<p>Here I am again, while waiting for senior son's college decisions trying to help younger son with course selections for junior year. Older one took many AP's without even consulting me. </p>
<p>DS2 is a soph at an international school and is taking AP Human Geo this year. In Math he has Alg2/Trig. Not a math person plus has a dry teacher. He is wondering to take pre-calc or AP stats?</p>
<p>He will take AP US history for sure, but again not decided about AP English Lang as all 4 teachers in our HS are really hard. DS2 does not enjoy writing. Our school has some new semester long english options, he could do 2 of those and keep AP Lang for 12th.</p>
<p>He wants to be a teacher/counselor....is a hands on person, likes his stagecraft and ceramics class :). I really do not know what to suggest!! He works hard but stresses easily too.</p>
<p>In sciences he has taken Bio and chem, will take Physics next year. So an AP in science or AP environment Sc in 12th?</p>
<p>He should probably take Pre-Calc. Most pre-calc courses at our school start calculus before the end of the year - so he might have an idea if he likes calculus or should take AP Stats as a senior. My oldest got into Harvard and Carnegie Mellon without ever taking any AP English and my younger son got into U of Chicago also without an AP English. I think he can wait till 12th grade if he takes it at all. My kids both really enjoyed taking English electives. My younger son is reading mysteries and this is the first year he’s liked English. I don’t think it matters what AP science he takes as a senior - AP Enviro is considered AP light because it only covers a semester’s worth of college material while the other APs cover two semesters worth. I’d pick the AP science based more on your son’s interests or by teacher reputation.</p>
<p>Personally, I feel like AP English is a great class to take, because you have to do a LOT of writing in college. At least get used to it before hand, right? </p>
<p>Consider AP Psychology and/or AP Art History. Also, see if your high school publishes the scores for the kids taking the AP exams. You will get an idea how well the other students are doing on the exams. Do not stress your child senior year. There is enough to do with college applications.</p>
<p>Yup he is taking a FL - Spanish 3 this year and he loves the language even though he has the toughest teacher this year. DS1 had the same teacher and got his first C Junior year in her class!! Both sons are wired so differently ;)</p>
<p>He is talking about doing AP Spanish in 12th (lets see how 11th grade goes).</p>
<p>I think that Pre-calc is the way to go…and I am happy to learn that AP Lang is not a deal breaker. DS1 is taking AP Lit this year and he is regretting it. He struggled through AP Lang last year but made a 5.</p>
<p>Ok, so next year Junior year DS2 can take APUSH, regular physics, English options, Pre-calc, Spanish 4, and AP Psych (since he wants to do 2 AP’s). Then senior year he can decide about an AP Science and AP Stats/AP Calc. He might even be ready to do AP Lang! Plus perhaps AP Spanish or Spanish 5.</p>
<p>Our school publishes the AP score results, will take a look. Thanks so much!!</p>
<p>AP Stats also only covers a semester’s worth of material, so I would take the Pre-Calc with a view towards taking AP Calc BC. He can always take AP Stats the following year.</p>
<p>Thanks all, son had a brief meeting with his GC and they have decided on pre-calc. She is discouraging him from doing AP US history and also AP Eng Lang, which means he does only 1 AP - Psych!! I do not think thats the way to go. He likes history, then why not take it?</p>
<p>Could it be because he told her he gets too stressed out that she is recommending against so many AP classes. Some of the smartest kids around get burned out or stressed out from taking so many upper-level classes. If he has already expressed to you that he does easily stress, and that he really enjoys his hands-on classes, maybe she feels he would benefit from a more relaxed load. My oldest daughter is extremely bright, but got so stressed out in high school that she almost just shut down. We told her that if she was that miserable, it was of no benefit to her to take all AP classes and as a result hate high school. She lightened her load, took some interesting electives, and decided to go to a state school for English. When she graduated, she went to a more exclusive private school to get her credential and masters. She now teaches high school English and is a great teacher (she was recently recognized as the District’s New Teacher of the Year.) She is very caring and relates to the kids so well. It seems that kids have begun worrying so much about getting into the best colleges that they sometimes lose the best years of their lives just stressing out about getting thru high school. Best wishes!</p>
<p>I don’t understand why she would be against ap us history. Of all of the ap classes offered at our hs that is the one which is taken by the most students. I would guess that 50% of the students take it. I would ask for clarification on her reasoning here.</p>
<p>Is the U.S. History class known to be a really stressful one in your sch.?
S1 took APUSH, had a great teacher and loved the class, got a 5.</p>
<p>That teacher left. The new one is not liked and apparantly makes the class very difficult, with top students getting poor grades and not doing well on the exam.<br>
S2 loves history but refused to take the class because of the teacher. </p>
<p>Just wondering if something of that nature had to do with the GC’s advice.</p>
<p>Yup, I agree that he gets easily stressed (but only with hard teachers), he also puts in his best effort. </p>
<p>He likes history so I think it would be rewarding for him to take AP US instead of Eastern studies which is relatively easy. Could keep that for senior year in case he takes any math/spanish/science AP’s.</p>
<p>APUSH is a tough class but as long as his other classes are manageable I don’t see why he shouldn’t push himself a little on that one.</p>
<p>AP Spanish–definitely. After you’ve had 4 years of a language, you tend to get pretty good at it (if you like it, which he seems to.) So do the AP and get the college requirement out of the way. (Plus it looks good on the transcript.) </p>
<p>AP English–if he doesn’t like to write, this is not for him. He will of course do writing in other English classes, but AP level is a step above and requires good literature analysis skills. At our HS you have to be on the AP English “track”–you can’t just pop in and take AP 12th grade. Too difficult.</p>
<p>I agree it depends on the teacher for APUSH… it’s a tough call because sometimes a lower level class is less challenging, less inspiring, and so less rewarding…and sometimes the upper level is too stressful. We have this issue here and it often comes down to the personality of the teacher. If he likes history I think APUSH would right, unless the teacher is wrong!</p>
<p>We have 2 teachers for AP US and one of them teaches 3 out of 4 classes so the chances are pretty good that son might get that teacher who he has had before and really likes. The other one who is really hard and dry has just suffered a heart attack…poor guy has been teaching for over 30 yrs. They might get a new teacher to replace him…or shuffle someone else around.</p>
<p>In our school you need to have a B+ in Eng 10 to take AP Lang. I don’t think son will quite manage that. So I think that problem solves by itself.</p>
<p>He loves Spanish, and wants to think about AP Spanish in 12th.</p>