<p>They let anyone take them at our school. In fact, they encourage everyone to. So, we end up with people who know nothing of US History taking APUSH, and the teacher has to teach a class of 50 people with 25-50% of the class having to be taught at a lower level thus causing everyone to be taught as a regular class and not an AP class. So, I would actually want some rule in place (perhaps give them a test?)</p>
<p>My mid-size public school school has an application process for AP's, and I think it's totally fair. The process involves getting reccomendations from previous subject teachers, submitting a self-made 'subject' transcript that includes grades in previous subject classes(e.g. all previous math classes if applying for AP Calc), and the grades on the PSAT if it is English/Math(Everyone at my school takes the PSAT in 10th grade, it's mandatory), and finally each class requires some kind of writing or challenging problem-solving. It's a lot like a small-cale college application process.</p>
<p>AP's are hard to take, why should a teacher have to put up with someone who clearly does not belong in an AP class for even half a semester?</p>
<p>Also involved with this application process is signing a contract that says that you WILL take the AP test. It's very hard to drop classes once you've enrolled in them. And when I say very hard, I mean almost impossible.</p>
<p>This ensures quality for all students who enroll in the classes. I know it's elitist, but I don't want to be slowed up in a content-packed AP class by some dolt who just wants 5 points and a good-looking class on his transcript.</p>
<p>a school notorious for practicing strict AP restrictions is also Beverly Hills High School. I had a friend who went there and found that their policy on who gets into AP classes are based on these factors:
1) how high you get on the qualifying exam given by the teachers
2) If you get high enough on the qualifying exam, you are chosen based on the highest GPA's
3)However, you can appeal and basically, not a lot of people get through appeals.
4) however, to even get to the 3 steps above, there are some harsh pre-requisites.</p>
<p>I also believe beverly hills high school is a public school.</p>
<p>the school I went to was a private and did practice ap restrictions, but like the first poster of this thread, it was all about rank.</p>
<p>Well can anyone tell me if this is fair. At my high school the only other classes they offer is honor classes. Well there is a GT program and only people in GT are allowed to take certain honors classes. I know that you were talking about class rank, but I am currently tied with the person in GT and I could not take the classes. I would say that I was denied the class. Furthermore, they can get into classes of just three people while I have to get into a class of thirty. This didn't hurt my grades but I am just wondering if this is fair because I do not believe that it is. Can someone help me with this??</p>
<p>I went to a public high school with 700 students in an area where many of the students are in poverty, lots of crime, etc. I don't think I could have taken going there if it wasn't for the fact that anyone was allowed to take AP's. Basically when I arrived at the school I enrolled in all my core classes to be AP or Pre-AP. I didn't make the best GPA in the end but it was worth it to be in a pre-ap or ap course at that school because if not -- you were stuck in 'regular' classes, where the kids were just generally disruptive and disrespectful which inhibited learning anything. I'm glad despite my poor academic performance in some AP Courses (i made a few D's, maybe an F for a semester) they still allowed me to keep taking as many as I wanted (senior year I took all AP courses, made straight A's too since I stopped slacking off)</p>
<p>I think it's unfair.</p>
<p>I know someone in our school who did not meet the required GPA for AP Biology, but argued to the principal to be able to take it. I think he had a C or something in the previous science class.</p>
<p>But after being given permission to take it, he did pretty well the entire year.</p>
<p>To the poster about the GT class, I would say it is fair. Saying a GT class was denied to you is like saying a special ed class was denied to you, except you have to qualified for gifted rather than "special" to take the class. Also, at my school, GT is ridiculously harder than Honors and AP and many kids drop GT after middle school to keep up their GPA. If you haven't tested for the GT program then you should, and maybe you can get into those classes.</p>
<p>At my school, there are no requirements, except that you've taken the pre-reqs, but even if you haven't, they don't check anyway.</p>
<p>The point is, kids take whatever classes they wanna take, and 100% of kids don't sign up for AP classes if they haven't taken, e.g. algebra II & trig for AP Calculus.</p>
<p>In our school you have to have a B+ or A- average (depending on the course) and the teacher from the same subject the previous year (i.e. your last science teacher if you want to take a science AP) has to approve it, which they always do. The requirements are written and everyone knows them, so I think it is fair.</p>
<p>I go to a school much like yours, but in NJ. Our high school ( and I'm sure yours is the same) is full of very smart kids who ALL want to and have the grades to take AP classes. However, my school does not have the capability to allow 200+ kids in a grade to take all of the AP courses. To get in, we have to first get A's as final grades (which most of us do) then take an exam to get in. Like you said before, our school only wants to see 5's on the AP exams. HOWEVER, this will not hurt you as much as you think. When your application is sent, your school sends a profile in which it tell colleges the situations with class sizes, AP classes, honors courses, and everything else that they need to know. This way colleges know that you are trying to take the hardest classes possible in a very competitve enviornment.</p>
<p>i dont htink they shoudl cap it at 10% but , my school, for example requires a teacher rec for some aps, permission of the chair of the department (sometimes), and for ap english, it requires a portfolio. things like that can filter people out</p>
<p>what my school does limit is how many ap's you can take. the most you can take is 4 even though we offer a lot</p>
<p>quoting sunshinebreeze:</p>
<p>
[quote]
...Except for AP Calc BC, you need a 700+ on the SATs to get into to that one...
