She is not taking AP Research- she had trouble with meeting deadlines and her teacher pretty much told her he wouldn’t approve her for it (although she did MUCH better getting her IRR assignments in on time). I am hoping that she will use the skills in college- she was pleasantly surprised with how prepared she was for the AP exam.
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D is thrilled with her 5 in APUSH, 5 in Bio. She is irritated that her score in Lang isn’t showing up yet. (Another student pulled the fire alarm during the exam, so they had a retake the following week. I guess alternate test date scores are delayed.)
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AP scores are in and she is happy- 4’s on both and earns her credit at most of the schools on her list.
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S is happy with his scores, one 4 and rest 5s.
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I just checked and as I thought, not many honors - they are available in some VPA options, some LOTE in either level 3 or 4 depending on the language and whether they offer AP, the accelerated hons alg2/precalc course and this year, hons precalc. I guess the thinking is if you want to do advanced, go AP. Hons and AP are weighted the same. There are no 9th grade honors options, which I understand is in line with UC policy not to give extra weight to 9th grade honors classes. The algebra 2 class C26 took is called “advanced” (and there is a regular so it is differentiated), but the advanced did not get an extra weight like an hons would. Not sure what that rationale is.
Our school has almost no “honors” classes. For the most part the classes are either no special designation (plenty of these are quite challenging!) or AP/IB. I’m guessing this is because classes are only designated honors if they are officially UC Honors approved.
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Yep,ours is the same - the course catalog states whether or not classes are UC approved and all the honors are. Can’t remember who I had the discussion with here a while back -but I mentioned that our school had dropped geometry honors as an option and apparently UC had stopped recognizing geometry as an hons course so I assume that was also done in line with that.
The wide variation of how different high schools handle all of this is interesting. This must be why they talk so much in college app podcasts about “context.” 
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Son’s school offers no honors courses. The school suggests that freshmen take 0-1 AP courses, sophomores, 0-2, and juniors and seniors, 1-6,* but does not prevent students from taking more AP courses so long as prerequisites have been met and there are available seats. (Seniors are placed first, so freshmen rarely get seats in the more popular AP courses.)
The school requires AP Lang in 11th grade and AP Lit in 12th, thus all students attempt at least 2 AP courses.
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S26 is surprised he got a 4 in AP Lang and AP Seminar but is happy about getting a 4 in AP Calculus and a 5 in APUSH.
Interesting, I did not know our kids get an email notification every time someone logs into their account. Is that the default for everyone?
Interesting too, that some schools adjust final grades after the AP results come out. My kids’ school doesn’t do that.
S26 just got back from Kenyon Saturday night and he had a fantastic time!! What an incredible experience he had! He’s exhausted but feeling sad a bit that it was over. I’m giving him space and time to settle back into boring suburbia LOL.
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So glad to hear he had a great time!
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D26
AP 5’s:
Physics 1
Physics 2
Language
US History.
She now has 5’s in all 6 of her APs including Comp Sci and Bio from previous years.
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That’s amazing. Wish my kids had this at their school. They are known for grade deflation. D25 got a C+ in AP Stats but a 4 on the exam and A- in APUSH with a 5 on the exam. Those were ones that would have changed grades. Brutal. Very high pass rates in MA and their teachers teach for 5s. Their high school has a 94% pass rate and 78% 4/5 rate. D26 today got AP BC Calc (5), AP Lang (5), AP Stats (5) and AP French (4). We’ll take it!
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Same! 
Lang - 5
APUSH - 5
Psych - 5
Stat - 3 
She’s scheduled to take four more APs next year. Other than Bio, they shouldn’t be that bad.
AP awards are due out next Monday!
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S26 signed up for 6 APs next year 
. I feel so nervous but he assured me that the classes he signed up for interest him. I guess we will see 
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Are some of them semester classes? My D has 6 as well, but 4 of them are just one semester each.
Physics C Mech, Physics C E&M
US Gov, Macroeconomics
The only year length APs she has next year are Calc BC and music theory.
More school differences… our school requires all seniors to take a semester each of gov and of macro, but a maximum of one of them can be AP. So it’s either gov/macro, AP comp gov/macro, or gov/AP macro. (C26 is doing AP macro).
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Finally got to talk to D26 today.
4 on AP Calc AB (A in class)
Counts for ‘Calc 1 for Engineers’ at both Colorado School of Mines and CU Boulder so that is nice!
3 on AP Physics C (B in class)
Needed to get a 5 for credit at either school. Nothing for this at Mines but will get an elective credit at Boulder 
. At least that is something
Her top choice school doesn’t except APs.
Pretty excited for her! She has her profile locked up now for applications. She still has 2+ weeks left in Ireland, so I hope she is enjoying the break.
It is so awesome reading the updates on everyone!!!
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Our high school does something similar too. Students are required to take honors bio and honors chem (or high honors chem) before they can take the AP version of either course. And both AP Bio and AP Chem are full-year double period courses. Oh, and physics is also required. As a result, it is pretty much impossible to get both AP Bio and AP Chem done. On the plus side, the pass rates for the AP Bio and AP Chem are high at our school – but I worry it puts students at a disadvantage in terms of rigor.
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I think most HS have something that disadvantages students. Most of my D’s classes are required to be non-honors, and AP/IB are limited at her school. Even with the maximum rigor and all A grades, a perfect student at our HS can’t reach the median accepted weighted GPA for UCLA, for example. Admissions is just going to have to interpret each of our kids’ rigor in the context of their HS.
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