My son is taking his one (and only) AP class. AP Calc. He was supposed to take AP Physics as well, but they cancelled the class due to no interest.
I talked to him last night about retaking the ACT and he’s not thrilled about the idea. He got a 31 composite the second time he took it, but the English and Reading were low, so I think he has a good chance of bringing it up if he focused on those two sections (Math was 33 and Science 34). I don’t know. I guess I see his point as he’s pretty set on going to a safety school anyhow where he’s in the 90th percentile of applicants, but at the same time, it wouldn’t hurt to up his chances at other places if he changes his mind. He’s still going to be applying to a couple other schools that are more selective. Plus maybe it would get him more scholarship money?
How did you get kids to settle down and study/practice for the ACT/SAT??
I can’t get S20 to focus this summer. He has to figure out timing! he never finishes his ACT tests, especially English section. His answers were correct up till he guesses. So he needs to get down his timing.
do I make him set some time out for it every day? let him do it on his own? He’s so so so social right now.
@bgbg4us Do any local test prep centers offer practice tests? They usually offer them for free to try to get your business. I would sign him up for a proctored practice test (or two or three) this summer. Just make sure to give the test prep center a spam email address. 
that’s a good idea. I think I’ll call now. we have books upon books here; web sites, timer watches, but having a hard time getting him to do it on his own.
@Waiting2exhale the “pre” is both for weighting and to distinguish it from regular Algebra 2 our school doesn’t use the term honors. For weighting regular classes have a 1.0 multiplier, pre-ap classes have a 1.1 multiplier and AP classes have a 1.2 multiplier. Post AP classes also have a 1.2. Kids here on the “most rigorous” math track take regular algebra 1 and geometry in middle school. Same with advanced FL language track, most of those kids start their languages in middle school and take AP FL 4 in 10th or 11th grade so they can take their FL classes 5/6.
BTW this is what I thought people were talking about when they say “competitive high school” ! DS20 will have taken 13 or 14 AP exams by graduation (11 of those before 12th grade) and 5 DE classes at the local CC.
D20 has to study/prep for the August SAT for 30 minutes a day this summer. She doesn’t get to use her cell phone until she does her daily SAT prep. She’s also been super social lately, so she has been doing her prep first thing in the morning, so she can have access to her friends/social media ASAP.
I had my kids look at studying for the SAT as their “job” I pulled up a few automatic scholarships which included SAT scores and asked them to figure out how long it would take them to earn that much money working a minimum wage job. It helped when they saw the value in the SAT score on their own.
@Octagon: “@fretfulmother I mostly agree with you, except sometimes AP limits the teacher to not expanding beyond that curriculum.”
Teachers have told us that while they absolutely loved the energy and direction some of the curious, open, high- performing students in their AP classes brought to the class, it was the time constraint and the need to cover as.much of the material for the test which severely limits straying off-course.
Were it possible for digressions- or an expansion - then, yes, all of those wonderful moments in the AP classroom could take place.
My son has reflected on what he thought his AP teachers this year might really want by way of a classroom, seeing the pace of the contractual instruction place a kind of spiritual limit on the teachers. For one teacher in particular, my son wished him one day to have his choice of students and a kind of ‘open road’ to walk wherever the day takes the group.
I thought that was a sweet reflection and observation.
AP Chemistry covers first year college chemistry. I tutor both and TAed gen chem at a UC. A teacher who covers the material well will have a lot of kids pass the AP test and those kids will have a solid knowledge of general chemistry.
There is no compromise needed to prepare the class for the test and teach the subject.
I don’t know what digressions or off topic discussions a college professor would have. The UC I ta-ed at had 4 sections of gen chem with 400 in each section. The 1600 kids heard lectures on the same topics, delivered by the 4 different profs and took various versions of the same final which was graded by the same large team of TAs in much the same way the APs are graded.
@VickiSoCal did you TA recently or are you referring to when you were in college?
@3scoutsmom : Thanks for furthering my understanding of your school district’s system. Now I understand the talk of Texas schools.much better.
Interesting, that math sequence mirrors what happened at older kids’ independent 7-12 school, but without any designation of “pre-AP” attached to the courses, and for far fewer kids percentage-wise (I would greatly presume), as this seems a dedicated track where you are.
I must say the post-AP offerings are greater than what was happening when my kids were there .
Thanks.
