My son is taking AP Gov next year, mainly because the AP Gov teacher assured students that it is actually easier and less work compared to honors U.S. Gov. (The test isn’t that difficult and she focuses on preparing them for the test rather than assigning a lot of papers and projects). Our school also drags it out for a whole year (I know some schools cover it in a semester).
He’s taking 5 APs next year, but I guess they are all considered “lite” APs. (Calc AB, Physics 2, Music Theory, Gov and CS Principles), along with English 12, orchestra and jazz. He’s never really cared about rigor, though (only 2 APs this year) . I imagine he’ll take at least some of the tests if he can get credit/placement. This is the first year where they are not required.
I’m a little worried about scheduling - there might not be enough kids signed up for Physics 2 to offer the class, there is only one music theory class, and his orchestra class is locked in to a set block, too, so he won’t know until August whether what he picked will actually work. There could definitely be conflicts and I’m predicting the usual first week of school drama over the schedule.
@amandakayak 11 AP’s does seem like a lot. At our school you can only take maybe 1 or 2 as a sophomore, 3-4 both junior and senior year. You have to qualify with a strong honors class performance before you can sign up for an AP class. So that sort of limits the number of kids and number of AP classes most kids take. Im sure there are super genius wonderstars that find a way to cram in 10-12 total, but I think that’s at the total upper end…maybe 5-10 kids out of a class of 400. I would say the next batch of kids would be the strong performing students and they probably average 4-8 in total. Some kids just don’t get placed into AP Calc and AP Physics or one of the sciences because they didn’t get an A in their prior honors level class. Also, some kids like my son don’t want the humanities types of AP classes like APES, AP Lit because they’d rather focus in stem stuff.
My son will finish with 6 AP I think , 5 in stem and 1 Gov, so I think he would be considered your average excellent student from our school.
My S19 took several APs by the time he finished sophomore year and is now in the IB Diploma program. Instead of sticking with band this year, like I wanted him to, he dropped it to add IB Psych and now has 6 IB classes plus AP physics. It seems ridiculous and won’t really get much easier next year. I find myself regularly thinking “What is the point?”. Just to get ready to start the stress all over again in college. It just seems too much.
D19’s school only has… 5 APs. (I had to check to confirm.) APUSH, Calc AB, and Eng Lit & Comp, which are mostly taken junior year (that’s what D19 is doing). There’s also AP Stats (which I think D19 won’t take because there’s a “post-AP” Calculus II), and AP Government (which I think D19 will take just because she wouldn’t have anything else to take). No Science APs, unfortunately (as D19 is a science person, so she will have to make an extra effort to convince others of that). So she’s doing 4 out of 5, and arguably (because she’s taking Calc II instead of Stats) the highest course rigor. Students taking AP classes have to take the AP exam, as well as a final.
The school is well-known, and does well on many of the “score-based” rankings of schools in the state, so not having a lot of APs hasn’t seemed to hurt them? (But I do wish they offered 1 or 2 AP science classes.)
I know that I read stories here on CC of kids taking, like 10+ AP classes, and I honestly can’t imagine that for my kid (and she’s a bright, self-motivated and organized student).
@eh1234 Physics 2 is a “lite” AP? D19 claims that Physics 2 is considered one of the hardest AP classes taught at her HS and will be taking AP Bio instead. Then again, she doesn’t like Physics 1 and did like her freshman bio class, so I figure she’d like that class better.
^^. AP Stats at our school is no cakewalk. My son17 took it, and squeaked out a B+ senior year, but he had to grind all year to get that grade. Son19 is taking it now, and he says it’s hard, but has an A. He said that 3 of his good friends that are really good students are stinking it up in that class.
I think the hardest AP classes at our school are AP Calc, AP Physics and then one of the History classes, I guess there is just too much writing/projects/endless memorizing.
@gusmahler I think of it as “lite” in comparison to Physics C (which S19 will not take concurrently with Calc AB). He thinks AP Physics 1 is easy and it hasn’t been a lot of work so far. He will not be happy if he ends up in bio or chem instead. (They didn’t have enough kids signed up for Physics 2 this year so it wasn’t offered).
My older D took AP Stats for about 3 weeks and couldn’t make heads or tails of it. She’s actually taking a similar stats class in college this semester and is not thrilled, but at least she understands what’s going on.
The hardest class at our school used to be AP English 11 with one particular teacher. Kiddo was signed up for this course and dreading it all summer long. First day of school he walks into class and discovered that the teacher has been reassigned to AP English 12 and the new teacher is a fluffy marshmallow of goodness.
