<p>I have two sons (a junior and a frosh) who go to a Catholic High school. The school's handbook says 20-30 minutes of homework per day per class including weekends (so, 3 - 4 hours per night for all subjects; 3 1/2 hours per class/per week; or (depending whether you are taking 7 or 8 classes) about 25 hours per week of homework. (The kids are in class from 8am - 3:05 pm -- about 6 1/2 hrs of classtime per day.)</p>
<p>My junior son is taking AP Bio and AP Euro (last year he took AP US Hist). His AP Euro teacher thinks that she is allowed to assign unlimited homework. She talked to my frosh son's class and told them if they wanted to sign up for an AP class next year to expect as much homework each night from that class as an EC takes (such as basketball practice everyday for 2 - 3 hours). I think that she is nuts. My son's AP teacher last year and his AP Bio teacher assign reasonable homework, but this lady is just nuts. </p>
<p>How much time do your kids spend everynight on one AP class? (if homework is not assigned everynight, please give a week's average and then divide by 7.</p>
<p>Depends on the teacher and the AP. I took AP Euro in my sophomore year. I lived, slept, and breathed AP Euro for the ENTIRE year until May. By March, everyone's eyes had semi-permament racoon marks and it took all summer to get rid of those... but those were our signature for our hard work. Generally, it was about 10-12 hours a week, reading the text, researching, and writing papers.</p>
<p>After that, my AP workload was easier (USH, Econ, Gov, Psych)- ranging from 2-8 hours a week for each class (2 hours for Psych and 8 for Gov). It really depends on whether the teacher assigns more things than just doing the reading for the text. The more time-consuming APs that I had had more paper writing and some additional readings.</p>
<p>AP Euro, APUSH, and AP Physics are probably the two most demanding popular AP classes so even if you compare with other high schools, a lot of work is still involved because the amount of material needed to know and to master before the exam. </p>
<p>AP Euro WAS my EC as I spent almost every day in the library during after-school hours!</p>
<p>it's been a couple of years, but here's what I remember (grouped by how much time I spent on them):</p>
<p>AP CompSci AB - I did almost all of my work in class; maybe 1-2 hrs outside per week at the most (teacher didn't really assign out-of-class work)
AP Calc BC - less than 30 min 4 days a week. keep in mind that math is my strong point and I really didn't do any work for that class. at all.
AP Psych - two hours a week at the beginning of the year, nothing after about december b/c my teacher stopped really giving homework</p>
<p>AP Physics C - 1 hour 4 days a week
AP German Language - don't remember, but probably 4-5 hours a week</p>
<p>AP English Language - approx 8 hours a week (varied depending on when we had reading & when we had papers)
AP US History - 8 hrs per week (2 hrs per day 4 days a week)
AP Bio - about the same as APUSH</p>
<p>I don't think any of my 2 kids' AP teachers had any restrictions placed on them for homework assignments. Both spent maybe .5-2 hours per night on the English and History courses....D spent a good 2 hrs. per night on Portfolio....S spend anywhere from 1-3 hrs. per night on Calc BC and Chem....all in addition to 1 or 2 varsity sports per year, Habitat and other ECs, plus part-time jobs.</p>
<p>The good thing for you is your frosh son already knows what he can expect from the Euro teacher....and has the choice to take that course or another one - unless Euro is a grad requirement at your HS?</p>
<p>It all depends on the teacher and how "college-y" the teacher designs the course to be. For the Ap U.S. history and Euro classes my sons have taken, about 2-3 hours a night at least 4 nights a week, and a lot of time on weekends as well-- a lot of reading, not just in the text but outside reading as well, and a lot of papers, both short and long, with revisions being made while new papers were being worked on. The history department at our high school is strong and the teachers wanted to be sure that the students were producing college-quality work. The sciences also have heavy workloads because of all of the formal lab reports the students are required to do. Biology wasn't bad, but Chemistry was a lot of work. Each class also had papers due. My oldest son took both years of AP Latin--very easy. The AP English classes had about an average reading load (Maybe an hour a night?) but required a LOT of writing and some in-class presentations. As in history, students would be working on new papers while revising old ones. The AP math wasn't too bad--just an average homework load, no papers.</p>
<p>Basically, it should be the same load as college because it's a college level class---2 to 3 hours of preparation for each hour of class. Unfortunately, because it's high school, the kids have more classes.</p>
<p>Because the kids don't want to give up their ECs, sleep tends to go by the wayside for weeks at a time. Not a pretty sight.</p>
<p>Kate: I said that she is nuts because she thinks that she should have no restrictions at all. She thinks that she can assign 3 -4 hours of homework each night for AP Euro. My junior son takes 8 classes, including AP Bio, Physics and pre- Cal. If the AP Bio & Physics teacher had the same attitude as she does, my son would have 9-12 hours of homework EACH NIGHT for those classes PLUS homework in Pre-Cal, English, Spanish, etc......! That would be about 10-15 hours of homework each night. Her attitude is nuts.</p>
<p>boysx3: "Basically, it should be the same load as college because it's a college level class---2 to 3 hours of preparation for each hour of class. Unfortunately, because it's high school, the kids have more classes."</p>
<p>Actually the guideline for college is ONE hour of homework per week for every ONE credit. Meaning that if one is taking 16 credits in a semester, the student should expect an additional 16 hours of homework a week for a total of 32 hours. (not 32 - 48 hours of homework per week plus 16 hours of class). </p>
<p>No one could have a part-time job in college if 48 - 64 hours a week had to be devoted to class time and homework each and every week.</p>
<p>mstee: When my son signed up for her class, he had no idea that she assigned that much homework because she was new to the school. She also teaches AP Gov/Econ so my son doesn't want to take her class next year. However, since their school is small, they don't offer that many AP classes. colleges do wonder why a kid doesn't take offered AP classes (since a list of offered classes is included with transcripts) so there is pressure to take her class.</p>
<p>Since she isn't going to leave the school, I am trying to make a case to the principal for her to give less written homework, or at least, give more time to complete it.</p>
<p>I do not have a high opinion of the AP program in general. I know some schools that are dropping AP classes and, at the same time, strengthening their curriculum. They are teaching the subject matter at a very high level--like a college class, but aren't calling it "AP". Their students take the AP tests in May and do quite well on them, scoring almost exclusively 4's and 5's. Teachers I know don't like the restrictions placed them by the CB and feel like their courses have become somewhat "canned". A good teacher can create a course that requires high-level thinking and get outstanding results without purchasing the AP program. Sometimes it seems to me AP programs are largely a money-making racket that has been bought into by many high schools and colleges while CB is laughing all the way to the bank!!</p>
<p>As far as the seemingly unreasonable amount of homework assigned by this teacher, my suggestion would be to discuss it with her and, if necessary, have a conference with her and her principal. My experience has been that when teachers give a lot of homework, they are doing a lot of work themselves and have the students' best interest at heart.</p>
<p>my D is taking 1 AP class- she is in 10th gd and taking AP Euro- she is also taking a Marine Science class that is easily as rigourous as an AP, as well as honors English which is difficult for her with her dyslexia as is 2nd year Spanish.
