<p>^Actually Chem. has been my D’s easiest college class. She never had below 100+% and as I have mentioned was hand picked by prof for the best job on campus - SI, Supplemental Instructor, after which she did not need to review Chem for her MCAT. She never had AP Chem in HS. Her HS teacher did not believe in AP classes. They can do more at private schools, it was all up to him to call it AP or something else. Something else won, but quality of class was superior. However, there were many levels of first college Chem., and engineering majors took more difficult class, D. just needed the one that was enough for Med. School.</p>
<p>Our school has an application process, which includes having your current teacher in that subject sign off on your schedule form, indicating approval. Some teachers set a grade limit below which they don’t give approval for the AP class, and some don’t. Our school seems to have the most over-enrollment problems with AP Bio, since so many smart kids think they want to go pre-med, lol. </p>
<p>For most AP courses there is only one section (AP Bio and AP Calc AB might be exceptions), and that is all they will offer because the school claims it’s difficult to get teachers to do the College Board training and to be willing to teach AP’s because supposedly more work is involved. I think the teachers get extra money for teaching these couses, and for that reason this year there was talk of charging the students a fee for each AP class–the academic version of pay-to-play that districts are implementing for athletics. Is this happening anywhere else?</p>
<p>Pay to take an AP class? Nope, our district pays the kids!!! Our top magnet schools pay the kids $100 for each AP test they take - regardless of the score, I believe.</p>
<p>Yes, we paid, but nothing is paid by district when kid is at private school, except for school bus, despite the fact that we still paying taxes to support district public schools.</p>
<p>We do not pay to be in an AP class. And actually, in California public schools, the pay to play for athletics is a hot topic and the ACLU is involved and from what I hear they will no longer be able to charge a fees for any ECs.</p>
<p>My school did it by priority. For example, if you were a senior and you needed the class to graduate, they would kick out the juniors, sophomores, or freshmen in the class. The higher you are on the high school todem pole, the more likely you were to get the class you wanted. Luckily, over enrollment didn’t happen too often & kids usually got the class they wanted.</p>
<p>Our hs, when the system is working properly, does class signups online. If the system allows you to sign up for a class, then there is a spot for you, If the class (or classes) is already full to capacity then after you click submit and you get your course request list, the class is not on it and you have to find a replacement to add. You must input 7 classes and 3 alternates (regardless if you get what you want). They do start waitlist for certain very popular classes.</p>
<p>D1 got a 5 on AP Chem test last year and is taking the credits on her transcript so she has more electives. However, she plans to attend the lectures of a regular Chem class next year, as she needs to take Org Chem as a Soph, which is supposedly a killer class.</p>
<p>^As a warning, Orgo has little to do with Gen. Chem according to my D. who has been Gen. Chem Supplemental Instructor for 3 years.</p>
<p>Our school has open enrollment for AP classes. If the students sign up on time, the school generally opens up another section. If, however, there’s an error or change in the schedule (which are generally not accommodated except for failing a class or something similar), it can become very hard to find an open seat in a class. </p>
<p>No one pays to take AP here. The students are encouraged to take them and there is no shortage of teachers. I think most teachers around here prefer to teach the stronger students than the more needy ones. Now, if you need a special ed teacher, that’s a different issue…</p>
<p>My D wanted to take AP Psych next year. I’m not sure how the school determines who gets in, but D did not. There are three sections of this class, but they are full and they’re not letting anyone else in. There are certain prerequisites, like a teacher recommendation and prior social studies honors or AP classes with a grade of B or above, but there are more kids meeting the pre-reqs than there are seats in the classrooms.</p>
<p>At our high school, the AP test is mandatory and the students shoulder the cost of the testing. I don’t consider that to be paying for the AP course, though.</p>
<p>To my knowledge, if enough kids sign up then another period of AP is added. The kids do their scheduling in January-March and then everything gets inputted into a computer system. I do know that they will drop classes if not enough kids sign up, but that generally doesn’t happen with the APs. We usually get a letter with final report cards in May that say what classes won’t be offered the next school year and which ones are at capacity. I’ve never heard of a kid being shut out of a class they wanted. </p>
<p>Now during the registration process, kids do have to get signatures from their current year teachers to approve placement in an honors or AP level class. Parents CAN appeal that and override the teacher recommendation. However the administration is very explicit that students can not drop down in level once the schedules are made. And our summer requirements for each class are left up all year round. </p>
<p>With the exception of 1 or 2 beyond genius kids, our school allows kids to take their 1st AP in Sophomore year: AP Euro. What I’ve seen is that a lot of kids get their butts kicked by the class, and then are very selective in taking any additional AP classes their junior & senior year. </p>
<p>No charges for AP classes, with the exception of the test fee. No getting paid to take the class either.</p>
<p>At my son’s school AP classes are limited to juniors and seniors and AP English can only be taken by seniors. The good thing is that in AP Biology, the teacher took the highest GPA’s among the two as opposed to giving seniors automatic priority. Otherwise, my S would not have been able to take Biology his junior year which is his intended major. The school only offers a total of 6 AP classes so there is always more demand than openings. This year, he was able to take 4 of the 5 remaining classes offered.</p>
<p>D’s high school used AP/IB class enrollments to “subsidize” low enrollments in non-AP/IB classes – many of the AP/IB classes had 35+ students, and if there weren’t enough students for an AP/IB class, classes were often combined (Latin 3 taught contemporaneously with AP Latin Vergil.) But, with few exceptions, if you requested an AP class in the spring in a “core” subject, you got it unless it was a scheduling conflict between singletons. (If you’re in the most advanced choir, and that’s the only time AP German meets, you’ve got to pick one.) </p>
<p>The real problem was when new students transferred in during the summer or early fall – fitting them in could be a real challenge given how full the classes already were.</p>
<p>At least part of the problem at D’s high school was caused from a full-time teacher being scheduled to teach 5 periods a day, and the district budgeted students for 6 classes a day, but the reality was that in an eight-period day, AP/IB type students are inevitably taking at least seven classes a day, and it isn’t uncommon to see a student (particularly IB diploma students, who had very little schedule flexibility) take 8 classes a day in order to fit in choir or some other elective.</p>
<p>At my daughters high school, small public. The teachers choose what students are allowed. No one can sign up for ap classes. For example a month or two ago D’s English teacher announced to the class that the English teachers had picked the ap English class for next year. She said that there 15 spots and to please not ask to be put in if you were not chosen…she,can be abrasive but she is a good teacher. My D was chosen thank goodness.
As for ap bio, she was asked by a teacher at the beginning of the year but still had to speak with him and get signature for her schedule. Her only other ap is Spanish and it sounds like anyone who is in honors Spanish automatically got into ap. So that is how things went down. I kind of like that the teachers pick otherwise the class would be too big.</p>
<p>Oh, and only seniors are allowed to enroll in ap classes. The exception is ap calculus because so few take it. But one Jr. That is a math genius in my D class did this year.</p>