<p>Three questions about how they handle tests:</p>
<p>1) My school gears the course towards the test itself. My teachers really don't cover things that will not be covered on the test. They frequently say, "It's sad we gear a class towards a test, but we do." However, at my friends school they don't even offer AP courses, however they are expected to have learned so much that they will do well on AP exams with a little self-prep (which they do, 4s and 5s all around). What does your school do?</p>
<p>2) AP limits. Ahhhh AP limits. My school has (had for me) a 3 AP limit. I thought this was un poco ridiculous, so I protested it ALL year. Finally, they gave me an exception to take 4 (woot?). It was pretty much just the principle of the thing, not really any inherent desire to take a ton of AP courses lol. So, does your school limit APs? </p>
<p>3) Is it tough to get into an AP course at your school? At my school, they value their students getting really high scores on AP exams (all within 3-5 range). Because of this, they make it tough to get into AP courses. For example, to take AP Physics you need a 90+ in all math and science courses, and prior completion of the highest level possible precalc, bio, and chem classes. Also, they really want you in AP Calc, and at least the highest level calc. In addition, we need to APPLY (there's a legit 1-2 page application, with essays and everything). However, I know at some schools you can just take an AP course at your own discretion. How does your school do it?</p>
<p>At my school, you can take as many AP classes as you’d like as long as you have the prerequisites. </p>
<p>Some teachers gear the class towards the AP exam, often saying that the AP exam is the sole purpose of the class - others believe that if we learn everything, then we should automatically do well on the exams. Others are plain bad at teaching and don’t know how their own AP exams are formatted. </p>
<p>It’s not hard to take an AP class, but if you are failing after first quarter, the GC tend to pull you out, or the teachers tell you to, basically, get out.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Some teachers do, some teachers don’t, it depends.</p></li>
<li><p>Thank god there is not any limit. </p></li>
<li><p>Most AP’s do have pre-req’s though, like the AP sciences require you to have received at least an 85 or higher in an advanced math (the higher sequence) or 90 in honors, as well as an 85 in advanced bio/chem/physics or a 90 in honors bio/chem/physics. AP English Lang required an essay. For the most part, as long as it fits in your schedule and you are ok’d by everyone involved, you are allowed to do it.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>1) It depends on the teacher, but generally, my teachers want to teach us everything about the topic. If we’re running out of time for some reason, (eg: this year, we had a lot of days off, because of a wind storm that shut down the city in the fall and a snow storm that did the same in the winter) then teachers will choose to cover things on the test and save other things for the week or two we have after the exam.</p>
<p>2) My school has no official limit, but I heard that it was difficult to take more than 5, on account of the fact that there would be a bell conflict which could not be negotiated. This si especially true if a student wants to take two sciences, which are 1.5 bells and need to mesh (add up to 3 science bells per day) for a student to be able to take 6 APs.</p>
<p>3) There are prereq’s. For sciences and maths they’re more numerical. Eg: for Physics C, you must have taken or be enrolled in a calculus course, you must have had a As or Bs in your previous math or science courses if they were advanced courses and As if they were regular courses. They’re looser for social studies and There’s an application for almost every AP course. The only one I can think of where there isn’t is AP Calc BC, which is simply because the teacher also teaches Pre-Calc and knows most of the students interested in BC.
Most of them just have you write previous classes you’ve taken along with the grades you received in them for each semester. For both AP English classes, one must write a short paragraph explaining why one should be considered for the class. For APUSH, one must write an essay on a subject chosen by the two teachers. In the year I did it, the essay was about a modern political issue.
I’ve never known anyone who was not approved for a course, and when the teachersput up the approval lists outside of classrooms, I’ve never seen anyone walk away dejected, but once my teacher talked about some students he hadn’t approved. So I guess some people don’t get approved.</p>
<p>1) I think the teachers have to make sure they cover everything on the test, but they’re really good about making sure it’s not completely geared towards it.</p>
<p>2) As many as you can take.</p>
<p>3) Most are only for juniors and seniors, and some are only for sophomores (AP world history) but other than that there are no requirements.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Most of them just teach the material and then start looking at actual AP Exam stuff furing the last couple of weeks. But in AP English we spent the first 2/3 of the year learning stuff and then the last third doing full length practice AP sections basically every day. It was super annoying.</p></li>
<li><p>There is no limit, but if you sign up for 3+ you get called down to the office and you need to have your parents sign a permission waiver thing.</p></li>
<li><p>You need to have a 2.5 GPA or higher or a parent signature.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>No prereq, no limit, extent of “teaching to the test” depends on the teacher. In APUSH, we learned…well, US history and took DBQs, short answer and multiple choice for the class until the AP test. After that we had an enormous 300 point project, a final, and a mock congress.
