<p>Do any of you feel that your children's classmates may have gotten a raw deal because of their college prep courses? Do you think they were as effectively taught as the AP/Honors/IB classes?</p>
<p>AP/honors/IB * are * college prep courses, so your question doesn’t make sense.</p>
<p>I think it depends on the school.</p>
<p>Well, kids can get a raw deal from AP classes too, but in general they are better taught, the students are more serious and interested, and the assignments more meaningful.</p>
<p>^^^ Not at the school I attended. College prep classes weren’t the same as AP/Honors.</p>
<p>Emeraldkitty, CP courses are just regular grade-level courses. Honors courses are taught at a faster pace, and AP courses follow the national AP curriculum for that subject. CP courses have the stigma of being “remedial” even though they are not. It’s just that most kids want to be in the more competitive classes.</p>
<p>My son took all CP classes his freshman year and I think he was very well-taught, with the possible exception of Alg II, which didn’t cover all the material he needed for pre-calc. But he did catch up and took all honors his soph. year, and is taking AP and honors classes his junior year.</p>
<p>Depends on the school, I suppose. </p>
<p>Our school doesn’t do AP or IB. Honors classes aren’t separate, the kids that opt for honors must do additional research projects, papers, essays, etc.</p>
<p>Our high school is college prep, so I don’t feel like there is an issue with preparing them for college. Our sophomore is taking a college class each term at a local LAC and he doesn’t find it any more or less demanding than any of his high school classes.</p>
<p>The kids can take AP tests. Our sophomore took one last May and got a 5, so again, I’m thinking the classes are close enough to the challenges of AP classes to ensure college success.</p>
<p>Many college prep courses are taught by the same teachers who teach the AP courses. My kids landed in a couple of them because of scheduling issues or choice. Some were fine, some less so. Both kids really enjoyed their English electives, especially my younger son who took one on mysteries. He had fun being the star student of the class and having one class that wasn’t stressful at all. The kids in AP Lit were pretty miserable and Honors English 12 was for some bizarre reason even more work than AP Lit. I think you have to remember that not every kid’s college prep class needs to prepare them for HYP etc.</p>
<p>AP courses can suffer because they must “teach to the test.”</p>
<p>A college prep or honors course can take the time to explore one topic in more depth, for example.</p>
<p>My D took a mix of honors, AP and college prep courses in high school. She had more CP courses than AP/honors. I don’t think she got a “raw deal” in her college prep courses and she was very well prepared for college and is doing well there in a rigorous program. The teachers at our high school who teach honors and AP also teach college prep courses, so the “best” teachers aren’t used exclusively for the AP/honors kids. The AP teachers tend to remain pretty consistent from year to year (although they also teach honors and CP), whereas the majority of teachers swap back and forth between honors, CP and introductory (the level below college prep) from year to year, with most teaching a mix of honors and college prep each year. Our high school has a few teachers (all excellent) who over the course of a day will teach at all levels. This is at a public school with a near perfect graduation rate that sends over 95% of its graduates to college.</p>
<p>My son took both College Now (college level in high school) and PSEO (classes taught at community college for HS+college credit). </p>
<p>His comment was that the classes taught at the HS were more rigorous/tougher than the community college classes. </p>
<p>Note that which one is a “raw deal” depends on your perspective. They all count for college credit, so is it better to have a class be more rigorous or less work? </p>
<p>The big problem with AP is that you have to pass the test. Pass rates nationwide are about 50%, so its tougher than most students think. I think students that dont pass assume it is the instructors fault when in reality you should expect to put in some serious study time if you want a good AP grade.</p>
<p>
I disagree. Yes, students probably need to put in study time, but my kids really did not study any extra over what was required by the class with tests and papers. Most teachers at our school have over 75% pass rates and some even better than that. A good instructor will make sure the students are ready for the test. And I’m speaking as a New Yorker where APs are scheduled almost two months before the end of the school year, so we have much less time than students from parts of the country that start school in August and don’t take a midwinter break. The only really poor teacher either of my sons had was the AP World teacher who was teaching a bunch of sophomores and who did not get through the curriculum by April. He spent most April weekends trying to cram in everything he had missed. My son ended up with a five on the exam, but he’ll be the first to tell you having played hours of Civilisation 4 and not being freaked out by a totally out of left field DBQ question was a big help. (It was about the Olympics.)</p>
<p>In our district there is regular track, not called “college prep”, as those courses are not usually taken by students who are planning for college.
