<p>In my s's private school, there are minimum requirements to be considered for placement into an AP. They are (in order of importance)</p>
<p>1) Grades in previous course - minimum A- (90) average to move into AP and minimum B (83) to remain in AP in following year
2) Writing ability
3) Homework, participation and attitude</p>
<p>Please explain your school's requirements.</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>about the same- depends on course though and instructor
for younger D public school anyway
older D private school didn't have AP only honors</p>
<p>At our large public high school, the student's planned schedule for the next year is signed by each teacher (in the appropriate subject) as "Too easy", "Recommended", or "Too hard". If a student wants to go into AP or Honors, and they have not been recommended, they are allowed to do so, but they are not allowed to switch to a lower level class if they find it too difficult. If they have been recommended, they are allowed to switch to a lower level class if they find it too difficult. At least this was how it was when my kids first started at the HS six years ago, and I don't think things have changed since.</p>
<p>At my child's medium-sized private school where kids go to HYPS every year, if you want to take an AP, you get to take an AP. The "attitude" requirement at your school seems potentially problematic to me.</p>
<p>Heidi - you are right on the $ - the school complains that too many students choose to go in state and therefore the school's name is not well known out of state but on the other hand they stop kids from challenging themselves with AP's which is what the out of state private colleges look for. I am a pain in the butt mom and do not sit by quietly but it is frustrating when you pay all the dough and have to yell and scream to get the class placement you want. In addition the college profile that is sent with each application says nothing about these requirements. That is my next subject to tackle...</p>
<p>Smiles, my kids went to different public high schools which had somewhat different requirements for getting into AP classes, but in each case it required the kid to take some initiative and do some work to qualify - at least for the AP Engish. I honestly don't have a problem with this -- nor have I ever been involved in the process. I know that my son had to sign up for an extra "honors" component to his sophomore English class that involved attending meetings about once a month and writing several essays. My daughter simply had to fill out an application form that included an essay, and get it done by a specific deadline -- I think the essay was along the lines, "Why I want to take AP English"... nothing complicated. </p>
<p>FWIW, my daughter was accepted into the AP English class for this year and then turned it down in favor of Honors English, after talking to the teachers for both classes and getting a sense of what each class would be about. Right now she is very glad she made that choice, because she just took the AP English exam, after studying herself from a prep book - and she said the exam was easy and she was much better prepared than any of the kids from the AP class. She had gotten the prep book to try to compensate what she thought she had missed by not taking the course - primarily brushing up on vocabulary -- but apparently the AP teacher hadn't taught that stuff. In other words, in the long run my d. has done better without the class. (Of course I won't be absolutely sure until the scores come back )</p>
<p>All I'm saying is that while it might look better on the transcript, the label "AP" doesn't necesssarily mean that the class is better, or that it is the best class for that kid.</p>
<p>No gatekeeping at our school. If pre-requisite course is passed (i.e. Pre-Calc for AP Calc), then student may choose to take AP. VERY honest advice and counseling is given by teachers and GC, but students/parents have the last word. Once there, if the class proves too difficult with the student expending all their effort, then student can be moved. If not, no drop allowed.</p>
<p>Picked by the teacher, so there is a degree of favoratism. My daughter, despite straight A's and being a very hard worker, did not make the AP English class next year, so she is going to self-study. Not a fair situation at all.</p>
<p>Only gatekeeping in sciences is now pre-req - biology for AP Bio, etc. Humanities don't have pre-reqs so there is a little selection going on, but overall, the teachers are more encouraging than discouraging.
