<p>My AP Physics B syllabus says that California Advanced Placement Classes are at a disadvantage because most schools go on a compressed block schedule, which provides only 75% of the time that a traditional schedule does and Term 3 ends one month before the AP exam. </p>
<p>I agree with what the syllabus says because in my AP Chemistry class, we cover up to equlibrium when Term 3 ends. Because of that, I had to self-study the rest of the topics to prepare for the AP exam. In another school in my district, AP Chemistry took up two periods of the day for two terms, which means that that school's student spent 3 hrs a schoolday.</p>
<p>Does any Californian have a say about this?</p>
<p>well, i know at my school that a number of AP classes had to either cram at the last minute or pile on work over school breaks and weekends. This was especially true in APUSH when we were covering 2 or 3 chapters each week in depth, and in AP Biology where we had to have special review nights to cover anatomy and ecology (about 10 chapters each), in addition to the work over summer and winter breaks. But we do operate on block schedules where classes meet for 2 hrs 2 or 3 times per week.</p>
<p>I faced the same issue, my school has block schedule: 4 periods per day/ 4 classes per semester (except: AP Calculus BC, AP Physics, AP Chemistry, and AP Biology, which lasts for the entire year).
However all other APs lasted only for one semester. Can you imagine taking a college course that normally takes a year to complete (e.g. US History) and compress it into one semester? The students were tremendously unadeqately prepared for the AP exams. I had to self study for the second semester in order to refresh my memory and prep for the AP exams.
I took AP Chem (hopefully got a 4) and AP English (I think I hope I got 3).</p>
<p>What exactly is your block schedule? My school has a “block schedule” which means 3 classes a day that are 100 minutes each and 6 classes a semester. I felt pretty prepared for APUSH, however, not as prepared for AP Lang. I kinda felt like Lang was my teachers fault though. We spent too much time reading crappy books instead of doing AP practice.</p>
<p>Your schedule (rk33) is traditional. A block schedule is when a school year is divided into four terms, not two semesters. Each term is nine weeks long. in each term, there are four periods, 90 min each. Here’s an example of a block schedule:</p>
<p>First Term:
AVID 10
Honors English 10
AP Chemistry
AP World History</p>
<p>Second Term:
Physical Education
Japanese
Mythology
Honors Precalculus</p>
<p>Third Term:
AVID 10
Honors English 10
AP Chemistry
AP World History</p>
<p>Four Term:
Physical Education
Japanese
Computer Technology
Honors Precalculus</p>
<p>So, this is an example of a student’s schedule for the whole year. A class that is one semester lasts only one term. A class that is two semesters is two terms. </p>
<p>A few years ago, some AP classes took three terms to complete, but that was before the budget cut. Now, the max. i can take is four and what sucks is that all ap classes are to be taken first and third term at my school. Since I will be taking 4, I will suffer a lot of stress since block schedule means fast pace.</p>
<p>The disadvantage is that you have to finish the course in 30 weeks instead of 40 (but then you get 10 weeks of relaxation). If your teacher feels free to use the entire school year to teach the material, they are doing you a great disservice.</p>
<p>It depends how long your AP classes are. Do you only have them for one semester on block or do you have them all year? My school is at a disadvantage because we have one year to learn all of the material in 50 minutes with four weeks of free time after the AP exam, whereas we used to have a full year in 110 minutes with only two weeks of free time after the exam. My school switched to traditional and we start school later so we have a lot less time to prepare for the exam.</p>
<p>“Most” California high schools are NOT on a compressed block. Your district is just making up stories to fit their need (and miserable schedule).</p>
<p>Block is tough for AP exams. My school also operates on a 2 semester/4 class per semester schedule. The only AP course that is stretched to the whole year is calculus (both AB and BC).</p>
<p>It’s not easy when we have to cover, say, all of Physics B in one single semester. And then self-teach a lot of the material again if you took the course in the fall and the exam is not until May. Our AP US History course was pushing 2-3 chapters a week for most of the semester. Very rapid and sometimes doesn’t allow the material to fully sink in</p>
<p>since you are on the debate team (?) why not ask your class/club to debate the Block schedule and its impact on AP courses, or math courses in general? It would be great fun: students arguing better education against teachers/administrators.</p>
<p>Of course the “solution” is what one local HS does, even tho it’s on a block schedule: Alg I is a full year class. Some AP courses are too.</p>
<p>My school uses the same system as UHSDebater, except Bio, Chem, and Physics are also a whole year. I think it’s a much better system, as it allows you to fit in both AP classes and dumb graduation requirements.</p>
<p>You do know that college courses actually last for a semester or less, right? It’s the authentic college experience.</p>
<p>I really don’t know what people are complaining about. My school had a block schedule and hardly anybody failed their AP tests. And it’s not even an elite school.</p>
<p>No block schedule for us either. For courses like history where teachers don’t mind using the entire period to teach (and for history, that is hopefully lecture), however, I could see some advantages to block scheduling. It would certainly help not to have to take AP tests months after the term ends, but having more continuous time for instruction and reducing mostly wasteful classroom management exercises should benefit students.</p>