<p>We are also waiting for Math II here.<br>
We have two more days of finals. And English keeps dropping every day, he is down to an 89.6 (which would be an A just by his fingertips). PLTW final had a bunch of stuff they didn’t learn in class, so he may not be getting college credit for those classes. Ready for summer to start.</p>
<p>We had 1 week of summer and now I’m harrassing my boys to get to work on their summer on-line courses. Crossing my fingers they can stick to a schedule to get it done.</p>
<p>Did a drive by of Goucher yesterday on the way home from Baltimore. Beautiful trees, easy walk to all buildings, but the buildings just seemed in need of an update. I’m not going to push him to do a full visit. </p>
<p>He did look at the Princeton Review Top 325 or whatever book yesterday. Gave him a choice of Johns Hopkins drive by or Goucher. It was great to actually see him read one of the many books we have. </p>
<p>He is a bit concerned that the long list of schools I want him to look at seems to mirror the “Hippy/Pot smoking” list. Didn’t realize I was mirroring that list, but he is very much a laid back, atheist, live and let live type who enjoys the outdoors.</p>
<p>My D finished her last exam last Wednesday and her semester and final grades have been reported online.
Waiting for Math II and World History SAT II results. She is more interested in the results of the AP World exam, however. We will not be calling for those, but will wait for the paper results.</p>
<p>Shilly, my D had a huge stack of trig and other work recylcled the afternoon after her last exam. She goes through this process every year and she does save some material, but like your D, I don’t think she refers to it much.</p>
<p>D has been done with exams for about 10 days, and has enjoyed being stress-free for the first time since Spring Break! Our three-college visit is arranged now that D’s friend from camp will be joining us for all three visits. Then I drop them both off at camp. She is waiting for results from Bio Molecular SAT this week and AP Gov the next week or the week after? Best wishes to all for upcoming test results.</p>
<p>Is everyone’s child in public school and 10th grade (rising jr’s)? As many of you know, I’m switching my D out of private. They do not allow AP’s until jr year (honors classes are allowed in 9th and 10th gr). Only 3 AP’s per year in jr and sr yr due to amt of hw per subject per night and then in sr yr only 5 classes are allowed. It is astonishing to me the difference between public and private. Subject tests are only taken after AP classes which would be jr or sr yr. We were done June 6th…but it’s been anything but relaxing trying to figure out next yr’s situation.</p>
<p>Trig Regents today, Chem and Spanish 3 tomorrow…then we are done. I’m very jealous of all you parents in summer mode! </p>
<p>Medavinci- Our public HS doesn’t “limit” APs except that b/c we are on the smaller side kids can’t really schedule more than 4 APs. Occasionally, they take 5APs. Most take 3. We do have one AP in 10th grade; World History. Most kids do wait to take the SAT2 until they take the AP. It prepares them and they do better on the test. The point is that colleges look at you from within the environment you came from. There is nothing wrong with the way your DD’s school handles their APs and classes. Your DD doesn’t loose anything in the college application process because her school limited her selections. It’s ok. When you change though, you will want your DD’s GC to note that she transfered and that her previous school didn’t have APs in freshman or sophmore year, unlike her current school. </p>
<p>Personally, I think waiting to take APs until jr and sr year is good. Kids may be capable of learning the material to pass the AP test as freshman and sophmores, but they are more mature and have a greater understanding of the material as Jr and Srs. Our kids are rushing, rushing, rushing to learn something that they may have to re-take in their private college anyway. HS has to have balance and fun too. </p>
<p>Good luck to everyone on their last days! DD is ending strong with the exception of her English final 
. She thought she banged it out of the park, but apparently not. Still has an A for the year, but it was a bit of a disappointment.</p>
<p>Meda, my D is now a rising junior in a large suburban public high school. Guidance counseling is pretty sparse at her school which is why I am on CC. The information that many have shared here has helped me to help her better plan her high school career.(already went through the college process once with older S and it was a bit of a disaster) At my D’s school, there are prerequisites a student must satisfy for the math and science AP courses and teacher recommedations the student must obtain. For instance, the student must complete honors biology and chemistry before they can take the AP version. The English and social studies AP’s are treated like a more rigorous track a student can take to complete those credits, but a teacher recommedation is still needed. There are also AP courses that are treated more like electives such as AP Psychology or Music Theory. The student still needs a teacher recommendation for these, though. A parent, however, can request that their child be placed in an AP class without the teacher recommendation as long as they have satisfied any prerequisites. </p>
<p>As for when the SAT or SAT subject tests are taken, that is between you and your child. It is my understanding that it is best to take subject tests like math and any foreign language at the end of the series your child is taking. My D is not finished taking math courses, but she completed trig/precalc this year. Thus, she took the SAT Math II because we have learned there is no material on the test beyond precalc. Other SAT subject tests, like biology or chemistry, can be taken at the end of the course your child is in. Some feel the honors course their child was in is rigorous enough for them to take the SAT subject test. Others wait for their child to take the AP version and then take the subject test. Again, the decision as to when to take these tests is between you and your child. My D’s high school does not dictate when she does this or offer any information regarding test taking.</p>
<p>At our public school, there is no limit for AP courses, but due to scheduling conflict, it gets limited naturally. Most juniors take 3- 5 AP courses. There is a prerequisite for science and math like Blueshoe just said: they need to finish honors Bio or Chem to go to AP Bio or Chem respectively. In addition to this, they need to score 87% or above in these courses to stay in the honors stream or AP classes and have teacher recommendation. However, a parent can appeal against this, and if he or she thinks that their S or D can handle the workload, they may appeal against it and the school will consider specific cases. Personally, I feel every student who has an interest to do an AP course should be given a chance.
