<p>tripleamom–to attempt to help with your question about the impact of only taking three years of science…do you have any idea at all of the type of school your D will be considering? If so, pull up the common data set for a school that you think will be within her range and look at section C5, distribution of HS units required/recommended. If the school has different figures under required and recommended, go with the recommended as many of the other applicants will have satisfied that level. </p>
<p>I have had this same mental debate about my son not taking Spanish his Sr year. He will complete Spanish 4 by the end of Jr year so I have told him that he is free to drop. It may matter, but he has decided he has studied all the Spanish he wants to study. I am hoping colleges will see Spanish 4 as opposed to only three years of FL study in HS.</p>
<p>My D. may end up taking two years of physics - junior year, honors physics, senior year, AP physics B. It’s not because she’s that crazy about physics (I only wish! :D) but because she wants to see 4 years of sciences. </p>
<p>Do you all know that AP physics B will be changed in a big way in our 2015s’ senior year? Right now it covers the first year college (non-calc based) physics. The physics teacher told me from 2014 - 2015 school year, physics B will be divided into two years, which makes a lot more sense.</p>
<p>DS will probably take at least one dual enrollment class next year because he really doesn’t like the elective he got when German III was dropped. Now we are just keeping our fingers crossed that the great physics/comp sci teacher will be around at least one more year! If not, we may be adding more DE classes at the last minute. He will take the June ACT just to get all bases covered for the DE application. The way things are going in our district, he may only take band, AP English, and AP Euro at the high school his senior year, supplemented with math and chemistry classes and possibly a CAD class at the CC.</p>
<p>Herandhismom that is very interesting about physics B. My daughter is taking it junior year so it looks like she will not be affected. My daughter also wanted 4 years of science which is why she is taking AP bio senior year ( honors bio, honors chem, AP physics, AP bio).</p>
<p>@h&Hmom that is really interesting about AP physics. Yes I think it makes more sense to divide it. </p>
<p>My D. 's school is doing spring school plays. everybody is excited. The drama club people are super busy. One of her friends who is in the show went to sleep very late several days because of the rehearsals. Today this girl fell asleep in AP chemistry sample test. :eek:</p>
<p>Why does it make sense to turn Physics B into a 2 year course? I’m not sure why kids need two years of non-calculus based physics. Doesn’t that seem like it stretches physics out forever? It would take three years of physics to get through
Physics C.</p>
<p>I have to say I’m with you, PN. My oldest audited a year of general non-calc physics at a local uni. that used Giancoli’s physics text and he was easily prepared for the Physics B exam. I don’t see a reason to stretch it out.</p>
<p>Not yet sure for my son, but he’s done bio, chem, and will do 1-2 semesters of college bio and probably at least one semester of college physics. He might do marine bio at the homeschool co-op. I think he’ll like physics but he seems determined to do bio at the college, so will probably start with that. </p>
<p>He will probably do very few, if any, APs because the community college is much cheaper than online homeschool AP classes. He may take a few exams (bio, music theory, CS are three possibilities) after CC classes.</p>
<p>I wonder how my D’s HS will handle the change in AP Physics. Right now, they only offer regular (non-honors) Physics and AP Physics B. Currently, the honors kids take H. Bio as freshmen, H. Chem as sophomores, AP Chem as juniors, and AP Phys as seniors. A significant cohort of these kids finish AP Calc BC as juniors, and a group of parents has been lobbying to add AP Phys C as an option for those kids. But the school admin claims there’s no money to add another course.</p>
<p>On top of this, our HS is on it’s 5th physics teacher in 5 years! The first retired, one left for personal reasons, one was fired for hitting on the female students, and one was dismissed for coming to class drunk. I’ve met the current teacher. He’s very enthusiastic, hasn’t caused any obvious problems, and the students seem to like him, too. Of course, we don’t yet know whether he’s doing a good job preparing them for exams. I hope so. It’d be great to get the turmoil of the past several years behind us!</p>
<p>I think the idea is kids either take AP physics C, or AP physics B, but not both, and the kids who take AP will not take honors. So if he’s a good student and want to take physics, then it’s either AP B or AP C, without honors.