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Had that been the case at my school, I wouldn't have gotten into bc calc at the start of senior year. Regardless, I ended up with with a 99.5 average in the class at the end of the year. Using something like the SAT to predict performance with a completely different animal is insane.</p>
<p>I like the way my hs did things - you can sign up if you've taken the prerequesite course, for example, preib/hon chem for ap chem, preib/hon bio for ap/ib bio. If you didn't get high grades in those courses (a/b), you're not stopped from enrolling...but honestly, how many people who get a C or D in honors chem really want to take the ap version? Unlike an SAT predictor, a prereq indicator works well since the material is highly related.</p>
<p>Regarding the original posters claim of restricting AP classes:
This is claim completely fabricated. Some quick research shows that the highschool this student attends offers tons of AP classes and the only prerequisit is successful completion of the preceding class. Statistics available here:</p>
<p>However, I think greater screening should be done to restrict entrance into advanced classes. It is ridiculous when teachers teacher to the bottom and the top suffers.</p>
<p>Thats not my highschool. I said I go to a school in Fairfield COUNTY. There are alot of towns there and yes one of them is called Fairfield but it is not the only town there.</p>
<p>My fault, it was unclear which school district you were in. These are the correct statistics, and again, just a teacher recomendation and successful completion of the preceding course. If any of you are in this position, just raise Cain, I'm sure they will let you in.</p>
<p>Like most schools I guess, our school requires a Teacher Recommendation and at least an 88 in the previous class (like going from honors english to ap english) to get into AP. My AP English 12 class required an application as well. But, I was robbed from AP English 11 - it was a weird year, my average was about a 97, and yet I wasn't recommended by my teacher (who later asked me why I wasn't taking AP). The few APs we do have, are, for the most part, very very hard. But if your parent complains, you're in.</p>
<p>You can always self-learn and take the exam, which there is no restriction for.</p>
<p>You're referring to Jay Matthews. I agree with his basic premise to the extent that many kids can benefit from being in A.P. courses hence schools should not make A.P. classes exclusive. On the other hand, what has happened is that he has created a monster. School systems including the one I teach A.P. in have gone wild trying to increase A.P. enrollment so that they can rank higher in the challenge index. Consequently you get a lot more kids enrolled in A.P. courses who are in way over their head. In addition, they have no prayer of getting a 3 on the exam. Since his challenge index also factors in the number of exams taken many systems have started paying for A.P. exams to encourage all kids in A.P. classes to take them. The problem is then the people who created this very situation sit back and scratch their heads wondering why A.P. scores have gone down.</p>
<p>In fairness to Mr. Matthews he has never placed a great priority on the scores the kids get on the tests, but try telling that to parents, school board members, central office personnel, etc.</p>
<p>Add to that that in our system A.P. U.S. is a sophomore level course. I have had more than a couple 13 year-olds in the course when it began in the fall. I fully expect to have one next year. What you have is 13 and 14 year-old kids, many of whom are not developmentally ready yet for A.P. taking the course. This is not that they don't grow intellectually as a result of their experience. They usually do extremely well in later A.P. courses.</p>
<p>In my school, we have to file an application for an AP class and attach our transcript to it. That's the standard procedure for all. For AP History classes (euro, gov, micro, macro, US, world), the teacher must also recommend you and English grades as well as History grades are considered. I did not get into APUS with a 95 in history and a great teacher rec due to my 88 average in English at the the year before. An essay is needed to get into AP English or any English honors class. For AP Science they look at the math and science grades but no rec. My school is a magnet school, so there is a great competition to get into AP Classes even though there are many of them.</p>
<p>When I was a sophmore, I've worked my rear end off and received an 'A' in biology. Before the finals, I asked the teacher if I am able to take AP bio test & she recommended me to take it. Now, my school has 330 students. Out of the whole school, there's only like 12 people taking it. At the beginning, there was like 14 or 15 people, but one of them changed to AP US History and the others dropped it. To me, it is not about fairness. It is about working hard to achieving the goals.</p>