AP Pressure

Parents Forum
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<p>Op-Ed:</a> Advanced Pressure - Video Library - The New York Times</p>

<p>Thoughts on this video?</p>

<p>I find it a little annoying when 2 admissions reps bemoan all the AP courses students feel they need to take in order to have just a good application. D took 12 AP's, and managed to be asleep by 11 every weeknight, with the usual myriad of activities needed for a well rounded resume, but it has been stressful. I tried to talk her into fewer APs but she was certain she needed to take them to compete with the top kids. Especially stressful this year with applications on top of the usual stressors. </p>

<p>Who do the college admissions reps think is driving all this stress......they should look in the mirror.</p>

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<p>Well, what is interesting is that some college professors don’t even LIKE that kids AP classes. I have a friend who is a professor at one of the top LAC’s - he teaches physics. It is his opinion that he’d rather see kids NOT take AP’s - they are not prepared. The Admissions counselors will tell you a different story though.</p>

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<p>Colleges could put a stop to this easily by only accepting those that score 5.</p>

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<p>On the one hand we see pundits bemoaning the supposed dumbing down of our public schools and the supposed ignorance of our students. On the other, we see people bemoaning students being “pressured” to take harder classes.</p>

<p>I say make up your minds, people.</p>

<p>For many very bright kids, HS is the FIRST opportunity they have to be challenged in school. That is why they choose to take APs: not to get credit and move through college faster.</p>

<p>My kid took 8 APs (most of those his school offered) and everything else at the honors level, always took an extra course by doubling up in a core academic subject, was a 3-season varsity athlete, played a demanding instrument at a fairly high level (private lessons, youth symphony, etc) and was not overworked and had time to socialize with friends and spend too much time (IMHO) playing computer games.(And I don’t think his AP classes were walkovers, since he got almost all 5s on the exams without doing more than a couple of hours of prep, at most.)</p>

<p>He is certainly not superhuman, and not particularly well-organized or driven. I’m tired of hearing people moaning about taking “too many” APs.</p>

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<p>I have taken 4 AP’s (my school doesn’t offer many) and I got one 5 and three 4’s. I got a 4 on English Lit, USH, and AB Calc, and IN NO WAY do I feel qualified to skip ahead in college in those subjects as a result of my scores. I feel that I am good enough at chemistry to skip a year, however - I got a 5 on that AP. I believe that colleges should ONLY accept 5’s on AP’s, and even then should require extra testing to see if the student really knows the subject.</p>

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<p>AP’s are a great way to get some of the general ed. requirements out of the way.</p>

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<p>^Depends on the school.

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<p>Indeed. Take AP classes because you want to take courses at a level that will be comfortably challenging rather than because you think you need xx APs to be admitted into your dream college. You get sucked into the AP arms race only if you want to be part of it.</p>

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<p>I don’t know…</p>

<p>my D. is looking forward to HS and APs. she is soooo bored in middle school, with absolutely easy As and is bored out of her skull, thinking of all kinds of wired things to do. Our county doesn’t have GT school or any challenge. I can’t believe what they’re doing in math in “advanced” middle school class. Taking APs in hs and taking AP tests seems to be the only way to get some challenge from herschool (in stead of summer programs etc.), finally.</p>

<p>meanwhile, S. seems to be worry-free and asks if he can qualify to go to a good college by winning video games.</p>

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<p>What are they supposed to take instead? The regular physics class that take a semester to cover kinematics, or skip out on math if AP Calculus is all that’s left? If AP classes aren’t rigorous, then I’d doubt the alternative would be any better.</p>

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<p>People can say this is some problem, but it doesn’t go away. In college some people will study 90 hours a week, aiming for that 4.0 so they can get a job at the best company with the best pay. When I work a salaried job there’s going to be a bunch of people working huge amounts of unpaid overtime they don’t have to vying for the biggest bonus and next promotion. That’s the rest of my life there ahead of me. </p>

<p>Either you hold people back and create an unproductive mediocre society, or you “cause too much stress” and people spend a a small number fewer hours of time-wasting. I think that 2nd option sounds a lot better than way, and even if it doesn’t to you (you, whoever may be reading this post), that’s how things are anyway and nothing short of Communism will stop it.</p>

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<p>LOL, Consolation, you can try to sell it, but I’m not buying that part about your kid not being superhuman!</p>

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<p>At our school, the only rigorous classes offered are AP classes. My older dd was encouraged to take AP classes starting her freshman year, and ended up with 12 all together. She didn’t work too hard to do well in them and to get 5s. She chose a college which didn’t give her credit for most of them, but it was worth it because she was well-prepared.</p>

<p>My younger daughter works very hard and gets excellent results, but I feel that she is under more stress than she should be. She thinks it’s worth it to be in those classes with the best teachers (unfortunately true) and with students who are pretty serious about their academics. At our school the AP option seems to be the only one for a student who wants some challenge, and wants the focus to be on the class material rather than behavior.</p>

<p>I know there are many excellent schools where students take fewer AP classes, or none at all and get a good education.</p>

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<p>“I know there are many excellent schools where students take fewer AP classes, or none at all and get a good education.”</p>

