<p>My daughter is in 8th grade and we had a question - to be done with taking around 6-7 APs by the time high school is over how do you spread it out over the four years -
AP Calculus, AP Biology, AP Chemistry, and AP Physics, AP US History</p>
<p>Also is there an advantage of taking US Govt versus US History?
Thanks
Mathew</p>
<p>Well taking AP classes is a thing that has to be discussed with the school and guidance counselor… No one can say what year she can take what class because many schools differ in their curriculums and what classes they offer each year… The five that you listed are predominately for upperclassmen and for usually 11th and 12th grade but there may be exceptions… AP US was my favorite class in all of my high school experience, but the teacher had a lot to do with that… That’s another thing, that AP classes depend somewhat on the teacher and how well your child will like or learn in the class… Strategically planning out AP classes can be discussed with your guidance counselor, so talk to your guidance counselor and school. If you want her to take many of those in the same year, it all depends on how well she is with dedication, commitment, and time management really… Taking more than 2 AP classes can be stressful for some kids and not that bad for others, depending on their capabilities… I did enjoy APUSH more than gov, partly because of the teacher, but gov was a bit dry sometimes… I hope everhthing works out!
Ps. It may be possible to take AP calculus earlier if you take a math program over the summer, which some schools offer!</p>
<p>Freshman at most schools are not allowed to take AP classes and some cases, also Sophomores. Many students start AP classes as Juniors and continue into their Senior year. My son’s school allowed only AP World History and AP Environmental Science as an option in Sophomore year. My niece’s HS required students to take Honor’s classes in the Freshman and Sophomore year, then based on their grades, were allowed to take AP classes. Each school is different. At my son’s HS, US History was taken as a Junior and required for graduation, while US Government was taken in Senior year and also a graduation requirement. Here are two links that explain the classes:</p>
<p><a href=“AP United States Government and Politics – AP Students”>Get the Most Out of AP – AP Students | College Board;
<a href=“AP United States History – AP Students | College Board”>Get the Most Out of AP – AP Students | College Board;
<p>I suspect it works differently at many schools depending on how things are set up. This is what my kids did:</p>
<p>Older son - STEM kid
Freshman year - AP Comp Sci (highly unusual, I don’t know if any other freshman had ever taken anything but an AP Language before him)
Sophomore year - AP Bio
Junior year - AP Calculus BC, AP Physics BC, APUSH (very common)
Senior year - AP Chem, AP Econ, AP Latin</p>
<p>Younger son - history guy
Sophomore year - AP World (small pilot group_
Junior year - AP Bio (common year to take it), APUSH (also common)
Senior year - AP Euro, AP Physics C, AP Calc BC (common year to take it)</p>
<p>Neither took either of the AP English options any were in the minority on that score among the kids taking a lot of APs. A lot of kids took AP Gov. NYS requires a semester of Econ and a semester of Gov. The AP kids pick one or the other and do the NYS requirement in one of the semesters. Younger son chose to test out of both requirements instead.</p>
<p>Neither kid took more than 3 APs in a year, though the older one was taking a post AP math course senior year.</p>
<p>AP Classes are supposed to be the equivalent of a college course…so most high school freshman would not be ready for that. I am not sure that most kids take all 3 AP sciences. Usually one or two.</p>
<p>Also, talk to the Guidance Counselor about what is typical in your school. </p>
<p>In our school district the HS guidance counselors come to the middle schools and meet with 8th graders in the spring to plan the freshman schedule. Ahead of the meeting we got info about various courses, including APs and the graduation requirements to help our kids prepare for the meeting. We also got a checklist of classes they wanted to take to bring to the meeting. If you want to start thinking about this now, the HS may have a course catalog on their website and it may say what years various AP classes can be taken and what the prereqs are if any.</p>
<p>Typical schedule of AP courses for students of high ability and motivation in the subject:</p>
<p>English: usually senior year (or junior and senior year if the HS offers both) in the honors English track
Math: calculus AB or BC the year after the student completes precalculus; statistics may be taken as an academic elective
Foreign language: AP course is usually level 4 or 5 in the sequence, taken after completing the previous level
Science: usually the student takes regular or honors of the three sciences, then takes an AP one of his/her choice in senior year; some may take an additional AP science as an academic elective
History and social studies: AP courses may substitute for regular versions of US history, US government, and perhaps others, and may be academic electives in economics, psychology, or geography
Art and/or music: AP courses may substitute for regular versions</p>
