<p>I have an 8th grader, who is more inclined towards social sciences. He also has been learning Piano for the last 7 years and has interest in art. With over 27 APs to take, what is the feasible APs to take each years - without the course load killing him. He also has sports commitments during the school year. So I was thinking of having him spread the load.</p>
<p>Here was my thoughts for 9th grade...
9th grade:
AP Human Geography (Summer - Independant Study/Online course)
AP World History (Summer and thru the school year)</p>
<p>WILL HE BE READY FOR THE FREE RESPONSE QUESTIONS? WHAT IS THE LANGUAGE EXPECTATIONS ? CAN U RETAKE AP TESTS, IF YOUR SCORE IS UNACCEPTABLE ?</p>
<p>And down the road, based on how things go....</p>
<p>10th grade
AP European History
AP Music Theory
AP Studio Art ???
AP English Language ???? (Would / Won't he be ready???)</p>
<p>11th grade
AP English Language
AP Statistics
AP Spanish
AP US History
AP Biology ????? (If it wont kill him....)</p>
<p>12th grade
AP Econonmics
AP Calculus (if he wants to)
AP Computer Science
AP US Govt.
AP Chem/Physics (if he wants to)
AP Englisg Lit ???</p>
<p>Well, I suppose if the therapy bills aren't too bad . . .</p>
<p>Seriously, I know kids vary greatly in their ability to manage time, handle advanced work, etc. And you know your son a lot better than anybody else does, but this is an extremely ambitious AP program. 17 AP courses/independent studies? I know that my son would rebel about midway through the Sophomore year and have the "it's my life, not yours" meltdown, complete with slamming doors. But that's my kid. Yours may be fully onboard with at least attempting this kind of schedule. Bear in mind that I think I read on the recent AP thread that the average Stanford admit (not applicant) has 5 or 6 AP courses on their transcript. The 11 AP courses that would remain if you deleted the ??? and (if he wants to) classes would still be very ambitious, but do-able with a lot of the above-mentioned time management skills. </p>
<p>I would say that you definitely need to have a good serious discussion with your son about how he feels about this game plan. Since he's only in 8th grade he may not fully appreciate how much work this will be. And if he agrees to give it a shot, it's important that he not feel like he "let you down" if he decides to scale back later. </p>
<p>uh....That many AP might be doable to some people... but I would think it's a bit too frenzy. 6-8 APs before senior year should be way more than enough while you are pushing for 11.....</p>
<p>He will be working on the APs all day and have almost no free time....</p>
<p>Is that mentally good for your son?</p>
<p>Do you want to see a happy and promising young man or a gloomy AP Cracker- a slave to the ETS?</p>
<p>Spreading it out? Do you realize that many schools don't even offer AP's until Junior year? The reason for that is that AP's are generally hard. They are supposed to be college level classes. If your child is gifted and loves school and does not plan to do anything else except study, your schedule might work. Oh, I see you mention a sport commitment.....</p>
<p>In our school AP english is offered only to Seniors that have a B or better in honors English or an A in regular english their Junior year. I understand that some AP's are not as hard as the honors program but that is not the case for most of the ones that you've listed. I've heard 2 or at the most 3 AP's are best to maintain good grades.</p>
<p>As to the language requirement, I assume you are talking about a foreign language. Our HS offers AP Spanish AFTER Spanish 4. </p>
<p>My recommendation is if you want your child to survive HS, you figure out a more realistic schedule.</p>
<p>First check with your son's school,
what are the pre-recs are- some schools require recommendations, only allow so many classes per year and most don't let you take so many, ask if there are honors classes and what the testing requirement comittment is, do some research before doing that schedule to your son, which I think is a very bad idea</p>
<blockquote>
<p>CAN U RETAKE AP TESTS, IF YOUR SCORE IS UNACCEPTABLE ?<<</p>
</blockquote>
<br>
<p>Uhh, why? I'm not sure this is a real post - AP Studio Art plus AP Music Theory in the 10th Grade????? AP Art requires development of a portfolio, it is taken at our school only by seniors as culmination of 4 years of fairly serious art study, and I've heard AP Music Theory is a real bear too, with very few high school teachers actually qualified to teach the course.
