<p>Our high school has no rules about freshmen taking APs, but most AP courses have prerequisites. The strongly suggested courses for freshman generally leave room for only one elective. My older son took AP Computer Science as a freshman after talking to the teacher and the person teaching the course and convincing them that he was more than ready though he'd had no previous computer courses. (He was, he got a 5 on the exam - he says now he should have just taken the exam and skipped the class, but what did we know then.) Theoretically he could have taken AP Bio since he'd had a high school level bio course in 8th grade, but the school encourages kids to take physics and chemistry before taking AP Bio. I think it's the very rare freshman who is truly ready to take the AP history or English courses. Few of them truly write at a college level yet. (Of course most colleges students don't either, but that's another story!) In any event, I do think that schools shouldn't make silly rules. They should evaluated kids individually and place them in the courses that best meet their needs. Educationally my son could easily have finished high school early, but I do think he needed this year to mature socially.</p>
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DS1 got a 5 at Cal BC when he was in 7th grade.This open the door for him to take in 8th grade, Physics C, Cal AB, in 9th grade Chemistry AP, Cal BC and in 10th grade Bio AP, Engish AP.
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<p>There's something wrong with the sequence as described. No one takes Cal BC before Cal AB; and what was it about Cal BC again in 10th grade? Can you revise?</p>
<p>He took the Cal BC test at 7th grade to convice HS that he is calculus ready (through self-study) to do Physics. Later he took the course Cal 1 and Cal 2 formally in school. He did skip Cal BC test in 9th grade as he already got a 5 before.</p>
<p>Just to add - my current 9th grader took an exam to decide whether he should be placed into AP World History as a 10th grader next year. The honors track also puts kids in AP Physics B in 10th grade. I'm not sure that he'll be placed into as he's got a 79 average in AP Chem and mid 80s in his honors Math. (I'm going to have to change my name when my oldest graduates!)</p>
<p>Similar to inverse's post, I know of one child who took AP Calc in 8th grade -- very unusual child of course, one who eventually entered college with 64 credits advanced standing (some AP, some college courses taken in HS). </p>
<p>In our area it's very unusual for HS freshmen to take AP courses. D attended a competitive private school where the policy was "five hours of homework a night -- more if one has AP courses" and most students found the regular curriculum stressful enough.</p>
<p>That said, I think it depends on the child. There's no sense letting a child suffer boring schoolwork, but neither is there logic in pillorying a reluctant freshman with material intended for bright HS seniors.</p>
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<p>Hear. Hear. That's mostly what I'm trying to figure out: how to make those years count educationally for my children. College admissions officers will make what they will of what they see on a young person's transcript, but if the young person got a good education, there's no need to worry about that.</p>
<p>^^^ We are dealing with this right now but in a different way than most CC'ers. S2, a hs. jr. is an average student,not CC average, just regular B/C average. He is registering this week for senior classes. All along he has taken a mix of regular and honors classes and this year threw in AP Psyc. and Human Geog. Now he has pretty much maxed out what he is capable of that is worth taking. There are very few Honors clases available for seniors. It's either AP's that are above his abilities or much lower level stuff with the kids who are just trying to scrape through and graduate. After this semester he will have met all requirements to graduate except Eng.IV but will spend time at h.s. taking piddly stuff that means nothing. We are working on getting him into a program that will allow him to leave h.s. early each day and take a class at the local CC. I hoping that will be a good option for him. It's getting more and more difficult for the middle of the road kid when so much emphasis is placed on the opposite ends of the spectrum in the schools.</p>
<p>2 students at my school took AP courses as freshman. One took AP Bio, and the other took AP Chem. Both got 5's. </p>
<p>There are about 30 students in my grade (10) taking AP classes. My school is in love with AP. :D</p>
<p>Next year we'll have more than 15 (maybe 20) AP courses.</p>
<p>Forgot to say...no AP's for 9th graders at our high school but after that anyone can take whichever and as many as they want as long as they have the prereqs. that some AP's require.</p>
<p>Inverse:</p>
<p>Sorry to digress from the main topic, I'm still confused. I was under the impression that Calc I & II cover the same material as BC. Am I wrong? My S took BC Calc in 8th grade and moved straight into MV Calc and Linear Algebra in 9th grade. There was no nonsense about his repeating Calculus, even though he had self-studied BC Calc.</p>
<p>tokenadult:</p>
<p>We decided S would spend only 3 years in high school when we realized that either the AP classes available would not appeal to him (especially since he would have fulfilled the graduation requirements) or he would be taking all college classes. And since the high school required students to be in class for seven classes and there was no way he was going to take 7 college classes per semester, it made sense to let him graduate early.</p>
<p>If maturity had been a significant issue, he would have taken a gap year.</p>
<p>Calculus A = 1