Apparently AP English 12 suits the old demon teacher much better than 11, and kiddo has been interacting with her through the Shakespeare drama classes and thinks she’s wonderful. They get into long discussions of obscure Hamlet plot points. Kiddo is looking forward to having her for AP English 12 next year.
I would say the hardest APs at our school are Physics and Calc AB. But I actually think precalc (highest call level 9) is the hardest course and used as a weeding class.
@ninakatarina What are AP English 11 and AP English 12? AP Language and then AP Literature?
BC Calc (which is AB and BC taught in one year) and AP Physics C are the hardest at our school. APUSH is also hard with one particular teacher. Honestly, how schools do these classes can be so different. There are many ways to prepare for these exams. I don’t know why anyone asks opinions on CC about how hard any given AP is. They should ask their counselor or kids at school who know the classes. Obviously, there are easier AP courses in general - I hear APES and Psych are considered “easier” by colleges - but how hard the actual CLASS is would be dependent on the high school.
I think AP Chem is considered the hardest in our school. It might be because all the chemistry teachers are terrible, not sure. I’m sure AP Physics C is no picnic, but not many people seem to take it.
As for the “easier” APs, I’ve seen people on CC recommend that people not take classes like AP Psych because they’re not rigorous enough. A regular intro to psych class in college is also not that difficult, but it still fulfills a gen ed or psych major requirement! I don’t see why colleges would view it negatively when taken by a high schooler. It’s definitely my son’s favorite class and the only one he ever talks about at home.
11 is AP Language and 12 is AP Lit. The AP Psych teacher is apparently a wonderful woman, but she just had a baby so we have lost her for a couple of months. The long term sub is apparently quite nice but I’m not sure how rigorous his class is.
Yes, this AP race to nowhere is crazy. S17 took tons of AP classes junior and senior year. All his “friends” (the usual group of kids in Honors/AP/advanced classes) were there as well so he did not want to switch to non-AP classes. He graduated with 9 AP classes while taking “less” than some of his “friends.”
S19 has taken much less AP classes. He has taken AP Chem and is taking BC Calc. That is it so far.
He is applying to take AP Econ, CS, and Physics C next year. He had been shut out of some AP classes in the past, so we do not know what he will end up with in the end.
We decided that S19 is DONE with SAT/ACT.
I conveniently forgot to register him for March SAT.
He has 33 in math but 35 in the rest and composite. “Low” in CC standard. :)) He has always struggled with arithmetic so he says he doesn’t think he can bring up his bad math score up. lol.
Now he has only AP and subject tests.
@eh1234 - AP Psych was my D16’s favorite class as well. By senior year, her GC gave her this advice : “Take classes that interest you and provide a good academic balance” - It was great advice. My daughter listened to him and she had a solid and enjoyable last year of high school. She also got into all of the highly competitive Northeast LAC’s that she applied to. It’s all about the balance.
@RightCoaster we toured University at Buffalo today. It’s engineering week (I think that’s what it’s called) and they were having a battle bot thing in the student union. Music was playing and lots of kids were watching. I could only think how I bet it’s something your son would love.
Just to close the loop on the AP discussion, our school offers 28 different APs, no IB, no dual-enrollment. She is the youngest of 4 and her bread and butter is besting the performance of siblings in whatever. So - if they did 5-6, she will want to do 10-11. If their GPA was x, hers must be x + something. Argh.
S19’s guidance counselor thought he’d be chomping at the bit to take AP Psych but he cannot fit it. He still needs to take an econ class and a government class to graduate and that will have to be his social studies. They are one semester each.
If kids want to take four years of math, science, social studies, English and foreign language, there’s only one spot available each semester for something else. His something else will be art since it’s a big part of his EC story and he loves it. He did decide to only take half a year of art so he could fit Philosophy in for second semester. This Philosophy class will end up being the only class in four years that he chose to take just because he’s interested in it. His schedule has been fairly pre-determined since freshman year.
Guess he will have to hit up a Psychology class in college. I can’t wait for him to go off to school and have the freedom to take classes he wants to take.
@homerdog I saw your post and thought WOW 30 AP’s seems like a lot, then realized I had no idea how many our school actually offers and just checked 37. Although it sounds like our students have more room in their schedules to take them and still take electives. If a student here takes AP in math, science, english & social studies they would still have 4 slots left in their schedule to take other choices. There are some students who have taken 2 math, 2 science, english & social studies all in the same year and still had room for electives.
Tried to convince my D19 to lighten her load next year. Her idea of a lighter load is switching from AP Calc AB to AP Stats and from AP Chem to AP Enviromental. Not exactly what I had in mind but what do I know