I understand people who don’t like this. But in all seriousness, have high school students do college first year college course in one year is not realistic, considering they actually don’t have as much time as college students do, (more snow days for HS than for colleges, at least in our area this difference is significant, plus high schools have days that they DON’T have school), and obviously (rightly so) HS students in general don’t have as much strong math background as college students. </p>
<p>My D. just struggled through AP chem. In one year, they covered as much as college first year chemistry. She is getting her As and hopefully get a 5 in AP exam. (at least a 4.) But should she skip college general chemistry if she wants to do sciences? Even her chem teachers says no. Schools like MIT allow students skip calculus, if they get a 5 in Calc BC test, but nobody is given MIT credit in sciences, even if they pass the test with a 5.</p>
<p>Maybe it’s just me. I always think have high school kids do same amount of work as college kids, during same amount of time, with similar kind of expectations, is not a good idea. That’s why I’m for breaking AP physics AND chemistry into two years. Then if they pass the course and the exam, they can skip either one semester of college course, (if they do one year in HS) or the first year college course, if they do two years in HS.</p>
<p>Maxwell, I think it depends on the kid and the course, not the AP score. DD12(16) took her school’s equivalent of AP Chem and did well on the AP exam in 11th grade. At the beginning of freshman year, her college had her take a placement test. Not only did she place out of first year chem, she’s not allowed to take those classes, which made scheduling impossible. YMMV.</p>
<p>I have not posted here for a while but I have been reading…</p>
<p>Re:AP Physics. Our district requires 4 years of science to graduate. One path is Bio in 9th, Chem in 10th, pre-AP Physics (regular and honors levels are offered) in 11th and then students can choose a 4th year science of his/her choice. It can be AP Physics B or C, AP Bio, AP Chem, APES or other non-AP courses. It will not doable to have AP Physics spread out to two years unless the two-year AP Physics will give one credit for pre-AP and one credit for AP. </p>
<p>One of the purposes for HS students to take AP courses is to demonstrate their abilities to handle college level courses. Not every HS student is required to take AP if the student is unable or has no desire to. Schools do not need to allow more time (two years instead of one year) so that students can handle the AP courseload IMO.</p>
<p>At our HS, only juniors and seniors are allowed to take AP Physics/Chem/Bio, Eng, Calc, Gov, Econ, etc. By that time, kids should be more ready for college level courses.</p>
Yes that’s right. It also depends on the college s/he goes into. Schools like MIT just don’t accept any high school science credit, except for Physics C (I’m not sure if they give credit for physics C even.) But they do give credits for a 5 in calculus BC. there is just more in sciences than in math.</p>
<p>In the college I teach, we accept AP chem and AP physics C with a 5. Colleges don’t have ways to know each individual students. so their class grades and AP scores are the only things we go by.</p>
<p>CT1417,D’s dream school is stanford.We live in CA so UC’s are defintely on the list ,Columbia and the pomona colleges too.Other than that she hasn’t thought about the list much.We have to work on it in the summer.
And for your S’s spanish he can take SAT spanish,as mihcal1 said colleges consider that equivalent to AP if you have a good score.
Our school has physics H and AP physics B.We have academies in our school.So there are different tracks.For kids who don’t do any of these academies they usually take Bio H or Chem H(we don’t have AP Chem) as freshman and AP Bio or Chem as sophomore,AP physics or Physics H or APES as junior and senior year AP physics.
There is a new teacher for AP Bio for D from feb.He said kids have to take Bio before taking AP.So things will change next year for incoming sophomores.</p>
<p>Sunnydayfun, it looks like we’re in the minority here? D’s HS is like yours, only juniors and seniors are allowed to take APs, but it looks like quite a few students in this thread are already taking at least 1 AP.</p>
<p>HerandHis – do you require BOTH Physics C exams, or just one?</p>
<p>I was pretty surprised that DD was not allowed to take an easier class than what she placed into. It caused a small mess with scheduling that I hope has now been straightened out (though we won’t know until next fall.)</p>
<p>In D. school, as I’m sure in many of your schools, this is a busy season. School play requires big hours of practice. So I mentioned a friend of hers in AP chemistry fell asleep in a practice test, because for several nights she was in play rehearsals and went to bed really late. The night before the exam, (in May), the school band will go out of town for a band festival. Normally they won’t be back until after midnight. One of her classmates is in the band and she is getting prepared to be in bed by about 2am, and get up at 6:30 to go to school and take AP chemistry exam. I know somebody can handle that. When I was in school, that was the kind of thing I couldn’t do. I needed my sleep. I’m glad that the band teacher got mad at my d. so she won’t have to go to this festival the night before her AP test. :p</p>
<p>In our HS the students are permitted to take 1 AP as a sophomore- AP US. In order to qualify the student would have taken 9 th grade social studies in 8 th grade and continue up so basically they are a year ahead. The remaining AP classes are taken junior and senior year. Kids who are a year ahead in math will take honors pre-calc junior year and AP calc senior year. My daughter will graduate with 5 AP classes, 1 IB class and the rest will be a combination of college level classes through either SUNY Albany or Syracuse, as well as honors/ advanced honors. I guess that’s fine- I asked guidance if " most rigorous" would be checked off and I was told yes. It still amazes me that there are kids on CC who are taking 17 AP classes. That sounds crazy to me and does not happen in our HS. Meanwhile my older daughter, a college freshman, took regular classes except for math where she was one year ahead, and 2 college level classes in high school. She never took an AP. She applied to 8 schools and got into 8 schools. They will all be fine! We may need that virtual drink, but they will be ok! The issue that I have with my younger daughter is that she is an intense perfectionist who pushes herself beyond what I see as necessary. It’s hard to deal with this personality…she also has a problem working in groups because she is such a perfectionist and can’t handle if other kids are not working according to her time table. She chooses to do projects on her own. Hopefully she will pick a major where there is no group work involved. I keep telling her that although somebody else’s way is different, it does not make it wrong. She is a tough one…and is very vocal.</p>
<p>crepes-Our HS offers AP history classes for the freshmen and sophomores to take, such as Human Geo, WHAP and Euro. S2 is taking WHAP this year. He will take AP English and maybe AP Psychology at the second semester next year.</p>