AP Gov is not a grad requirement here, but the kids find the class interesting. D20 is taking it next year. My S18 took it this year.
@typiCAmom, seems manageable IF itās something sheās really interested in. AP Psych isnāt known for being one of the most punishing ones. But as always, it really depends on your school.
California requires Gov, both my kids took online over the summer through the school district.
Californiaās one year fine arts requirement is causing problems. She wants to take AP Art History. But it is currently only offered 6th period. Athletes are in PE during sixth period. May need to find an online or summer option.
Desired schedule is:
APUSH
APLang
APcalcAB
APChem
AP Art History
Fall Cross Country/Spring Swim
For us, IB history is considered the āmost rigorous courseā in social studies group, IB gov/global pol is not as rigorous nor is IB geography. DSā current APUSH teacher is hard-āpushingā his āgood studentsā to take IB history.
But S does not like the teacher who is going to teach that course and he is into politics, so we are taking IB gov.
@VickiSoCal, at our school there is regular US gov and politics and the AP one for 12th grade, but there is also an elective for AP comparative government and politics, with no regular/non-AP version. Since my DD is a fuzzie and APEuro is her easiest class this year, I am not worried about APUSH and gov if she chooses it. Iād prefer she took AB instead of BC for calculus, but she believes the latter is a must to get the āmost rigorous courseworkā notation in her transcript, and since she is getting A in pre-Calc Honors, I have no ammunition to fight her on that.
Our school does to offer AP Art History, so DDās plan is to take Art History online as DE during spring of senior year, and if somehow she ends up at a place that only accepts AP credit and not DE credit for that class, she could always take an AP test independentlyā¦ I think
our kids just have to take either AP Gov or regular US Gov and most take it senior year bit mine wants to take both AP econs senior year so she took Gov over summer.
Our school has prereqs for AP Art History: AP Lang and at least two visual art classes. Iāve wondered if itās to weed down the requests. It is a large school and the students are also required to have one arts credit for graduation in either visual art, music, dance, or drama. Requiring the additional art class and Lang pretty much guarantees that only seniors who have a more than a passing interest in art are eligible.
We barely fill one period with no pre-reqs! And we have 2800 students.
D16 took AP art history. She really liked it; but didnt take the AP test as her college would not take the credit. She has since transferred schools to a school that would take the AP credit; but as she didnt have it, sheās taking the college class. The whole thing is pretty screwy; but truth is, she really enjoyed the her AP class, so thats why sheās taking it now. Ok - anecdotal and not important to the discussion, but thought iād share as iāve lived through art history alot now!
I had my D17 take all her senior year AP exams even though she was heading to a college that would not take them.
You just never know what might happen and it was a relatively small cost.
We have almost 3,000 students and about 3 or 4 classes. (For reference, we have about 15 Art 1 classes.) We have a sub-group of kids who are hot competitors in the āAP Race.ā Many would take the class solely to boost their GPA.
D20 actually has the class on her radar for senior year and after AP Lang will have all of the reqs. She enjoys art and could spend hours in a museum as a young child scrutinizing artwork, but I think she would rather take a higher class in drawing or painting than a lecture class.
DS thinks he did well on todayās SAT, he felt he did better than on the practice tests. Weāll know in a couple of weeks unfortunatly he has a tendency to over estimate how well he does on these types of things.
@3scoutsmom, I bet he did great. Besides MTAT, has he done any of Ericaās stuff yet or are you saving that for this summer? Just trying to figure out where I should be with my D at this point.
@BingeWatcher I have begged him to do the Critical Reader but I doubt heās made it past the first chapter. Heās a very different child than my older two, they were driven to ābeat the testā and would dive into prep. DS20 has a very different attitude I really havenāt pushed any prep during the school year but based on his scores on this test we see how much time heāll be spending on prep this summer. My hope is that heāll make his personal goal for this sitting and then get that spark the will encourage him to reach for a higher score in Oct, though Iād be perfectly happy if he just aces the PSAT next 
Heās still gun-ho about going to UTD and he knows that means either National Mert or AES. I have to walk a fine line with this kid, getting him to do his personal best with out comparing himsef to his sibbling. Itās hard to do when they are both smart kids and both National Merit. I am very glad that UTD has AES so he can have a plan ābā!
Thank you @3scoutsmom, I understand what you mean. I think D is more like your older 2. But I donāt know when to start. She thinks she will forget any grammar/CR stuff she learns this earlyā¦Just donāt know when is too earlyā¦then I get panicked and think what if we wait too lateā¦
I donāt think is ever to early to learn grammar my DD loves grammar and it helps her with her German too. This thing is to not get the kids burnt out on test prep. This the kind of stuff that really needs to be learned and not learned and forgotten. DD has just started prepping for the GRE that sheāll be taking in September. It just never endsā¦
Funny how 2 siblings are so different. D17 was so solid in grammar she aced 800 for the writing section both times on the old SAT. S20 will need a lot of practice in this area and if he can just stop playing video games and start reading those grammar books 
My S20 needs help with grammar too.
so - iām on a parent PTO commitee to chose 2 HS scholarship winners from our local middle school PTO. I love doing this type of thing although its taking a lot of time. Itās very interesting to see the rubric for the scoring; itās termed an āacademicā scholarship but the academics portion is only really 10% of it. Iāll keep that in mind for my kiddos still in MS & HS! Like most local scholarships itās not a big amount, but its slightly prestigious in the neighborhood. I think it focuses on quantity more than quality; wonder how that is compared with colleges and such . . . . .
@bgbg4us
My guess is that there are plenty of academically qualified students for the scholarship so areas other than grades/test scores have to be looked at to ādifferentiateā the many good candidates, similar situations facing those so-called tippy top universities? But curious that you have the āquantify over qualityā observation.
Hi Everyone! Relatively new to CC and just saw that there is a 2020 thread. Iām just starting to do some research on college admissions for myself and D20 and will probably have lots of questions but these are the classes she is currently taking:
AP Euro
AP Seminar
H Alg 2
H Chem
H English
V Softball
Next 2 years:
Junior
AP Research
APUS
AP Lang
Math Analysis
APES
ASB (if she gets in?)
V Softball
Senior
APCalc (AB)
APGov
AP Lit
H Physio
ASB?
V Softball
My first question is although D has a 4.0 so far, her junior year selection looks pretty challenging to me? What is your experience with these classes (whether older siblings or classmates of your kids)? thx