<p>My son is a sophomore and is interested in AP Macro. The school is reluctant as they feel those who take it as juniors/seniors typically score much higher. He is very good at math, very good analytical skills, very good at history/social studies and, maybe most important, wants to take the class. The teacher is excellent and really connects with my son. She is leaving after this year.</p>
<p>He needs to get a 5, maybe a 4 on the AP test.</p>
<p>He does a sport and plays an instrument but manages his time well</p>
<p>He has straight A's and brought geometry from a B to an A during mid terms.</p>
<p>He has big dreams about college and wants to shoot for Brown.</p>
<p>Should he wait or should he go for it?</p>
<p>I will have to push the school hard and up to now have a good relationship with them.</p>
<p>Do they just do macro and do they spread it out over the whole year? My older mathy son thought it was the easiest AP he took. He did do it as a senior though. My inclination is to grab the good teacher while you can. Both my kids did fine with the APs they took as freshmen and sophomores. (Oldest did AP Comp Sci and AP Bio, youngest did AP World.)</p>
<p>No reasons not to take it. The teacher for an AP class matters a lot. Two students, different districts/states. Both took AP Chemistry senior year. One got a 5 on the AP exam and a C second semester (didn’t like teaching/slacked off), the other studied hard, got an A and a 3. Both with similar test scores for talent serach et al.</p>
<p>In our district many sophomores take AP courses- some skip regular US History and substitute the AP one (and some skip regular physics). AP Econ was a semester course in son’s HS. He also took the WCATY summer 3 week all day sessions for some AP’s. No big deal to take at any age/grade. I know one student who got a 5 on the AP- US History exam before he was to take US History of any kind as a sophomore.</p>
<p>Both my highly motivated, overachieving daughter and my slacker son took AP micro/macro as sophomores, which is when most kids at our hs take it. D got A/A 5/5, son got A-/B+ 3/4. Really not a difficult course or test, comparatively. If your student is interested and willing to put in the effort, the fact he’s a sophomore shouldn’t be an impediment to his doing well.</p>
<p>Macro’s not that hard, but it is harder than micro. If your son took macro in the spring semester, it wouldn’t be a half-year class. Since the AP test is in early May, it would be a third of the year.</p>
<p>Economics is very much an “elective” category course. By taking it I would wonder if he’s skipping an opportunity to take another core course – such as English/Math/Lab Science/Foreign Language/History.</p>
<p>I strongly doubt that taking Macro Economics in high school would have a significant impact on admissions to a selective college. However skipping the opportunity for a core course would.</p>
<p>Perhaps your sophomore son has a higher maturity level, and a higher business sense than most high school students. I would think taking an economics course as a senior, or perhaps college freshman, is a better approach.</p>
<p>Younger son took it as a freshman micro/macro, A/A 5/5. His AP Euro/AP Physics/AP Calc BC much, much harder.</p>
<p>Only advantage to taking it so early allowed room for the more difficult APs later in hs. Also helped during apps season when he applied as an econ major to Wharton (M & T program) and Princeton. And yes, admitted to both (M & T as well.)</p>
<p>At my kids’ high school, only juniors and seniors can take AP Economics (it’s a full year, micro/macro course), and since juniors are for the most part required to take US History, most kids who take it are seniors. I don’t think there’s any reason why an intelligent sophomore (or even freshman) couldn’t do well in the course, but the school makes no exceptions. Is there a reason your son needs to take it this year? If the school’s policy is not to allow sophomores to take it, that is not a battle I’d use my political currency to fight, as I’m sure there are other courses he could take and it’s not like there is an advanced Economics curriculum that will not be available to him if he doesn’t take it this year (like there may be in other subjects).</p>
<p>If he’s only in geometry, perhaps he should wait. The course may be easier later on, when he has more math under his belt. And if the new teacher isn’t as good as the old one, there’s no great harm in skipping this course altogether. Introductory economics can just as easily be taken in college.</p>
<p>^True. Though I can’t help thinking my younger son might have done better in his (required for his major) economics course if he’d had a little exposure in high school. </p>
<p>Taking AP Econ instead of AP Euro didn’t seem to hurt my older son any. He’d taken to years of World History and one year of US History (AP) as required by NYS.</p>
<p>^Presumably to get credit at college. I don’t think that for a sophomore that should be the primary consideration. There are a lot of different AP policies out there and they could be more or less generous. APs really should be primarily about the learning and the interest, not just racking up credits.</p>
<p>Thank you to everyone for all for your advice. It helps me immensely to have other points of view.</p>
<p>I am going to meet with academic dean on this and try to resolve it. Probably going to push it but make sure I maintain a good relationship. I think the teacher and dean had a difference of opinion on the matter and we are somewhat in the middle. She is a big booster of my son. </p>
<p>The primary interest in AP Macro is because my son is very interested in the topic and found a teacher who is very good and with whom he has a really good relationship. It would be a very small class, maybe 5-6 students. Getting the credits is a factor and a big plus but not the primary one.</p>
<p>At D’s school, they could not take AP classes before junior year, because it meant that they would take upperclassman’s spot. It seems that OP’s son is discouraged primarily for this reason. So, why this child should have better opportunity - because parents is pushing school hard? I tend to disagree with that. We did not push school about anything. We adhere to school’s policies with great results. I would advise doing just that - do not aggravate situation. None of AP classes are not worth it. The best is actually to take as many as possible among the ones that child does NOT like to avoid taking them in college and potentially lowering college GPA, which is much more important than HS GPA. I am a parent of college senior and my advice is based on my D’s experince in HS and in college.</p>
<p>Lots of kids take AP classes as sophomores. My son did as do many. And economics is not one of the tougher APs, so seems odd that they think your son won’t do well.</p>
<p>If he is going to major in Econ in college, or take a lot more Econ in college… the credit is not really important. He’ll really want to (have to?) take MacroEcon at the college level. Most colleges have learned that AP classes are inadequate preparation for further in-depth study in the field. </p>
<p>So if he wants to take it and you want to push, because the prof is great - fine, go for it. But it’s no big deal (other than that this teacher will be gone) if he takes it later, or takes it when in college.</p>
<p>If you S is motivated, why not take it now? My S also found AP Macro to be the easiest of the 9 AP classes he took (well, maybe a tie with AP Spanish Language.) It’s also no big deal to take APs as a sophomore, for strong, focused students. My S ended up taking three APs as a sophomore, two because it was the next class in the progression for him (AP Calc BC and AP Spanish) and because he wanted to (AP Euro.) Turns out the AP Euro teacher was also the AP coordinator and was somewhat concerned about this, but when faced with the reality of the next progression courses, I guess she wasn’t going to tell him not to take HER class, LOL! Turns out her class was the most challenging for my math/sci guy, but also excellent prep for studying social sciences at a higher level.</p>