<p>I'm wondering if my son is correct in his assumption that his enviromental science class isn't considered a "real" AP class and therefore will not be as difficult. I checked out the syllabus and it looks pretty real to me.</p>
<p>He was originally taking a zoology class that turned out to be super easy, so he switched to this class because he wanted a challenge. This will be his 6th class. He also joined marching band and which is a 20 hour/week committment. I'm worried that he is trying to do too much. (Last year he missed a lot of school due to illness and his GPa crashed)</p>
<p>Ask the teacher. If they are teaching with the goal of taking the AP exam in May, then its an AP. Are they required to take the test if its an AP class? Some schools make it an option.</p>
<p>My D is taking Enviro this year as a senior- while not as rigorous as Bio or Chem it is definitely a "real" AP. S had the same course last year- with zero effort and zero studying he got a 3 on the exam. I think the course is widely viewed as an easy science AP by students. Perhaps that's what he means by not a "real" AP.</p>
<p>In some colleges AP Envir. gives you credit for one semester course, while the other science APs give you two semesters - so while it's probably easier than the course he's taking now, it's one of the easier APs.</p>
<p>APES is one of the two easiest AP classes (psych being the other). In our HS the bonus is having a great teacher for the class. In our school it alternates daily from 1 to 2 periods. (I think at another local school it is only 1 period every day.)</p>
<p>APES is an AP class by title only. I'm taking it right now for exactly the reasons Bay mentioned, and I have to say I've been disappointed. You learn a little bit of everything, but nothing in depth.</p>
<p>AP Environmental Science is like AP Psychology or AP American Government in that it is the equivalent of a single-semester college course.</p>
<p>This makes it substantially less difficult than AP courses that are the equivalent of a year's college work, such as AP Biology, AP Chemistry, or AP U.S. History. </p>
<p>But it does not make it worthless. If your son is interested in the subject, there's no reason for him not to take it.</p>
<p>My daughter got a 5 on the AP Environmental Science test. So I can vouch for the fact that 5s are not impossible to come by.</p>
<p>Everybody above already said what I would have.</p>
<p>Now, your concern is whether he can handle an AP course with all his other commitments. As you see above, it doesn't take a lot of time to pass the course (disregarding the AP exam, another issue). He does not have to study for, or take the actual AP College Board exam, which certifies to colleges he actually leanred the material, unless he chooses to.</p>
<p>Not getting 3 or more on the College Board test has no bearing on the difficulty of the class as it is offered at a particular high school... in fact, a school whose students have poor performance on the AP test is probably offering an easier course.</p>
<p>APES is the senior science at my children's HS. It's a little lighter weight than some of the AP courses, but it's still interesting. My son liked having it for senior year, because it was a little bit of a break from senior stress. The biggest problem he had was that his teacher for it is very "green" and there was no room to debate any of the ideas. Not that we're not a very eco-friendly as a family, but for example, it wasn't okay to challenge the superiority of vegetarianism. That may have more to do with instructor than the course materials, though. </p>
<p>It is a "real" AP, and granted my son a semester elective credit for his top LAC, which was more than any of the AP English courses did.</p>
<p>^^^ Agree, but some on here and in other threads have contended that APES is significantly easier, but if you compare scores on the tests, it's not significantly out of line with any other AP. Each school, each student is individual, but when you look at the overall trend, it seems to even out.</p>
<p>As other posters have noted, the difficulty of the class may be different than the difficulty of the test.</p>
<p>S2's experience was similar to Mike41691's - the class covered a lot of subjects, but nothing in depth. </p>
<p>S2 enjoyed the class, but he cared more about learning and taking an interesting class, than results on the AP test. He decided to not take AP History as he likes history as a subject but didn't like the way the AP History course was taught.</p>