<p>As you can see, most chances to take AP courses occur in the senior or junior years, since it is mostly the advanced high school seniors and juniors who are ready for college frosh level material. Note, however, that there are differences in the format of AP courses and college courses, even if the material happens to be the same (which it may not be for some that are more commonly taken early, like human geography). Many AP courses cover over a year in high school what a college course covers in a semester (e.g. calculus AB, statistics, US government, psychology). In addition, college courses tend to expect a higher level of student self-motivation and time management than high school (including AP) courses.</p>
<p>Make a 4 year plan for her high school program. Make sure she fills all graduation requirements and prerequisites. You need to find out your particular school’s policy on the various AP classes because schools differ. Most likely the ones you listed would all be taken either as a junior or senior due to course sequencing and prerequisites. That’s how it would normally be in our school. Probably the high school course listing book has info on the usual sequence of courses. Talking to parents of older students comparable to your own child may be helpful to see what kind of programs they are taking and how it’s working out for them. The AP tests are given on different days so there’s not generally a problem with taking multiple exams in the same year if your student can handle that workload.</p>
<p>Have a look at the AP policy of colleges your child may be interested in attending. Not all APs are accepted at all schools, and schools differ in whether they grant credit or placement for those they do accept.</p>
<p>Yes, we also had a high school planning meeting with the guidance counselor in the spring of 8th grade where we filled out a 4 year program that satisfies diploma requirements. </p>
<p>Human Geography and Honors Biology (with some top students self-studying and taking the AP test) were the only Freshman APs available at the local HS. I think every student in an American high school (public or private) takes US History in 11th grade; thus APUSH. I don’t think you can take US Government instead- that is often a 12th grade social studies course. Accelerated Math students will take AP Calc B/C Junior Year and local community college math their senior year (Typically multi-variable Calculus). English in 11th and 12th is common. There are sciences (say AP Chem in 10th and AP Physics in 11th), and European History (10th grade), languages, and other electives (Comp Sci, Statistics, US Gov’t, Econ, etc.). There is so much growing to do. Planning is fine, but realize it may all go in the dustbin. Adolescents do not always cooperate- they often either take more or less than what is advised, and High School is a time of dramatic growth and change.</p>
<p>As people said, every school is different about what year kids can take what AP classes. I agree with @mathyone about finding helpful parents with older kids who are similar in academics to your kid. Parents like that have been very helpful to me, and I try to pass it on by being helpful to parents with younger kids.</p>
<p>See <a href=“http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/research/2014/Prog-Summary-Report-2014.pdf”>http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/research/2014/Prog-Summary-Report-2014.pdf</a> for a table of how many kids take what AP test in what grade. (Google “AP Data 2014” for more data.)</p>
<p>Neither of my two sons had honors classes in their high schools so it was AP or regular classes. </p>
<p>That said, the worst year for my younger son was his junior year when he juggled AB/BC calculus, APUSH, AP English Language and AP Biology. He was also an athlete, had a part-time job and volunteered a lot. That said, he was miserable in the fall that year, because of APUSH – the teacher kept changing how she wanted assignments done. Things got better the second semester, because he learned to balance everything better. In his senior year, he took six APs, and never felt any stress. One of the things we did was insist that he work on his college apps during the summer.</p>
<p>As for the older son, he took 13 APs. Seven were online classes that the state offers. He loved the challenge, too, and like his kid brother, he was involved in everything. </p>
<p>I would come up with a plan for four years, and each year, review it. Maybe interests change, so a student does not want to take a STEM-like AP, but would prefer another subject. My younger son originally wanted to take AP Chem, because it is more math-based. He took AP Bio because he knew that the teacher was awesome. </p>
<p>A lot of it depends on school policy.
For example, in D’s HSl, kids were not allowed to take AP before junior year. They also were not allowed to have more than 3 APs / year. The school also did not believe much in calling any class AP, so it had fewer APs than many other schools. Also, as D. discovered later in college, her HS taught regular classes at higher levels than APs at other schools, which led her to have a nice Supplemental Instructor job (paid position) at college after having just Regular Chem. in HS. She ended up teaching lots of kids who had AP Chem previously and they loved her instructions, her sessions had grown over 3 years to have sometime 40 kids in a class. She did not have to prepare Gen. Chem. for the MCAT later.
