<p>We had no summer work other than to read Samuel Butler's Erewhon for AP English and to do a worksheet for AP Calc AB.</p>
<p>The amount of homework varies greatly from school to school. Always find out the books ahead of time and read over the summer as much as possible. It will save you during the year if you are taking more than one AP.</p>
<p>My daughter had to read 11 or 13 chapters in her American History textbook this past summer, answer something like 80 pages worth of questions and write several essays. It was a tremendous amount of work.</p>
<p>My understanding is that now that the AP tests can be given in June instead of May, the amount of summer homework will be lighter. </p>
<p>OTOH, her AP Bio teacher gave no summer HW at all.</p>
<p>After everyone posts their comments, I am going to make notes and give to our academic dean. I think that our kids need to do more summer homework. Our AP kids tend to get 3's & 4's (rarely EVER a 5) and I think that is because we don't do the right kind of summer homework and then the school year gets "crammed."</p>
<p>BTW:</p>
<p>Each school or district seems to have a different way to line up its AP classes. At our school, sophomores take AP US and juniors take AP Euro. It seems many/most do it the other way. I wonder if there is any benefit for doing AP Euro first???</p>
<p>For my AP Classes, I've only had summer reading (one book) for AP Literature and two for AP USH (but the non-AP kids had the same reading). For AP Physics there was a summer assignment (perhaps about 40 problems) to cover basic calculus and simple physics, but we were given time to finish it during the first week so three of us who were only taking AB could properly learn the calculus.</p>
<p>chocoholic::</p>
<p>11 AP's and was never stressed??? Is your dd a genius??? What scores did she get on her exams? </p>
<p>I find it hard to believe if a school has kids read 2-4 chapters (as some have stated) that it only "cuts" a week off of school. Don't teachers usually spend at least a week on each chapter (if a school is on reg 9 month (not 4x4) schedule?</p>
<p>We never have summer homework for any classes at my school, although the AP Lit teacher recommends starting the Odyssey before school starts. We start in the second week of August, so we have plenty of time before the AP test.</p>
<p>jl:</p>
<p>In our area, the 'standard' history sequence is APUSH soph year and Euro junior year, assuming the school offers both and the kid is inclined. Civics is a Calif HS grad requirement, so most take Govt senior year.</p>
<p>rain: Our school starts second week in Aug also but the AP history teachers act as if they don't have enough time and REALLY pile on the homework. I think that if they assigned meaningful homework during the summer (instead of assigning Frankenstein, like the AP Euro teacher did and then did NOTHING with the book -- no test), then the year wouldn't be quite as stressful.</p>
<p>I can't believe that required summer homework is now standard practice. That wasn't the case in most of my AP classes back when I was in high school during the Bush administration (Bush Sr., that is). The only class with summer homework was AP US History, and even there, the summer homework was very light compared to the workload several of you have cited. AP US History had such a torrential workload that it forced me to switch to the regular US History class after just a month. I can't believe anyone could survive it, given that there was MORE homework in that one class than all my others combined, quite a feat given that my junior year was my hardest year.</p>
<p>I can't believe what the world is coming to. The proliferation of mandatory summer homework proves that not all fascists come from Saudi Dakota. I think 9 months of perpetual detention was more than enough. I can't believe that schools think it should be extended to all 12.</p>
<p>How can anyone study in Alabama in early August? For that matter, how can anyone get much studying done in Alabama? A warm climate just isn't conducive to studying, because it feels like summer vacation.</p>
<p>jhsu LOL</p>
<p>there is a lot of pressure on AP teachers to have most/all students pass the AP exams with 3,4,5's. Since the AP teachers obviously have no control over what will be on the exams (unlike other teachers) they are paranoid that they will not cover something that will be on the test. The fear that there will be "free response essays" on topics that their students are not proficient terrifies them.</p>
<p>jlauer, I guess our school did not assign 4 chapters of anything. But that said, of the courses that did have summer H.W., perhaps it was 2 weeks worth of school, and not 1 as I said before. The teachers push at a very high pace, and a few kids do drop out of APs within the first month of school.
My D is not even close to genius, though we did have quite a few at our school. She is just a relaxed person, and kept up with h.w. She scored one '3', and the rest were '4s' and '5s'. And there was 1 AP test that she decided not to take.
I have heard talk of phasing out AP's, just because of the huge differences in how they are taught, and that many colleges don't give you credit for most AP's.</p>
<p>< there is a lot of pressure on AP teachers to have most/all students pass the AP exams with 3,4,5's. Since the AP teachers obviously have no control over what will be on the exams (unlike other teachers) they are paranoid that they will not cover something that will be on the test. The fear that there will be "free response essays" on topics that their students are not proficient terrifies them. >
At my high school, the majority of students in an AP class did not take the AP test. The teachers didn't obsess over the AP exam. Has the No Child Left Untested bull affected AP classes too? Do AP teachers get fired if not enough students earn 5s?</p>
<p>My AP English Lit class assigned 3 books to read over the summer...one was Huckleberry Finn, then there was something by Ken Kesey, and there was one other book that I forgot.</p>
<p>I'd read all the books before and disliked them the first time around, so I...er...just read Cliff's Notes type resources and called it a day (or two, to be exact).</p>
<p>Other than that I did not have any AP homework over the summer. I go to a public high school that focuses more on the IB program (which I was unable to participate in, since I transferred here my junior year), so many of the AP classes have very, very low workloads compared to the rigorous loads I've seen/heard discussed elsewhere in the country. Basically, I have to lock myself in for 2-3 weeks mid-to-late April to pull off 5's on the exams...it's pretty much self-study, to be frank.</p>
<p>(I must be very bored and unable to sleep to start perusing the Parent forum...)</p>
<p>Just as someone mentioned above, my D's school does not allow students to take an AP course in chem, bio or physics until they have taken the regular course. Also, it's almost impossible to take an AP course until junior year. I remember it being the same when I was in high school. It sounds like some schools substitute the AP course for the regular one. Maybe that is why there is such variance in how the courses are taught. Even though it is hard to graduate from my D's school with more than 6 APs under one's belt, they do very well in placing kids in ivy schools.</p>
<p>Vango:</p>
<p>I was thinking the same thing. When I hear that some kids have take 12 or so AP classes, i wonder how do they do it if they are supposed to take the "reg" science class before. I know that some schools offer tons of AP's in all types of classes -- our school just sticks to the basics -- math, science and English for AP's.</p>
<p>jhsu:</p>
<p>No teachers don't get fired if everyone doesn't get 5's. But they are likely to be moved out of teaching AP's if a high percentage doesn't get at least a 3. After all, the AP kids are the cream of the crop and if most (nearly all) can't get at least 3's on the tests then the teacher isn't doing something right. Parents would scream mutiny if they pay 80+ per test only to constantly see their kids fail at the hands of a bad AP teacher?</p>
<p>jhsu:</p>
<p>I agree, it is hard to start school in beginning of August in Alabama. We have a pool and I'm annoyed that my kids lose a month of using it because of the schedule. When we moved here (from Calif) I was annoyed at the August start, but now that I know that AP tests are at the beginning of May, I understand.</p>