My soapbox is the math schema - the majority take algebra in the 9th grade and end with algebra III/trig, and the schema does not allow for acceleration to pre-calc in the 12th grade without significant juggling/summer school, etc. Very little middle ground - kids taking linear algebra or multivariable calculus is virtually unheard of, but everyone gets 4 years of math, even in public school.</p>
<p>At our HS freshmen are not allowed to enroll in AP courses and neither are sophs except under extraordinary circumstances Juniors and seniors are allowed to take a maximum of 3 AP courses per year and priority is given to seniors. </p>
<p>The reason students are not allowed to take more than 3 AP's per year is because they have syllabi similar to college level courses and the workload is such that taking more than 3 on top of 3 or 4 other academic courses would be too much to handle given the 1.5:1 :: homework:classroom ratio that the teachers expect.</p>
<p>This policy really prepares the students for the demand of college and in some cases(calculus being one example)they find their frosh college coursework to be easier. And because the AP exam is given a month before the final exam week, every AP class assigns a final project or research paper to be completed during that period. For his APUSH research paper, he investigated the burial records of about 25 churches in the region to determine the prevalence of slavery in the first half of the 18th century.</p>
<p>My S' school has fairly open admission to AP, and I'm in the camp that favors that. There are some basic pre-requisites for the following: </p>
<p>AP English 11 -- grade of B or better in English 10, plus a written commitment to the summer reading program. </p>
<p>AP Studio Art -- Teacher approval, based on a submitted portfolio</p>
<p>AP English 12 -- Grade of B or better in English 11, plus a written commitment to the summer reading program</p>
<p>AP Calculus -- "B" in Advanced Algebra with Trig or "A" in either College Prep Alegbra with Trig or College Prep Algebra II. </p>
<p>AP U.S. History -- "B" or better in previous social science classes. </p>
<p>AP European History -- "B" or better in previous social science classes</p>
<p>AP Physics -- Co-enrollment in AP Calculus</p>
<p>AP Chemistry -- "B" or better in Chemistry I</p>
<p>AP Biology -- "B" or better in Biology I</p>
<p>But note that ALL of the prerequisites can be waived based on the teacher's recommendation. In my experience, the only pre-reqs that are really enforced are the ones for math and science. If a student wants in to most of the other courses, the teacher almost always allows it.</p>
<p>My dd's public high school is similar to lderochi's. Admission to AP is based on grades in the previous courses (generally B or better in honors, A- or better in college prep standard). These can also be waived by the pre-req's teacher.</p>
<p>There are no freshman or sophomore AP classes offered. As a junior, there are a limited number of AP classes, and only one (AP US History) in the "core" curriculum - the rest are electives (history & poli sci). English, French, Spanish, science, math & psych APs wait until senior year.</p>
<p>at our competitive HS, kids require teacher sign off to take next year's schedule....for AP/honors, it just means a B or better in this year's class. However, a kid with a low B would be likely be counseled against taking the AP, just so that they don't struggle.</p>
<p>cangel:</p>
<p>many of our math kids, take Alg I in 8th (or even 7th) grade, so they can easily move into Calc by Senior yr. </p>
<p>btw: Federal educ policy (?)/ recommendation (adopted by Clinton administration) is for nearly all kids to take Alg I in 8th grade. Calif has adopted that goal as well.</p>
<p>originaloog:</p>
<p>your district's rationale appears somewhat illogical to me. For any U-bound senior, they might as well get used to taking 6 college-level classes, bcos that is excactly what they will be doing (and more) 12 months hence. </p>
<p>A typical senior schedule for our four-year University bound kids would be:</p>
<p>AP Govt-AP/honors Econ (semester courses)
AP Calc/AP Stats
AP Eng
AP/honors foreign lang (ap if took lang in middle school)
AP Science (pick 'em)
elective or EC's</p>
<p>btw: since Cali kids start school later, they have one less month to perepare for the ap tests.</p>
<p>California kids start school later? Our kids start the Tuesday following labor day, and that's pretty much the norm in PA. Right now, our AP Euro teacher is trying to cram a couple of hundred years of history into the last few days of classes before the test on Friday.</p>