D’s example just shows that all that AP designation is just a game. Colleges trust the name of the school more than these AP classes. Some pr college ograms highly recommend to start with the first class even if one had an AP. This was the case of the college Bio for my D. who had both Honors and AP Bio in HS, As in both and “5” on the AP exam. She said that her very first college Bio class in the first sememster of freshman year went thru AP material in 2 weeks and then it moved on to the new material. Thank goodness she listened to advisor and did not skip this class, she would have been in trouble in higher levels of Bio that were all based on this first class. D. was pre-med.</p>
<p>Look for your school’s course book on-line, that should list the prerequisites for AP classes at your school. Most of the the AP classes at our school require Pre-AP classes before AP classes, some schools call them honors classes. There are a few exceptions, here AP Comp Sci has no prerequisites so both my high schoolers took AP Comp Sci freshman year. It’s also pretty common at our school for 10th graders to take AP World History. Only kids who started language in middle school (usually Spanish or Latin) take language AP classes before 12th grade. </p>
<p>Also keep in mind that there are two AP Calculus tests Cal AB and Cal BC some school required AB before BC ours does not. There are usually two AP Physics classes that cover four AP tests. In our school we have Physics 1/2 that covers both Physics 1 and Physics 2 AP tests and Physics C that covers the Electricity and Magnetism and Mechanics AP tests. Make sure you look at the math prerequisites for Chem and Physics!</p>
<p>To the OP…your kiddo is currently an 8th grader, right? This kiddo should meet with the HS guidance folks to craft her 9th grade schedule in the late winter/early spring. Once you know who her school counselor is, schedule a meeting to discuss this AP course question.</p>
<p>The school guidance folks at YOUR HS are the best to answer this question.</p>
<p>Also, don’t worry if some other kid in some other school is taking 10 AP and your child is only allowed to take 6 total…colleges compare kids from the same school and also look at the school profile to see what is available/allowed at the school.</p>
<p>If your child can take AP classes starting in they sophomore year, 6,7 AP classes isn’t that bad. At D’s high school, freshmen can take AP classes but very few do. This is D’s AP journey. </p>
<p>freshman - none
sophomore - AP human geography, AP environmental science
junior - AP biology, AP lang, AP world history
senior - AP calc AB/BC, AP literature, AP USH, AP psych, AP physics 1</p>
<p>What I liked about this schedule was she took it slowly, starting with only two AP classes her sophomore year. I think she went a bit far this year; I would have preferred 4 AP classes for her senior year. The AP Calc AB/BC meets everyday with homework every night - this seems to suit her very well because she enjoys math homework. AP Physics 1 is a lot like Honors Physics (I’m not seeing much of a difference, if any). </p>
<p>Two things that your daughter may want to consider in her AP scheduling strategy as she moves through high school:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>If she anticipates that she may want to take the SAT Subject Test in a subject, and if the AP course would help her to get a better score on that test (which it usually would for everything except calculus), she should take the course as a junior or sophomore, not as a senior. You can’t take Subject Tests on the basis of senior year subjects.</p></li>
<li><p>If she anticipates that she might get a disappointing score on the AP test, she should take the AP course as a senior. Senior year AP scores cannot be reported on college applications because at the time when you apply, they don’t exist yet.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Also, AP American Government is WAY easier than AP US History because it is based on a course that is equivalent to a one-semester college course rather than a two-semester course.</p>
<p>Slacker…she took six AP courses her senior year? </p>
<p>To the OP, don’t fret if your kid isn’t taking that many AP courses. There are plenty of great kids who take less AP courses, and still get into excellent college.</p>
<p>Also, note that some schools are no longer giving course credit for AP scores as they did in the past. I believe Dartmouth is one of those schools. In addition, if a course is required for your major, many schools will not allow AP score credit to replace actually taking the course.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>From that document, the APs where the plurality of students are not in 12th grade are:</p>
<ul>
<li>Chemistry – 11th grade</li>
<li>Chinese language and culture – 11th grade</li>
<li>English language and composition – 11th grade</li>
<li>Human geography – 9th grade</li>
<li>US history – 11th grade</li>
<li>World history – 10th grade</li>
</ul>
<p>Most of these seem to have obvious explanations. The history and social studies ones appear to be “honors” substitutions of typical high school history and social studies courses taken in those grades. Many high schools offer both English AP courses in an 11th - 12th grade sequence, with English language and composition in 11th grade. High school chemistry is often taken in 10th grade, so students interested in AP chemistry naturally take it in 11th grade.</p>
<p>The overall distribution of AP tests by grade level was:</p>
<ul>
<li>3.0% – 9th grade (most of which was human geography)</li>
<li>12.1% – 10th grade</li>
<li>37.7% – 11th grade</li>
<li>44.7% – 12th grade</li>
</ul>
<p>What is “human geography”? An anatomy course? Or a geography course for people?</p>
<p>Sorry, this is one I never heard of…and what courses does one take to take this exam?</p>