<p>You are trying to use the exception to prove the rule. There are people that can wake up and ace any course with now work but most kids don’t have mastery of this subject. </p>
<p>There is a ton of material to be learned for AP World History and APUSH. Teachers should be giving a lot (by HS standards) of work. Unlike many of the other AP courses, these courses cover 2 semesters of college work so the course should move at about the same pace as a college course.</p>
<p>Find somebody taking a similar course in college and see how much work and how much reading they have every week. There simply are not enough class hours in the week for a teacher to teach everything in the course. Kids have to be reading A LOT outside of class to cover the material properly.</p>
<p>"I would have been really upset if AP World hadn’t included a long research paper which I consider a pretty obligatory part of any history course whether or not the official curriculum requires it. "</p>
<p>I agree. It’s ridiculous to call a history or English class college level if it doesn’t include significant writing projects. But sadly, in the case of our school’s AP history and English classes, there are no long research papers and almost no short research papers. I don’t think there was any writing at all beyond the 5 paragraph essay or DBQs in either of our AP histories. I know it’s different at other schools. I really wish the college board would make it a formal requirement for all English and history, to label a class as “AP”; I’d say a reasonable requirement would be two 5 page and one 15 page research paper. When I took AP Euro in high school, we didn’t have a long paper, but we had to churn out those 5 pagers every month or so.</p>
<p>D took AP World in 10th grade and got a B first semester, IIRC, but A second semester and 5 on the exam. As parents we weren’t hysterical about the occasional B, and thought it was a learning experience. However, there is a ton of material in AP World. D’s high school actually offered a 9th grade class called “Pre AP World History”. I gather this class had been put together because in the past, 10th graders just weren’t well enough prepared for the volume of material and college level work expectations of AP World in 10th. Having taken Pre AP World I think D didn’t find AP World too overwhelming. It’s natural that it’s a challenge for most high school sophomores to blast up to meeting college level expectations.</p>
<p>This thread is making me question whether it’s worth it for DS17 to take AP World History next year or not… They just started offering it last year at our high school so DS13 didn’t take it. I know APUSH was a ton of work. I’m wondering if 1 AP history class is enough.</p>
<p>That “preAP…” class would be regular in our district. Some students skip it to do only the AP class, others do both. Who chooses which path depends on the strength of the student’s knowledge base and learning skills.</p>
<p>MichiganGeorgia - it depends on the kid. My mathguy only took APUSH. He didn’t want to take even it, but appreciated it when he got out of having to take an equivalent course in college. If he’d had AP Euro or AP World he’d have gotten out of the other semester of college history. My younger son loves history and took AP World, APUSH and AP Euro. They were all plenty of work, but nothing that he couldn’t manage. He had a lot more trouble with AP Calc and AP Physics C which had been a breeze for his older brother. </p>
<p>Colleges don’t expect kids to take every AP - some will want to take a lot because that’s what other advanced kids do in their school and regular classes are too boring. Others will only want to take courses in the areas that they are strong in. Others will take at least some out of the areas they enjoy because they don’t want to have to take those courses in college.</p>