<p>I would say that I fit in the category of one of those students. I go to a public high school in New England with 27 AP courses offered as of my writing this. Well over 80% of the scores on those APs are 5s, almost all the rest are 4s.
This may be more APs than most schools offer, but at the same time, students here elect to take fewer of them. I don’t think anybody has taken more than four or five by the end of his or her junior year. In fact, sophomores taking APs is extremely rare and only began this year with our unusually gifted sophomore class; several students are enrolled in either AP stats, AP bio, or BC Calculus AP, one student taking both stats and BC calc. Being strong students, they will get 5s.
In my opinion, there is little wrong with this. They are not killing themselves taking a few APs. However, I read about people here saying their sons or daughters have 11, 12, even 17 APs and think to myself, “they’re just making things up, right?” Personally, I took AP United States History as a junior and scored a 5 and nobody I know scored below that. This year, as a senior, I’m taking AP French and AP Psychology, the former being equivalent to a 5th and 6th semester college French course and the latter a semester of introductory psych. Even taking these two courses (both honors/AP courses, although some AP courses are deemed to simple in content and are given elective labels, not affecting your GPA. The exception being AB calculus, which is slower than a college course and thus a 4.5/5.0 for an A+, like all “accelerated” courses) I am stressed. Every night I stay up to 11pm or midnight just doing homework for my two honors/AP courses, two plain honors courses, and two accelerated courses.
In my opinion, rather than completely eliminating the Advanced Placement system, it needs to be greatly reformed. It is clear to most AP students at my school that the AP exams are MUCH easier than their college equivalents. Although the rate of receiving a 5 in our BC calc course has historically been 48+/50 students per year, those that go to top schools end up retaking them anyway. Additionally, students should not be taking 6-7 courses a year. Our school limits it to six due to the constraints of an 8-period schedule and a few students a year fill their schedules to the brim with APs. Those few, no more than five, seem naturally motivated and able to handle it. Nonetheless, most people are not. It is for this reason I believe students should be limited, taking four a year, maximum; maybe even three.
I took three APs total, and it has not hindered me at all. I was accepted to every school I applied to, including Case Western, Vassar, and McGill. I will be attending Vassar, and am happy to know the college, like many, does not accept many AP exams! English, for one, will do nothing for you even if you have a 5. If you consider slightly more selective schools, such as Harvard or MIT, you will see they will only take one (if I’m not mistaken). Why then, should students torture themselves? Can they not get the extra mental stimulation they need from extracurriculars, somewhere where they are not constantly “forced” to not only perform, but excel in fear of a lower GPA?</p>

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<p>Moderators, cah you merge the two threads on this topic?</p>

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<p>The only APs that I planned on taking were ones that would be accepted as College Credit: Only AP Calc BC and AP Physics C (with scores of 5).</p>

<p>I think taking a lot of APs is not a good way to go about education, I would rather take even more advanced classes as opposed to only taking more APs. Taking Multivariable Calculus, Linear Algebra, and Differential Equations, made more sense than picking another AP course to take to look better. </p>

<p>As of know I am taking more APs this year, because I’ve exhausted the other classes I was interested in and I wanted to challenge myself some more.</p>

<p>I would rather see high schools adopt more of a college type course set up. Have a lot of levels in a subject, and for areas like Calculus allow lower level classes (like business calc) for students who don’t want to take the most difficult class available at their level. There isn’t a need to have honors, AP level courses if you are taking more advanced material.</p>

<p>I would rather have students be able to take more advanced courses than just shoot for AP classes.</p>

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<p>KGB1337, why should your school make rules restricting other students to what YOU feel comfortable with?</p>

<p>As your post illustrates, there are kids at your school who wish to take more APs than you do, and there are those who wish to take fewer. There are students who wish to take more courses than you do, and probably those who wish to take fewer.</p>

<p>Why not simply provide a variable level of challenge, and let the students find the level that suits them?</p>

<p>My thought on the video is that it is one-sided garbage.</p>

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<p>The more APs you have is not always the best thing… I’d rather take 3 APs and get all 5s than like 6-7 and get 5s, 4s, mixed with 3s. Getting a 3 basically means you just gave the College Board 86$… lol. Some APs are completely useless anyway like the foreign language ones. The most important APs are english language, the three sciences, Calc BC, U.S. history, and statistics… every other ap is fluff and useless.</p>

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<p>I think it is a good idea to look at the websites of the colleges you are interested in and see what their AP criteria is. Most have it listed (with some digging involved)</p>

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<p>Add my daughter to the list of people who take a lot of APs and have a life. She dances, fences, is on the speech team, academic team, and scholastic team, and is active in church. </p>

<p>She’s taken 4 AP exams already and will take 5 more this year.</p>

<p>She rarely has more than a couple of hours of homework on a week night, although she has more on weekends.</p>

<p>She did Calc BC last year and is doing multi-variable this year, so AP doesn’t preclude advancing beyond AP.</p>

<p>You can take AP courses/exams

  • Because you like the topic and want to learn more
  • Because these are the only advanced classes at your school and you want to be with the more advanced/serious students
  • For a perceived advantage in college admissions
  • For gaining college credit (freeing you to double major or graduate early or study abroad, etc.)
  • For gaining college placement (letting you skip weed-out classes and take the more interesting non-survey classes earlier)
  • For weighted GPA points, which affect class rank (and thus, college admissions and scholarships)
  • Because you know the teacher and want to be in his/her class</p>
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<p>AP stress killed me, i got 1s on all my APs lol</p>