<p>The requirements for our school are a B or better in honors classes preceding AP class or A in regular class preceding AP class, teachers recommendation and a contract signed by both parents and student saying they understand the workload involved and an agreement to read several books and/or do math assignments over the summer.</p>
<p>The earliest a student can take an AP class has always been junior year until this coming fall when they are adding AP US history available to sophomores. My son will have 2 - 3 AP's by the time he's done and that's probably just above the average. We have a relatively small HS with less then 1,000 students.</p>
<p>BlueBayou, while I'm all for challenging HS kids with AP courses, the schedule you suggested seems pretty top-heavy to me. Am I to assume that Juniors are also expected to take some AP's (2 or 3) at your school? If so, then that's 8-9 AP classes. Didn't I read somewhere that the typical Stanford admit who had the opportunity to take AP took 5 classes?</p>
<p>Iderochi:</p>
<p>yes, high achieving Jrs do take a couple of APs, typically AP History and AP
and Science, and possibly Stats and/or Art Hist (instead of art/Ceramics to fulfill the UC vapa requirement). Further, advanced math whizzes will likely take AP Calc. Other kids mix in junior college classes due to schedule conflicts. However, it is nearly impossible to take an AP prior to Jr year.</p>
<p>Since class rank is so important to privates, kids take the AP courses bcos they are weighted and boost the gpa. Also, similar to football/basketball rankings, Strength of Schedule is paramount....</p>
<p>btw: the Ivy/Stanford admits from our HS had a similar schedule, (excluding recruited athletes). Admission to our in-state flagships, Berkeley and UCLA has become extremely competitive for bwrks, so kids need some way to stand out. Top kids with few APs were rejected by both schools.</p>
<p>BlueBayou -- Thanks for the response, I'm still just amazed whenever I hear what the kids out in your state are faced with. On the other hand, I live in a state with one flagship, and while it's actually a pretty good school my S has NO interest in it at all! So much for in-state tuition.</p>
<p>Bluebayou replied to my post stating, "your district's rationale appears somewhat illogical to me. For any U-bound senior, they might as well get used to taking 6 college-level classes, bcos that is excactly what they will be doing (and more) 12 months hence."</p>
<p>That is a bold statement given the fact that you have no knowledge of our local school system and its policies. In fact our top students(the ones taking the AP offerings) enter college very well prepared to tackle college work because the AP classes are taught like college classes.</p>
<p>A previous threat complained about the quality, or lack thereof, of the AP classes. That is not the case with our district. The reason our students are limited to 3 AP's jr and sr year is that the workload is very high and to expect them to take more than 3 on top of 4 other honors level courses would be rediculous.</p>
<p>Let me give you an example. My son took APUSHistory junior year and was assigned 2 standard texts and 2 supplmental readings texts as well. It was a total of about 2000 pages. In addition they were required to select 5 historical books to read and prepare a critique on One had to be completed during the prior summer. Two of the books he chose were "Black Elk Speaks" and "A Stillness at Appomattox", I forgot the other 3. They were required to do a research paper utilizing some original source material, my son's involved searching church burial records to investigate the prevalence of slavery in the first half of the 19th century and was about 50 typewritten pages long not including the appendix of burial record copies. In addition to daily readings, each week they were assigned a short(2page) essay and a DBQ. At least once a month they worked in teams on a class presentation/discussion assignment. One of theirs involved the British New York invasion strategy during the Revolutionary War.</p>
<p>This was typical of their AP classes, far more work than the honors sections. So most came back after fall semester at college of the same opinion...the academics weren't nearly as hard or intense as they had expected. I say the proof is in the pudding.</p>
<p>I tend to agree that taking all AP classes senior year is a bit much - they're still in high school; they're not freshmen! I don't see the need for a senior to work as if he/she were already in college. There's plenty of time for that! </p>
<p>I don't know yet how to put in a link, but there was another recent thread about kids working too hard in high school. I'm thrilled that in my dd's high school, 3 AP classes at once is pushing it.</p>