The only classes with prereqs are ones like calc and the sciences, but usually the school holds us responsible for that. I signed up for AP envisci and haven’t taken the prereqs and it won’t matter.
Rigor: All are hard, AP calc is notorious in that no one from this one teacher got below a 5, and last year there were only three APUSH scores below a 3 (…pressure much? yeah…). AP bio is killer, AP spanish is h***, AP comp sci and AP envisci are considered cake classes, but they are harder than the normal stuff…</p>
<p>lol since we only have like 4 aps there isn’t really a limit…
i only self studied two last year. so that isn’t much. but this year may be different…</p>
<ol>
<li><p>It depends on the teacher but most AP’s in my school cover everything on the test and then some. </p></li>
<li><p>There’s no limits whatsoever.</p></li>
<li><p>There’s a lot of prereq’s but as long as you’ve passed those they won’t deny you from taking an AP course.</p></li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li><p>Most classes usually starts official ap prep around March-ish. Then again, we are a magnet public school full of (wanna be) over-achiever so AP scores are usually high. But it depends on teacher. For example Calc BC. Last year, all but 3 ppl in teacher A’s classes got 5s, while in teacher B’s classes 5 was only around 40%.</p></li>
<li><p>No AP limit, but admin ppl supposely “strongly” discourage anyone to take more than 3 each year.</p></li>
<li><p>There are prereq (usually need B or higher) but parents can “override” so they cant really stop you from taking it.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>1) Well it’s sort of a mix in my school. This past year my AP World History Class was pretty much based around the Stearns AP Edition book and my teacher’s lectures. The quizzes were usually vocab/MC/fill in based on the previous night’s readings. My tests were always MC and I think they were from some test generator software that came with the teacher’s edition of the textbook. We also did various AP style essays throughout the year. Towards the end of March/beginning of April my teacher began to hold extra help review sessions after school for the material on the AP test up until two days before the exam.</p>
<p>2) There are no limits as far as I know. I personally don’t think it would be fair to keep students from taking challenging courses. And it’s not like this is some sort of grocery store bargain where there’s a limit per customer…lol</p>
<p>3) Students must have the required prerequisites. It’s usually something like an 85+ average in the honors class or 90+ in regular or department approval. There are no applications. Generally, if you’re willing to take up the challenge you can take the course.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>They’re usually set to prepare you for the exams by cramming as much information as they can into your feeble, fragile little mind.</p></li>
<li><p>There aren’t any cutoff limits, but the school “suggest” (ie. enforces unless you’re maybe the top 5 or so students) that you don’t do more than 3 or 4 in a given year. We don’t have enough to really go past it I guess unless you want to take Aps considered extremely useless.</p></li>
<li><p>Required prerequisites, I’m pretty sure you have to have a 94 or 95 average but I think as long as you’re in the 91+ range you’re eligible for a recommendation by the teacher (the rec is what ultimately gets you into the class.)</p></li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li><p>My school, it depends on the teacher. AP Lit, the teacher plans to do more practice tests and test materials compared to his previous lit classes where he taught mainly the subject. The AP US teacher taught the subject, not really the test, so a lot of his students ended up getting crammed by the teacher on practice tests.</p></li>
<li><p>AP limit is based on the GC discretion, no one in my school has more than 4. It’s quite ridiculous that there isn’t really any criteria to it and it’s basically if the GC thinks you’re smart or not.</p></li>
<li><p>Required prerequisites… Uhmm… None haha! Except for AP Calc, since that class obviously requires precalculus/algebra 2/geo and so on.</p></li>
</ol>
<ol>
<li><p>It varies by teacher. Some teach strictly by the exam and all the tests are based on the exam. Others teaches “skills that are helpful on the exam.”</p></li>
<li><p>No AP limit. In fact, guidance counselors nag kids into taking more APs than they can handle; thus leading the school to hire more “adjustment counselors”(underpaid psychologists)</p></li>