At his school, most AP classes complete the prescribed materials. In some cases, they go beyond what is necessary for AP test.<br>
Regarding SAT, it is not mandatory at the school to do it at a particular time, It is purely the student’s choice. However, each of their honors classes(BIO last year and CHEM this year) have encouraged them to do it and the teachers even conducted extra help sessions for SAT prep two times prior to the test date. My son attended the Chem classes and found it very helpful. There were few topics that they didn’t cover in their honors Chem class which was discussed in the study session with the teacher. But I think the school doesn’t mandate it and it is purely the teacher’s call to do that extra mile.</p>
<p>No limit at our public school, and I’d say most kids graduate with 8-10. For math, the school takes you where you are as a freshman; for some, that’s Alg I, for others it’s BC Cal. Everyone takes AP English, APUSH (or cc equivalent) and AP Govt./Econ junior and senior years. No honors level. Lots of AP science offerings. The kids load up on AP electives depending on interest – AP level of your language, AP Euro, etc. The only prereq I can think of is that you score at least an 85 in precal honors level to take BC Cal the next year. Not a lot of kids take APs their freshman and sophomore years. </p>
<p>Like geogirl said, just make sure that your dd’s GC notes the transfer as the reason for fewer APs than her classmates, explaining that the previous school didn’t allow APs to freshmen and sophomores. Your dd also can note this in the add’l info section of the Common App.</p>
<p>Can’t believe that some of you are still in school!</p>
<p>Today is my son’s last day. The school year was extended two days to make up for snow days. I can’t believe the year is done! He managed to pull up his GPA from a 3.1 to a 3.2. Think that will be a sufficient upward trend? 
He leaves for Kenyon on Sunday for a 2 week creative writing workshop. This will be his first time away from home when he wasn’t with family. I’m sure he’ll be fine but ack…it’s college…sorta I just hope he comes back still interested in being a writer…lol.</p>
<p>reeinaz</p>
<p>Upward is upward!<br>
We haven’t gotten report cards, but I expect a downward trend here - and a noticiable one if looking at UW only :(</p>
<p>And even if your son comes back not wanting to be a writer, better to find out now then half-way through college!</p>
<p>Our school is offering a summer engineering program. I was very excited since son is now considering engineering as a possible major. It will be fun, hands-on and taught by one of his favorite teachers. All good. I figured son would just want me to hand over the check. But, no. He doesn’t want to do it. What?! Why?! I drive myself crazy looking for rhyme or reason with the kid.</p>
<p>so D has one more exam tomorrow and is finally done with school until September. Lots and lots of IB homework…I mean lots and lots…anyone else looking at the full-IB summer where fun goes to die…any tips? Three years ago S took one look at the homework and dropped out and found that an IB/AP mix worked well… but D is pretty much committed to the full program. I forsee a very anxious August and burned out by October…</p>
<p>S2 just took his midterm for his summer school course at the community college. It has been an eyeopener for him. The instructor goes pretty fast and doesn’t cover all the material. She actually expects the students to read the textbook! lol All of the quizzes are online with instant grading, which S2 likes. He is slowly getting used to the idea of studying - he really doesn’t need to in HS so this will be a good experience to get him ready for “real” college. Of course, he’s also figured out that summer school classes aren’t calculated in his GPA, so he’s not putting forth a huge effort. No big surprise there!</p>
<p>S2 doesn’t have much summer work to do for his HS classes. He has to read a book for APUSH and write a paper by the end of the first week of class. Also has to read one novel (of his choice) for English. Due to scheduling conflicts, he’s only taking one AP junior year, so it looks like it will be an easy year for him. That’s OK, because he has some major voice competitions coming up which will take up a lot of his free time plus he is directing one of the school plays in the fall.</p>
<p>S relaxing today after Chem and World history finals. The only one left is Statistics tomorrow. One more day and He is done with sophomore year.</p>
<p>Fineartsmajormom, even though my son is not in an IB program(his school doesnt offer any IB Classes, only AP), he has tons of homework over the summer. When I looked at all of it, I felt he has two to three hrs of homework every day in summer. These are homework from the AP classes he is taking and Honors Language arts homeworks. Lot of reading and review are assigned. I am stressed and S is not. All the materials covered will be tested on the first week of their Junior year. I hope he will not mess the grade in the beginning itself.</p>