Methinks I smell a rat!</p>
<p>I HOPE this post is a joke. If not, you and your child have a bigger problem than how to fit in 17 AP courses. Check out the other thread on APs. Maybe the courses have little meaning at your school, but if they are true AP level courses, you are not being realistic.</p>
<p>It looks incredibly unrealistic to me also. AP courses, if done right, aren't just a little harder, they are often a lot harder. (And as others have said, some involve portfolio work or the like.) My son attends one of the most rigorous academic private prep schools in northern California. His school offers 24 AP courses, requiring students to sit for the exams if they take the course. Roughly 60% of the student body of 550 sits for AP exams each year; the recent score average was 4.26 and over 80% of the students taking AP exams scored 4 or 5. This school is filled with bright over-achievers who tend to take all the APs they can qualify for and squeeze into their schedule, so I've seen these students all around us. The school guidance is that if a student is taking 3 or more APs in a given semester, they should expect 4 to 5 HOURS of homework EVERY NIGHT. Some get by with less, of course, but that's what they're told to allocate. It can become stifling if the student wants to do well.</p>
<p>My son began taking APs earlier than most: he and one other boy took AP Calc AB in 8th grade. My son will graduate this year having completed 10 APs. The "AP champ" at his school is the other former 8th grader who took AP Calc with him; this young man will have, I believe, 14 APs by graduation, and his effort is considered immense, even by this school's standards; he is also one of the brightest young men we've ever known. If 14 is beyond reasonable at a school which is set up to enable success on APs and encourages AP courses, 17 would be almost inhuman. Revise your expectations.</p>
<p>Hey, I don't mean to sound too pushy. We live in an extremely competitive neighborhood. He is quite capable, but he is also very playful. He spends too much time, partying, skateboarding, hanging around in Jamba Juice/Panda Express & such. While I'm happy that he is having a good time with his friends, I also think he needs to scale down his "ecs" once he is in HS - and one way to do it is "load him up without killing him".</p>
<p>When I meant "LANGUAGE EXPECTATIONS", I meant level of English to respond to "Free Responses" for AP Geography and AP World History (if he were to take in 9th grade). His geo & history knowledge is pretty good (though is it enough to take AP, I do not know).</p>
<p>Will he not slam doors on me? So far, he has been a happy go lucky kid. But so far, I've not planned his life, either. </p>
<p>We won't feel bad if he takes 1/10th of what I had in mind, having fun (As my son said the other day, who knows what is going to be impact on these kids who are being loaded with things from kindergarten. I told him that he does not have to worry on that score - but at the same time everyone accelerates 9-12 ???) and maintaining your GPA is equally important (which may be hard with too much APs) </p>
<p>I was throwing these APs to get an idea, make a very ambitious proposal, so I can get the collective net wisdom...</p>
<p>Ninth grade is a tough enough transition for many kids, and I would not put APs on the Frosh calendar, unless your school offers AP World to Frosh. (Off the topic hint: if your S does take AP World as a Frosh, he should take the SATII World that same year while the material is fresh in his mind.)</p>
<p>That is an extremely ambitious schedule, and I don't know that the absolute stars at our HS could handle it on top of ECs and sports. I just don't know why your S would want to take so many.</p>
<p>Suggest you take a look at the the curriculum for a top SoCal prep school, Harvard Westlake, which will give you an idea of pre-requisites for AP courses, and what a top private HS offers. Kids there can start APs earlier, but, then, they're taking HS honors-level classes in 7th and 8th grade.</p>
<p>For example, if kids take honors Bio in 8th grade, they might be ready for AP Bio as a Frosh. But, the Studio Art and Music courses require advanced knowledge of those subjects. Art History does not require any art knowledge, however. AP Govt and AP Econ are typically semester courses, and taught in sequence. AP Computer Science requires indepth knowledge of Java. Stat is not difficult for the math inclined (it's the equiv to a quarter college course), but AlgII is highly recommended as a pre-req.</p>