Calculus B = 1-2
Calculus C = 2-3
Calculus D = 3</p>
<p>Kman:</p>
<p>Thanks. So a student who had taken the BC exam and gotten a 5 would be considered to have covered the materials in Calculus through 2-3. Am I correct?</p>
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Inverse:</p>
<p>Sorry to digress from the main topic, I'm still confused. I was under the impression that Calc I & II cover the same material as BC. Am I wrong? My S took BC Calc in 8th grade and moved straight into MV Calc and Linear Algebra in 9th grade. There was no nonsense about his repeating Calculus, even though he had self-studied BC Calc
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<p>You are correct that typically Cal 1 & 2 cover BC material. But when my DS1 took his Cal 2 in his school, the Cal 2 then included MV Cal as well. The school did later spread the course into Cal 2 and MV Cal.</p>
<p>I wasn't sure about your comment in the second part. In any case, my kids were well awared about potential pitfall of rapid advancement and didn't want any chance of lefting behind a weak foundation. It is quite typical for them to chose to take course in the classroom even after self-study.</p>
<p>Inverse:</p>
<p>I think I get it. When your S took Calc 2, he covered MV Calc as well. That makes more sense. </p>
<p>As for the second set of comments, I don't understand the strategy behind taking a class in which one has already done very well on the AP exam. I would understand it if one had gotten a 3, or maybe even a 4. I know my kid would be bored to tears goving over the same materials. But each to his own.</p>
<p>I was thinking the same. I'd think a five on the exam would be proof enough of a pretty solid foundation. But I've got the kid who complained every day for 9 years that he didn't learn anything new in school. High school has been a big relief for us.</p>
<p>In my school it is not a matter of what grade you are in, but what grade level you are at in the particular subject--you basically need prerequisites.<br>
it is not possible to take an AP Science at all 9th grade, and it is not possible at all to take an AP World Language, ENglish or Art Course as a freshman either. You can take AP Statistics if you skipped 3 years of math, and you can take AP Calc if you skipped 4 years of math. You can take AP World History if you skipped 1 year of history, got a 97+ on your final exam, and got a teacher reccomendation. </p>
<p>I took AP World History last year, as a freshman, and got a 5 on the AP exam. About 8 freshman took it.</p>
<p>I have a good friend who took AP World last year as well as AP Stats, and got a 5 and a 4 respectively.</p>
<p>Packmom said, "...There are very few Honors clases available for seniors. It's either AP's that are above his abilities or much lower level stuff with the kids who are just trying to scrape through and graduate..."</p>
<p>We had this issue with our S, who's a senior now. He had all courses needed for graduation, except the last english (AP Lang) and gov/economics. After that ... it was like, okay, now what do we take ... He didn't want any more math (can't stand math), but he took the calculus just because he couldn't find anything else. He ended up with AP physics as an elective because he ran out of options, and physics comes easy to him, even though he hates math. He took two honors electives: humanities and world religions. He's making pasta drawings in the humanities class, and the world religions, which he was looking forward to taking 'cause of the teacher, ended up with a permanent substitute instead. He's so bored out of his skull; it's difficult to get him to put any effort into the classes. His humanities teacher came from a college teaching background, but he says, it's like there's a disconnect ... she thinks HS kids aren't able to do anything. His favorite comment is that 'I learned more humanities from watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles than I'm getting from her.' His whole take on the public school system in general is very negative. He tolerated four years ... which, I'm thankful for, actually. Several of our friends, also with gifted kids, watched their children drop out or fail out ... just too bored and frustrated to care anymore. </p>
<p>Zebes</p>
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As for the second set of comments, I don't understand the strategy behind taking a class in which one has already done very well on the AP exam. I would understand it if one had gotten a 3, or maybe even a 4. I know my kid would be bored to tears goving over the same materials. But each to his own.
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<p>DS1 had good calculus teachers that taught way beyond AP level in depth emphasing theorem/proof. The school typically sent 1/3 of its students to Ivy or equivalent. Taking these courses gave him chance to practice more and enjoy company of classmate. This also allow us not to sent him to college too early.</p>
<p>Foudation of calculus goes way beyond AP. At AP level theory/proof are not typically of concern and a 5 could be obtained with say 70% correct answer.</p>
<p>it's a shame that some schools are so restrictive about AP opportunities available to younger students. those barriers were broken at my high school several years back, and kids who worked ahead of their classmates in elementary school and ended up multiple years ahead in math or science (no skipping classes here, just doing them much quicker, like through EPGY or equivalent) are totally welcomed into the the AP calculus, chem, bio, and physics courses as freshmen and younger. There are some every year now. If the kid has shown that he can work several years above his grade level, there's no point in holding him back and squashing his dreams and faith in the system.</p>