<li><p>As implied above, my school passes out AP classes as if they were candy on a Halloween night. Most AP classes have official prereqs, but the guidance counselors don’t follow them. They only go by teacher recommendations, which teachers pass out like candy on a Halloween night.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>well i dont know the answer to the first question, considering i havent taken any ap classes yet, nor have i talked to anyone else in depth about their ap classes. </p>
<p>second question, ive never heard of any ap limits, so i think people can take as many as they want. in all realisticness, i think people only take like four or five at most here, and theres only so many you can fit in because a few of our ap classes take up two blocks. </p>
<p>third question, no. pretty much anyone can take an ap class as long as they have the prerequisites met and get their current teacher in that subject area to sign their course request sheet. it used to be that to take apush you didnt even need a signature, so C/D/F students could even take that one. ap euro is new this year and it says right in our program of studies that there are no prerequisites. obviously, honors and pre-ap classes are recommended, but for example im taking ap literature next year even though ive always been in just regular english. im one of only two people doing that, but it is allowed. the most difficult ap class to get into is ap calculus, because you have to either take algebra I in 8th grade[which i think only about 20 people do, they give you this test at the end of 7th grade to see if you can take it and the top scorers get into that class], or maintain an ‘A’ for the year in honors algebra I freshman year because then they’ll let you double up and take honors geometry and honors algebra II as a sophomore so you can take honors precalc as a junior and calculus senior year. but in general, pretty much anyone is welcome to take an ap class or two.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Our teachers teach both to the exam and whatever they want to teach. AP courses are actually the only courses that have standards. All other classes (honors and non-honors) do not have standards… and so the individual teacher can teach whatever the heck they want. Administration doesn’t have standards that we have to know at all.</p></li>
<li><p>AP Limits? Yes. Our GC only let’s you take five… which isn’t bad. We have seven classes a day… and I think it is only sane that you have at least two ‘easy’ classes. That being said… I have only ever encountered one ‘easy’ class at my school. That was English freshman year and that teacher was promptly fired. =/ So… it is insane to take more than five APs.</p></li>
<li><p>Our GC blocks students from taking classes that she thinks they can’t handle. XD You really have to get on her good side. My freshman year… she seemed very skeptical of letting me take seven classes + band… but this year… with the same type of grades… she easily let me sign up for three APs, 3 honors classes, and band. =/</p></li>
</ol>
<p>But I have friends that she wouldn’t let sign up for certain classes. =/</p>
<p>For my school, APs are weighted and you don’t have to take the AP test for them to remain weighted. We have no AP limit, and everyone that is shooting for any top 20 college usually takes 4+ AP classes because our grades are weighted (so it will be better for their GPA). However, the one thing I don’t like about our school is that we have to take certain courses before we can take a certain AP class…like AP Physics B must come before AP Physics C unless you are a senior…and like Honors English must come before AP Lit unless you test into it…and Honors Chem must come before AP Chem…</p>
<ol>
<li>our classes are geared toward taking the exam, but we sometimes cover other topics, but very rarely</li>
<li>no limit</li>
<li>it is somewhat easy; you need to fulfill the prereq’s but if your moving a level up (from CP to Honors/AP), you need a teacher recommendation</li>
</ol>
<p>1) A little of both. My teachers tend to teach us to the exam to an extent, but make their schedules such that they can teach us some stuff that’s more relevant to real life as well.
2) None at all, you can take all AP’s if you really want to.
3) There are some, and you need a teacher’s signature from the prior year, but you can override both of these easily. I know I have.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>They’re all basically towards the exam, especially english. AP Phychology didn’t even feel like an AP Class though… we never took one practice test or even mentioned the exam.</p></li>
<li><p>If your Student Index (Rank %ile x Weighted GPA) is 150, you can automatically take 3 honors/APs… for every 20 points higher your Index is, you can take one more. If you’re Index gets to 200, it’s unlimited.</p></li>
<li><p>You need an Index of 130 to take honors classes and 160 to take AP’s. And there’s no way around it.</p></li>
</ol>
