<p>I’m also so impressed with Apollo’s son in China…not just with him but with his parents, too. I remember how ready I was to do my own thing when I was their age, but I have trouble letting go with my own kids. Kudos to Apollo & family for letting him find his wings. :)</p>
<p>Collegemaw, kids at D’s school are being pushed to take as many AP courses as possible. My guess is that it has to do with the high school ranking methodology. There is a huge a rivalry between D’s school and its crosstown counterpart, and D’s school is doing everything it can to bring its numbers up. The minimum that D will be taking next year is three (Physics, English, & Psych), and she’s not in the highest math track. Several of her friends will be taking four. At least Psych is supposed to be pretty easy. </p>
<p>She was lobbying to take AP Bio instead of Spanish IV next year but her counselor convinced her that she really did need to have at least three years of Spanish in high school for the schools she’s hoping for. I think she’s the only kid her counselor has ever encountered who thought that taking two AP science courses would be a LOT easier than taking the basic Spanish IV class.</p>
<p>Thanks for the compliment but with 6 kids I do encourage them to spread their wings - some may even say I have a tendency to push them out of the nest 
I was an exchange student in high school so I recognize the value of this kind of experience. The parents who awe me are those with kids in time consuming and expensive extracurriculars such as musical theater or athletics! None of my kids has been a performer or serious athlete.</p>
<p>DS will take 5 AP’s next year but that is not unusual at his public hs and their AP’s aren’t as time consuming as those at some private schools that I hear of here on CC. There are no honors or pre-AP classes either beyond sophomore year so most of the good students are taking AP classes except for foreign languages and fine arts electives. Band and Science Olympiad (which don’t overlap too much) are also his only extracurricular activities and that seems to be all he really wants to do. And truthfully, for the colleges he will be interested in, that will be good enough.</p>
<p>I haven’t been on CC for a while. Today I logged on and read so many interesting things and important information. I should keep coming back. </p>
<p>D. will sign up for next year’s classes. She is wondering if she should do AP world history. Next year is the first time her school district offers AP world. She is not too fond of the teacher and is nervous about the course.</p>
<p>Congratulations to all these great students! Apollo, I’m so impressed by your son. (I’m also impressed with all those who have kids in musical theater and athletics.) I would LOVE for my D to study in China. Heck, I’d go with her! My middle daughter studied for a semester away and it was a tremendous experience. </p>
<p>D is signing up for next year’s classes and since this is a private school, there aren’t many AP classes offered. She’ll take an advanced class in math, APUSH and AP English, which in most private schools is required of all students (in my mind, this means that it’s not actually AP anything). Beyond that, biology is only offered at one general level and she hasn’t reached the AP level in her foreign language. She’ll probably continue in orchestra and her engineering class and is considering whether to add a second history elective or an independent study in architecture.</p>
<p>Collegemaw: The D is an athlete like yours - 2 sports in hs and juggling 2 club sports. She manages to keep her schoolwork up and get her sleep so there is little need to cut back on the schedule. </p>
<p>Course recommendations for next year just came home last night. We’ll go through these together as out meeting with D’s faculty advisor is Tuesday morning.</p>
<p>My D is also debating whether to take AP world history. She is taking AP US history now and really likes it. But from what we’ve heard, AP world is a lot harder. Is it true based on your children’s experiences? Her world history teacher doesn’t have much experience teaching the course while the US history teacher this year is wonderful.</p>
<p>Maxwell, my d is taking AP World this year and AP US next year- that’s the way it is offered in our school. A lot of material to cover, but d is holding her own in the class.</p>
<p>Maxwell, every school is different. AP World is considered much easier in our old school but I think it’s because the AP US History teacher is so demanding. D is taking a world history class at school this year and it’s ridiculously easy.</p>
<p>Our school does APUSH sophomore year and after that it’s a free-for-all. APUSH is her hardest and most interesting class this year mostly because the teacher is so good.</p>
<p>I’m surprised by how few take AP World at our high school. All D’s friends are taking AP Psych next year, so she’s opted for that instead of World. Senior year everyone takes AP US Govt (one semester) and AP Macroeconomic (the other semester), which take the place of the mandatory civics and consumer ed courses that kids who aren’t on the college track take. I think D may self-study AP World starting next year, though. </p>
<p>Every program is different, but compared to when I was in school there are so many options! D wants to take everything…I can just imagine her taking six years to get through college because she wants to take every course that strikes her fancy.</p>
<p>DD is taking AP NSL this year. Next year she is scheduled to take AP Psych, AP World, and IB English.</p>
<p>AP NSL? I can’t figure that one out. 