DD20 will take 4 APs and elective Anatomy and Physiology that is taught “as if it were an AP” according to past students. She was strongly cautioned against adding a 5th AP so AP lit is not part of the plan. All seniors have the same writing requirements so the only real difference is the number (and obscurity of books read) and the AP exam itself. DS16 took 5 APs and an art elective senior year and it was a struggle with applications and 2 sports. He dropped his usual winter sport to create some breathing room.
6131. My daughter struggled with the idea of AP Lit. In some ways the class is unnecessary if you have taken AP Lang and got a good score on the AP Test. (guess we will find out in July). Since 4 years of English is mandatory and being unsure if she would like a regular English class she decided to take it.
@lkg4answers I TAed as a grad student at a UC. I went back to grad school a bit late and was still in when D17 and D20 were around.
Delivery of first year chem at university has not changed substantially. I tutor kids at a Cal State and community college and AP students at local high schools and have had 2 kids take AP Chemistry with D17 majoring in chem currently and D20 considering it. Chemistry is chemistry… Some lecturers are better than others. But the material covered on the final exams in college is not substantially different than the AP exam and very little has changed over the years.
There is nothing magical about learning this material in college vs high school and there is nothing inherently evil about sticking to the AP syllabus which is developed by a committee of college and high school teachers. College professors also have to stick to a pretty tight syllabus to cover it all in about 3 hours of lectures per week over 30 weeks.
@Octagon - here the teachers have a lot of input/control over curriculum, and I don’t think feel limited by AP. But yes, my oldest graduated Princeton in three years, because of his AP credits. I believe most schools do take AP credits, for certain classes - ranging from Chemistry, which is accepted by nearly everyone (maybe not Caltech?) to Stats which is barely accepted by anyone from what I can tell. The way I tell it, is that AP credits are the only “merit aid” available at some of these colleges.
@Waiting2exhale - yes, we (I’m a teacher in the district as well as a parent) - do love to have time to delve deeply into other things with interested students. Fortunately, our schedule (daily, with blocks, and yearly, with exploration weeks) allows for that in addition to the AP curriculum.
@VickiSoCal - I don’t know about “digressions” per se - but HS teachers are educating the whole child. This is probably different from college professors. It’s literally our job to teach kids how to be good adults, not just specific content. A science class absolutely can be the stepping stone to ethics discussions, helpful stories, writing prompts, etc. Pedagogically, it’s good to mix up what kids are doing and to have stories/discussions/etc. peppering the lectures sometimes. I agree that this takes up time, and it requires a reasonable schedule (daily and yearly) for things to work well.
The only thing I do not like is the time that has to be given over to state-required standardized exams. That seems to be a huge sink of time/money/effort.
@fretfulmother Thank you very much for the feedback. I obviously got the wrong impression about how APs are treated at elite colleges. Maybe all the angst over AP tests are worth it after all!
@Octagon - you are very welcome! 
I think you can search most colleges and see their chart of AP-allowed credit. It may be that smaller liberal arts colleges are the ones who are eschewing the credits? And I know MIT put some limits so you have to have only a 5 for some credits.
“How did you get kids to settle down and study/practice for the ACT/SAT??”
For D20, two ways that got her to study for the ACT:
- self motivation to get into what she consider a "good" college;
- we hired a weekly tutor 6 to 8 weeks before the exam who gave her "homework" to complete before each session and they followed a study schedule. Having another person invested in her prep all along the way has been helpful for D.
With that said, for her SAT subject tests, she studied on her own and I felt that she didn’t prepare properly the first time and she had to retake those tests again recently.
This weekend she will take a practice SAT to determine whether or not she should switch gears and prepare tor the August SAT or retake her ACT a third time to get her math & science scores up into the low, mid 30’s which would bring her to a 33/34 composite (currently at 32).
Re: classes next year: 4 APs, student gov, and 3+ hours every day of academic decathlon prep w/ team, p/t job.
My D’s schedule next year will look a good bit different from other’s. She’ll be doing 4 DE classes (math/English/science/history), one at a time in 8 week sessions. She’ll also be doing a whole year language with a private teacher and a homeschool elective. She has a job and dances 6 days a week. She’ll likely do some test prep unless there is a miracle in her ACT score. She’s doing a gap year so next year is about raising her scores just enough to be competitive at the not-really-competitive schools she has interest in attending. Should her score come back high enough for what she wants (and her SAT score was about 30 points off) she’ll have to decide between applying and taking the gap year. It would be nice if her top choice offered deferred admission but they don’t.