Since the AP class is very difficult and time consuming although she has one of the best teachers in the school- I agreed with her not to take the AP test. I want her to take the most challenging courses that are appropriate, but at this point we are thinking about colleges that do not require testing and I don't see how spending $80 and three hours for a test is going to impact her college admissions more than the other things that she does on the weekends ( like her ECs)
She will take a practice AP test that will be held in class- and I may look at programs designed to help students do better on testing in general- but for now- just that she has gone from being in special education to honors classes in one of the most rigourous public schools in the state is enough without requiring her to take the AP test
overall she probably spends 7 hours a week on homework for AP- that includes reading.</p>
<p>I would have your son talk to the teacher rather than going in person. He could ask a few others in the class if they agree, and maybe present a few of their concerns to the teacher with a few suggestions: same amount of reading without time-consuming questions, or fewer essays, or the like.</p>
<p>So far my kid has taken AP Computer Science (almost no homework), AP Biology (.5-1 hour a night), AP US History (.5-1 every night with several term papers that add time), AP Calculus (almost no homework), AP Physic C (.5 or less). The trouble with courses like biology or history is that they are survey courses, but the high school teacher has no leeway in what to emphasize or not, because there is no way to know what will actually be on the exam. The result is that more material may be covered than in an actual college class. Here in NY where we start school after labor day and take a Feb and spring break - there's less time to cover the material as well. The AP teachers here have good reputations for preparing the kids well enough - 80% of most classes get a 4 or 5. By the way, kids are required to take the AP if they take the class.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Actually the guideline for college is ONE hour of homework per week for every ONE credit. Meaning that if one is taking 16 credits in a semester, the student should expect an additional 16 hours of homework a week for a total of 32 hours.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>This varies. At my school we're supposed to spend a total of 12 hours a week on each 4 credit class (6 hours out of class per week for a 4 credit class that meets for 6 hours a week).</p>
<p>"As far as the seemingly unreasonable amount of homework assigned by this teacher, my suggestion would be to discuss it with her and, if necessary, have a conference with her and her principal. My experience has been that when teachers give a lot of homework, they are doing a lot of work themselves and have the students' best interest at heart."</p>
<p>That's how I define the best AP teachers who are looking for successes for their students. Don't think that this teacher is at home watching tv while your son is reading away. She IS also using her time at home to grade papers and plan lectures. Her part is also time-consuming and the only way it can show is how tired she appears when she's NOT in class teaching. My classmates and I have seen a fair share of dark circles under our AP Euro teacher's eyes and her exsparation sighs. We loved working for her and knew that she wanted us to be the best we could be, therefore we tried to encourage to cut back a little on the work she gave us. Occasionally, she would skim on the essays- asking for outlines instead. I think there was even one week that she got so behind that she cancelled seminars for that week.</p>
<p>These signs might not be obvious right now but it will be obvious to her students who spend a lot of time with her (for us 6 hours a week) and a couple years down the road after diong this every year.</p>
<p>I can name other demanding teachers in high school- AP or honors that put so much stress and work on us.... that by the end of first semester in college, we were thankful for all the preparation that they gave us. Even if they made our year hell.</p>
<p>The only way I would see this teacher being unreasonable is if she does not treat students with respect, that if she's after something that doesn't involve her students' well-being. Like a bonus pay for every 4s and 5s on the AP.</p>
<p>
[quote]
I said that she is nuts because she thinks that she should have no restrictions at all. She thinks that she can assign 3 -4 hours of homework each night for AP Euro.
[/quote]
That level of homework is nuts. It's possible (based on D's personal experience) to do this course and the material with 1 to 1-1/2 hours per night. 3-4 hours per night suggests either:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>A teacher not sufficiently familiar with the material to know what is required</p></li>
<li><p>A teacher struggling with the survey nature of the AP Euro curriculum, and wanting to go deeper in particular areas.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>It's probably 2. This is the essence of the AP curriculum debate - and it's impossible to have it both ways.</p>