<p>I'm looking through CC, and I see these kids taking 5-7 APs in one year and in my mind in I'm like "How is this even possible?!" Are the courses being taught poorly? Or do we have that many super students here?</p>
<p>Because AP teachers should be assigning AT LEAST 1 hour of homework every night. So how can students manage that workload, and then do ECs and volunteer?</p>
<p>It seems like these classes are being taught in an average and border line poor manner, without the rigor they truly need, and then students just cram in the end for the exam. </p>
<p>Am I crazy? Or is this how APs are being taught. </p>
<p>I go to a small school that only offers 5 APs and the teachers make it a priority to stick to the AP curriculum and give no less than an hour of homework per night, thus limiting the amount of APs we can take to 2 per year. </p>
<p>Anyone agree with me or does anybody question the true in which these are being taught with? </p>
<p>Because I don't think it will be fair that colleges will look down upon me and my school for having few APs when they are actually taught at a level that exceeds that of the typical high school that has 15-20 AP courses.</p>
<p>Are schools teaching the AP class as a regular class just to boost the credentials of their students?</p>
<p>ALL APs should assign 1+ hour of homework a night? Even Lang? What would you do, write two essays every night?</p>
<p>Some APs are easier than others, and perhaps those students have a different scheduling system or something that makes taking many APs doable. You have no proof that those classes are any less rigorous than yours, so that’s a bit of an unfair and unfounded accusation.</p>
<p>I took 7 APs junior and 6 APs and duel enrollment senior year. Most nights I had no homework, but when I did it was like 3 hours. Many people in my highschool did the same thing. On the AP exams we were all successful all 4s and 5s. </p>
<p>@bodangles Well that’s what the curriculum assigned by the college board says. I actually took language and composition and we had a lot of reading every night and real essay writing and it took at least an hour and no I’m not slow. It’s how the teacher taught the course.</p>
<p>@Cheesy18 Where was the rigor if all your work took place in class?</p>
<p>And that’s my point. You cram for the test, but that’s all. The quality of the course doesn’t matter. A teacher can not teach the course properly, but as long as you get a 5 that’s all that matters? </p>
<p>I also took Language (and Lit, this year) and certainly did not have hours of homework every night. Didn’t study for the exam; felt sufficiently prepared by my class. Easy 5 on Lang. Haven’t gotten Lit back yet.</p>
<p>Didn’t “cram” for the test. Did well with no stress because my class prepared me. Learned a lot about writing and how to communicate arguments effectively. It wasn’t homework that made that class so useful.</p>
<p>@bodangles Well AP Language and Lit are different because they aren’t content based really. If you are a great writer and reader, you can do well in them. But when it comes to having a schedule with content based APs like Macroeconomics and APUSH and APES and Anatomy and Physiology and Physics (this is hypothetical) , it seems so unlikely that anyone could actually succeed in all I those classes at the same time if being taught to the rigor expected by the college board. </p>
<p>When you get into large numbers of AP courses, many of them end up being the lighter ones, where a high school AP course covers in a year what a college course covers in a semester or even less. Also, some of those emulate college courses that are not that hard (e.g. psychology, environmental science, statistics, human geography).</p>
<p>Also, homework load is not necessarily an indicator of how much one learns. A high homework load in high school may just reflect busy work to offer enough points for C students to get 70% correct. College courses may assign just the harder problems.</p>
<p>There is no “AP curriculum.” Teachers submit syllabi indicating what content will be covered and CB approves them in order for the course to be labeled AP on a transcript. Individuals such as homeschooling parents may submit syllabi for approval. There are suggested textbooks. But wide ranges of options exist. It isn’t dictated.</p>
<p>The assumption that somehow your school’s APs are some how better than other schools simply bc it offers fewer in number and limits enrollment is completely unfounded.</p>
<p>And yes, there are that many super star students out there. The competition is fierce bc nationally the top students are seeking admission for fewer spots than there are of extremely qualified applicants. It is why you have things like 5% acceptance rates. It isn’t bc 95% of the applicants were slouches and that much less qualified than the accepted 5. </p>