<p>Selective colleges love to see great grades in Calc, Physics and/or Chem bcos those are considered difficult math/science APs.</p>
<p>Not sure if a kid can retake the test the following year....interesting question.</p>
<p>My daughter took one AP class junior year and is currently,as a senior, taking three. She is a very good student who just got accepted to Dartmouth ED. She has been challenged throughout hs and she also enjoyed her activities in hs. I don't think there is any need to bog a student down with AP classes.</p>
<p>But will your son be happy and emotionally healthy??? Push, push, push through 4 years during which he should be growing up in so mamy ways. I feel quite sad for him. However you know your son. But even if this is what he wants perhaps you should suggest that he back off the accelerator a bit. There is so much more to high school than an endless list of AP classes. So much more to summer than AP self study.</p>
<p>First, what kind of high school is he going to- public private prep - second what are their prerequisites for each AP class, even in 9th grade, are they true AP's- does the school have honors - as you have made this list, now your son will never live up to your expectations even though you told him "its okay" - every kid struggles some as a freshman, there is lots of time, and you need to take a chill pill.....taking away some fun stuff and sitting him at his desk doing homework for hours and hours, contrary to his style will backfire- and big time - you are setting yourself up for disappointment and high expectations from a kid who is not in the place you want him to be.....</p>
<p>IF your son is capable enough to skip high school and go directly into college level classes. I would suggest looking into Early Entrance programs
<a href="http://www.earlyentrance.org/index.shtml%5B/url%5D">http://www.earlyentrance.org/index.shtml</a>
rather than taking AP in 9th grade. I also would question the feasibilty of that, being that Ap classes usually have prereqs. Unless you have received an unusually rigorous middle school education, what would prepare a 9th grader for skipping high school math/science/history etc and going directly into an equivalent to college level class?</p>
<p>In raising two girls I have found that many things are learned during the teen years, and academics is just one part.</p>
<p>He's only in 8th grade ... I feel sorry for him too. HS is a time for learning and growing, socially and academically. It isn't all those AP's that are going to make him well rounded. How could he be expected to have time for EC's, sports or even friends?
And GPA is VERY important!</p>
<p>I think you're nuts. Or to put it in a more genteel way, I agree with Schwaby: I pity your kid.</p>
<p>Being kinder: my nephew had a schedule that - while not so intense as the one you are proposing - was still a killer IB program. He got a full ride scholarship and then flunked out of his first semester in college. He was so burned out that for the next three years he was very happy and content stocking shelves in the local Blockbuster store. He's now go on to a new life, but I think he needed those three years to recover from the intense pressure that came from his high school schedule and stress.</p>
<p>This is just my opinion but that schedule will be difficult with all the sports and extracirriculars. Perhaps you should ask for his opinion on what classes he wants to take and not what you want him to take. If he's not up for that kind of a courseload, there's no way he'll maintain a high GPA (and a high level of sanity for that matter). But if he's willing to put a ton of time and effort to his academics as well as his sports and other commitments, it definitely can be done and it will pay off.</p>
<p>Perhaps we live in an unambitious area, but I really don't know any kids who have taken more than 5 or 6 AP courses at most. Based on my limited experience, here is what I know:</p>
<p>AP Music Theory--my son took that test just based on the theory he learned from piano lessons (and 5 years of guild auditions) and it was fine (4 or 5, can't remember). He also took the APComp Sci test without taking the class and did fine on that too (5). So those are a couple that if your son has the aptitude may not require that much extra time. APHistory courses can be very demanding. AP art requires perhaps more time and energy than any of them--putting together a good art portfolio is very time consuming. I think you should try to winnow that ambitious list a bit!</p>