<p>S3 has his Math final tomorrow and his chem final on Thursday. He will have 3 AP’s next year (APUSH, AP language and AP Bio) and TONS of summer homework. Like you Donivrian, I am stressed, he is not. And if he is anything like my other two he will procrastinate until the end of August and then spend the last couple of weeks doing his homework instead of enjoying the beach etc…</p>
<p>Regarding summer homework: I’m not sure of the politics behind it, but over the past 2 years summer assignments have been drastically altered. On the website it now states: “Assignments will not be due until at least the third week of school. Required assignments are provided as a way for students to get ahead during the summer instead of having it all to do at the beginning of school.”</p>
<p>I know the AP & IB teachers weren’t thrilled with that because let’s face it, they have a lot of material to cover. And the kids in those courses didn’t mind it terribly because they chose to be in those classes and knew what they were getting into ahead of time. It’s not a big surprise. </p>
<p>So for AP English D has to read The Sound & The Fury, How to Read Like a Professor, Thank You for Arguing & The Crucible; purchase AMSCO’s United States History: Preparing for the Advance Placement Exam (but no work assigned) and there are review packets for math & spanish. But nothing due…</p>
<p>tx5athome: I know what you mean, I am also anticipating all homework done in a hurry towards the last couple of weeks before school. </p>
<p>Regarding the assignment of summer homework: There are two sides to the story. And I feel strongly for both the sides of the story. It is true summer time is a fun time to relax, learn things they like without stress of grades, pursuing an activity they strongly feel about etc. So assigning a lot of summer assignments go against all this and people are caught up in the same kind of situation while the school in session. More and more schools are going against the homework during vacation.
But, frankly speaking, if it doesnt count- how many will actually read those books? How will a teacher make sure that the book is read? So it does make complete sense to assign the homework too.
And most AP courses, As RobD pointed out, has a lot of materials to cover. The first few lessons are mostly the review of the previouse course(at least in math and science). So this is a way teacher can make sure that they know the basics and can straight away go to the new materials. In this side of the country, When AP and IB exams begin, we are only in the beginning of the fourth quarter. So clearly we loose a big chunk of a quarter to teach the material. Where is the time? I feel there is some thing wrong the way the whole thing is set up.</p>
<p>I’m always so surprised by the amount of summer homework I hear about on cc. Ds1 had six APs junior year and not a lick of summer homework.</p>
<p>We have this strange situation where one of the county high schools assigns no summer homework, ours is super-hyped on it and a third which requires any student taking an AP to start school almost two weeks early to do AP prep and study skills training in class. The difference between the schools is mainly socio economic demographics…school 1 has less than 10% poor kids, school 3 has over 50% poor kids and we are somewhere around 35-40%. Not surprisingly, AP pass rates are tied to income so school 1 doesn’t see the need to have kids start AP homework in the summer. School 3 tries to get EVERY kid to take at least one AP before they graduate. Obviously the pass rates on the AP exams are low but taking an ap class gives kids a chance to try out college level work especially since so many come from homes where no one has been to college yet. The summer AP prep is the only way to give some of these kids a chance at success since they don’t get a lot of support at home and often have to work all summer so no time for homework. I like that attitude and wish D went to that school sometimes but no IB program there. </p>
<p>The IB program has the exams in mid may but our school doesn’t officially start until after Labor day. Basically, this means that we lose 3 weeks of prep compared to other IB schools so they often assign some heavy summer work. The summer is so long so I am not against requiring some reading…it is the papers, memorization of poems, huge math packets, etc that I think get a little extreme and make for a stressful August. Fall sports start early also because regional schools are in session in August…D will have 6 FH games and scrimmages even before classes begin so why not just start school in August?..it will probably happen eventually but not until D graduates.</p>
<p>Our district has learned not to assign too much summer homework, because the kids just don’t do it! And no school wants to fail a significant portion of their kids right out of the gate. AP classes usually have a book or two to read - but essays are never due until at least the end of the first week of class. Heck, our school just has trouble getting the kids to even COME to school during the first couple weeks. Mexican families typically go to Mexico for the summer, where school doesn’t start until Sept, so the parents mistakenly assume that our school starts in Sept (it starts August 22 this year). Our district has to have a huge info campaign to remind people that school starts early!</p>