<p>@Mom2aphysicsgeek That’s where you are wrong there is an AP curriculum. The college board provides it and the teachers must follow it. My “assumption” isn’t unfounded. Have you ever looked at what the AP curriculum demands? It would be impossible for a high school student to actually take 5 REAL college level courses in addition to having 7 ECs and 300 volunteer hours and have time to study for the SAT and actually be a child. </p>
<p>@ucbalumnus I know that homework isn’t the only indicator for course load. But to think a student is actually taking the actual rigor of the college course when taking 5 APs is unreasonable. I don’t think the homework is necessarily busy work. </p>
<p>I don’t think it is unreasonable to think that schools sacrifice the quality of APs just to have a lot of them.</p>
<p>I have a teacher in my school who left Bronx Sci after being there for 15 years because he saw that exact same thing. Too many APs, and the students crumbled under the pressure. So the school began increasing the ease of the courses, and thus, more kids have been able to take the class and inflate their GPAs and then do well on the exam with a lot of prep in the end without actually getting a nuanced understanding of the course.</p>
<p>If you’re really concerned about everyone else taking AP classes and having no homework then just make 5’s on all your AP exams. You have the chance to differentiate yourself, you have nothing to complain about.</p>
<p>@VIkIngboy11 It’s just a discussion about how the courses are being taught. I’m not complaining about it. I just want to know how it’s possible that students can manage that when many college students aren’t even taking 7 classes, let alone worrying about standardized testing and ECs. And yes I know an AP course doesn’t cover an entire school year for college, but still. Relative to a high school student, it would seem as such</p>
<p>AP calculus AB
AP chemistry or physics 1
AP psychology
AP foreign language
AP English language or literature</p>
<p>Note that all of the above are typically year long high school courses that cover a semester of college frosh level material. I.e. they are like 2.5 college frosh level courses in terms of material covered. Actual college students typically take 4 courses per term and still have time for extracurriculars (which may be paid work, intramural sports, ROTC, clubs, or just hanging out with friends).</p>
<p>No, I am not wrong. There is a wide range of ways to satisfy College Board’s requirements. For example, this page gives a list of suggested textbooks and it states clearly on the page that the list is not meant to be exhaustive. <a href=“AP Calculus BC Course Audit – AP Central | College Board”>College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools; CB has clear guidelines of content to be covered, but it absolutely does not dictate curriculum.</p>
<p>You are also quite wrong about what students are capable of achieving. Some kids are simply gifted and taking that many intense classes really is not that big of a deal. There are many high school kids graduating with close to 60 college credits. At my dd’s college graduation, there were 10high school students being awarded their AA degree before they had even received their high school diploma.</p>
<p>ETA: My 12th grader that just graduated has 29 credit hours of 200-300 level college courses. That does not include the 100 level credit hrs he has for AP exams. I think I have a slight clue what it takes for students to achieve high levels of academic success. :)</p>
<p>Looking at state schools in California on AP chemistry, in terms of subject credit (they all give credit units):</p>
<p>UCB: 1 semester, only for some majors (not chemistry, chemical engineering, or some biology majors)
UCLA: none
UCSD: 1 year (score of 4 needed)
UCD: 1 quarter (score of 4 needed)
CPSLO: 1 quarter (score of 5 needed)
CPP: 1 quarter (score of 3 needed) or 2 quarters (score of 4 needed)
SJSU: 1 semester
CSUN: 1 semester (score of 4 needed)</p>
<p>@ucbalumnus I stand partially corrected, UC’s aren’t on my radar screen as I’m OOS, but looking at some privates, it seems they are all over the board with Chemistry. As examples, Harvard, Chicago, Princeton give a year’s credit for a 5, Yale, Penn, Stanford give a semester’s worth of credit, all subject to how each school uses AP credit as actual credit or as applied to advanced standing. Similar discrepancies on foreign language. Also UCLA does give credit for chem.</p>
<p>The point, however, is that some AP classes are more intense than others. Carrying a 5-7 courseload of “AP lite” classes is different from carrying a 5-7 of the more time-consuming AP courses.</p>
<p>@Mom2aphysicsgeek That’s a great story. Honestly, it is. But It has literally nothing to do with the rigor of the course itself. My point is that some classes aren’t as intense as advertised. And the degree thing isn’t that spectacular. They have several early college high schools here in New York.</p>
<p>@skieurope That’s basically what I’m saying. I see kids on here with schedules like that and in my mind I’m like, “either this schools isn’t teaching with the rigor of an AP course, or this kid is the second coming” and it usually isn’t the latter.</p>