT, etc. So far it’s working, but I think there will be a push at the end to finish up.</p>
<p>cherryhillmomto2 –</p>
<p>I think it’s because the teachers know the kids are tech adept that they force them to hand write them. Otherwise, they fear they’re going to get a cut & paste from the internet or another student. At least if the student has to write it by hand (even if they’re copying), there’s some chance that they’re actually reading the notes and thinking about them.</p>
<p>chrissyblu - Like you I feel kind of bad for all the work my D has to do with the SAT prep, but she decided she wanted to do it this summer. It is wonderful that your D is working towards applying to the Ivies. </p>
<p>My D does not have any interest in attending an Ivy. Her focus is to ride horses for a division 1 school in college. D loves fashion and writing so she is trying to decide what to major in at the schools that have D1 equestrian teams.</p>