My son has taken 7 AP courses, 5 of them last year, but our state has an early birthday cut-off so he turned 17 this year when he would have been a junior if he wasn’t just studying Mandarin in China. In some big public high schools, the AP version is the only choice if you want to be in class without behavior issues. The teaching wasn’t great at his school but he scored a 4 on 6 of them and a 3 on environmental science in 9th grade. That class was full of 12th grade jocks. He was one of the few who took the exam. AP courses vary a great deal, obviously!</p>
<p>herandhismom, I would love to hear your recommendations for summer camps in China. This is something we would love to explore as well. (And if anyone has any good leads on summer ulpanim in Israel, that’s also of great interest to D and to me as well.) I’m sure your D will end up with a National History Day award again this year so no worries on awards! And if she hasn’t yet submitted anything to Scholastic (artandwriting.org), next year she should certainly do so.</p>
<p>Have any of your kids self-studied for an AP exam yet? Since my husband and I both taught statistics while we were in graduate school, we figure we can help D self study for that one. But I’m not so sure about the others…it’s been a long time since I’ve done anything with world history (other than watching the History Channel when I can’t sleep in the middle of the night).</p>
<p>@EllieMom, My D. is also taking AP psych. She’s heard a lot of good things about the course and the teacher and is really looking forward to it. </p>
<p>D. heard several of her camp friends (CTY) who got 4s in AP world. D. thought they should be getting 5s. The fact they got 4s made D. nervous and think it must be hard… :p</p>
<p>My D13 self studied human geo, art history, U.S. govt and psychology. 3, 5,4,5. She did take a 3 week psych course at Northwestern’s CTD but for the others she just read the prep books. Did not take the first one seriously enough LOL. If your student enjoys math and you can help her learn statistics, good for you! Just get a prep book and check out the examples on the College Board’s AP website to see what the course includes.</p>
<p>@Apollo, It’s impressive that your D self studied so many APs! Good for her. Did she like psych? I think kids this age tend to really like that subject. She must (almost) know which college she is going by now?</p>
<p>@Apollo 6 . I believe AP US government and AP NSL are the same thing. At DD school they call it AP NSL (National, State, and Local Government). I didn’t realize the name difference until I looked it up.</p>
<p>D13 LOVED psych! She took her first psych course the summer before 9th grade at the Center for Talent Development. It was the first time she had ever been around other bright and motivated kids. It really inspired her to excel off the beaten path in high school. I’m sure she was the only 9th grader taking the exam at her school that year. The next year she took IB higher level psych with the seniors and enjoyed the experience but her interest in psych was then played out. I was kinda hoping she would want to study cognitive science in college but she found many other interests. Her current interests are sustainability, international studies and Chinese. Her college choice was dependent on large merit scholarships due to her other 5 sibs. ;)</p>
<p>Both D13 and her younger brother enjoyed AP US govt, especially learning about the landmark court cases. </p>
<p>WHAP, as they call world history was revised last year, probably for the better. You can read about the exam on AP Central. It sounds much more like the IB exam. It should give students more opportunity to explain what they know rather than penalize them for what they don’t know.</p>
<p>All in all, the “secret” to success in most AP exams is learning to write the essay questions. My D feels like a pro at essay exams by now. If kids practice writing the essay prompts they will arrive at the exam feeling confident and should do well.</p>