The students that are planning for college are taking honors classes, then as many AP/iB courses as they can.
However, in the past a few courses have been tweaked by teachers to be genuine college prep courses without being AP and students may receive credit for them at our states flagship U.
My older daughters private school did not offer AP or IB, but the whole school was considered college prep although they did offer honors in a few subjects which entailed extra assignments and meetings on top of the regular schedule.</p>
<p>I think this is an “it depends” situation. I am not sure what “college prep means” either. We also have regular, honors and AP, but no college prep. AP is the most rigorous level, reg is the easiest. Honor is in between, and seems to exist only in chemistry and physics.</p>
<p>When I went to high school, there were only regular and honors courses (and not all subjects had honors courses). The top level honors course in some subjects was an AP course. For example, senior honors English with AP English literature, while the honors math course after honors precalculus was AP calculus BC (there was no non-honors calculus option), and the honors level 4 course in some foreign languages was an AP course.</p>
<p>Generally, the course rigor level tended to fall into the following order, from most to least rigorous:</p>
<ul>
<li>Honors and AP courses (mainly students aiming for “more selective” colleges, probably about 10-15% of the students).</li>
<li>Regular courses mainly populated by college-bound students (typically courses more advanced than high school graduation requirements, such as precalculus math, physics, and foreign languages), and regular English courses (even though they mixed college-bound and non-college-bound students needing them for high school graduation requirements).</li>
<li>Regular courses (other than English) that mixed college-bound and non-college-bound students due to coincidence of college-prep courses and high school graduation requirements (courses such as world history, US history, biology, and math through geometry or maybe algebra 2).</li>
<li>Regular courses that were mainly non-college-bound students (some elective social studies courses, remedial math, general science, “vocational/practical” courses like drafting).</li>
</ul>
<p>Note: “more selective” colleges were UCs in California and comparably or more selective private schools, but the UCs were nowhere near as selective then as they are now. A 3.3 HS GPA (with +1 honors course weighting) probably got in to most of the UCs back then. Much of the high school graduating class went to the local community college.</p>
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<p>I always thought “college prep” was just a euphemism for “regular.”</p>
<p>^^ Depends on the school. At a school that sends the majority if its students to college, this is likely true. At a school where many/most don’t go on to college, “regular” courses (i.e., those most kids take) may not be college prep courses. I know kids who’ve moved from our high school to schools in other areas and said that our “regular” classes, which are college prep classes, were more advanced than the honors courses at their new high schools.</p>
<p>Not sure what “college prep” means in this context. Regarding AP, you may want to check whether AP exam pass rates are available for given teachers/classes/schools. If few students are able to pass the AP exam for a given subject, that class may not be at the level you would expect.</p>
<p>The AP classes I were taught were semester classes stretched out over the course of a year, this is both positive and negative.
Positive- More time to better learn the subject matter
Negative- More time to forget subject matter taught early in the year</p>
<p>In our area regular vs AP has a great effect on how the parents view their child. Sadly I see parents unhappy with their child’s performance (parents insisted on mostly honors/AP classes) and don’t think their child is college material once the gpa takes a hit.</p>
<p>Even a schedule of all regular classes will get these kids into college -especially out-of-state, a good state flagship. It won’t get them into our state’s most elite u’s. But parents don’t explore oos, they feel their kid in an underachiever and may not deserve college. A shame.</p>