One student perspective on AP

Prep School Admissions
1

<p>I found this article to be of interest. I'd be interested to hear what others think of it:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-becker8-2008may08,0,4579485.st%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-becker8-2008may08,0,4579485.st&lt;/a>
ory</p>

<p>Bursting the AP bubble
Advanced Placement courses, once a model for learning, are mere memory tests now.
By Tom Stanley-Becker</p>

<p>LA Times May 8, 2008</p>

<p>I'M AN AP DROPOUT. When classmates in my Advanced Placement U.S. history course take the AP exam Friday, I won't be with them. When they pick up their pencils and start filling in those little bubbles, I'll be reading the words of George Kennan, Lillian Hellman, Harry Truman and Paul Robeson -- .for a paper I'm writing on the Cold War.</p>

<p>The problem with the AP program is that we don't have time to really learn U.S.
history because we're preparing for the exam. We race through the textbook, cramming in the facts, a day on the Great Awakening, a week on the Civil War and Reconstruction, a week on World War II, a week on the era from FDR to JFK, a day on the civil rights movement -- with nothing on transcendentalism, or the Harlem Renaissance, or Albert Einstein. There is no time to write a paper.
Bound by the exam, my history teacher wi****lly says we have to be ready in early May.</p>

<p>Sometimes I feel as if the College Board, which administers the AP program, is haunting our history class -- a long, gray, flat board with a clock on it looming over us. Like an oracle, it tells us what is worth learning and how long learning should take.</p>

<p>The overriding goal is to crack the AP test. That means taking a lot of practice tests -- week after week, filling in those bubbles in class. It means researching past AP exams to predict what will be on the test. It means answering model AP essay questions for homework. It means brute memorization. My classmates ask: Will there be more questions on the American Revolution or World War I? What do we really have to know about mercantilism? Their unspoken</p>

<p>question is: If I blow the AP test, can I still get into a good college?</p>

<p>In class, we cannot stray from the AP regimen. A few weeks ago, we were rushing through the 1960s with lightning speed. The Vietnam War is a fog.
Somehow the New Frontier turned into the Great Society, which I always confuse with the New Freedom, the New Nationalism and the New Federalism. And what does CORE stand for?</p>

<p>But what really caught my eye was something in the textbook about a 1970 women's liberation march down Fifth Avenue in New York, where some marchers burned their bras. Why was it radical to burn a bra, I wondered? But there was no time for this in class.</p>

<p>When the AP program originated in the early 1950s, the idea was to offer a rich curriculum of advanced work, bridging the senior year of high school with college. It was the brainchild of educators at colleges and prep schools, based on two studies funded by the Ford Foundation. The Educational Testing Service administered the first AP exams in 1954, with the College Board taking over in 1955. Today, the program promises a ticket to college admission and college credits through its 37 "college-level" AP courses and exams (in 22 subject areas), as diverse as physics and studio art, most taken by juniors.</p>

<p>But in applying to college, my classmates are learning that many schools grant no AP credits at all -- even for a perfect exam score of 5 -- and others only for some subjects. So, with nearly 1.4 million students worldwide taking
2.5
million AP exams in 2007 -- 300,000 in U.S. history -- the reality is becoming
clear: AP classes have simply become another credential for college admission.</p>

<p>Instead of studying history, we study for the AP exam. And along the way, our education has come to resemble the production of Model Ts on Ford's assembly line, with the College Board cracking down by auditing AP syllabuses before allowing schools to put the official AP trademark on student transcripts.</p>

<p>So I became an AP dropout; and I'm not alone. According to Education Week, since 2006, more than 2,000 high schools across the country and around the world have dropped the AP curriculum to march to their own drummers.</p>

<p>Meanwhile, freed from the AP regime as the exam approached, I slowed down to do independent research.</p>

<p>Sometimes I wonder how I would do on the AP exam -- but not for long. As an AP dropout, I hope to go to college on a road more meandering and slowly traveled.</p>

<p>Tom Stanley-Becker is a junior at the University of Chicago's University High School and an editor on his school paper, the Midway.</p>

2

<p>Putney's website has a link to an article title "Why we don't teach the AP" or something like that. I didn't read it because I figured it would be something like the excellent essay posted below. Though Putney is probably a little too free-spirited for my kids, I did think the all school sing was about the coolest thing I had ever seen.</p>

3

<p>I agree with the author of the article. Thanks for posting it.</p>

<p>One of the schools we toured stopped teaching AP classes. They taught more "horizontal" classes rather than vertical. They believe that college-level calculus can be taught in college, therefore this school offers in-depth looks at various types of math, including "election math."</p>

4

<p>If only colleges agreed with this kid...</p>

5

<p>Colleges are always looking for kids to take the "most rigorous" track their school offers. So if a HS offers 1 or 5 or 10 AP classes, the kids at that school will have to take them to get the "most rigorous" checkbox.</p>

<p>Westtown School, a boarding school my D and I toured, has done away with their AP program because they say it gets in the way of teaching. They show colleges which classes are advanced level by noting them on the transcript.</p>

<p>I agree with the LA Opinion writer that the AP have lost their usefulness in college prep schools. Perhaps they still have a use in introducing upper level work in schools that otherwise don't have them available.</p>

6

<p>Yes, colleges want kids to take the "toughest program." And true, if a school does not offer AP classes, then the toughest program will not show any APs. However, when applicants on a regular basis show up with anywhere from 5-11 AP classes (and exams) under their belt, how do you really think those students compare to the kid from the school that does not offer AP? And basically, it is a game of limited spaces, limited numbers. And AP scores are tangible short-hand for at least a standardized performance across the peer group, so an admission officer is more like to understand what a 5 on an English AP exam means versus an A in English class from Standard High School in Middle of Country.</p>

<p>Of course schools "teach to the test". And it is a shame that this path does not permit much detouring down interesting side roads. </p>

<p>How much has changed with APs since I was in high school. I took AP classes my junior and senior year, but we never took a practice test. In English, for example, we just read enough of the books on the AP list that we would be prepared to write an essay about at least a few of them. But the SAT experience was the same...my mother just woke me up early one morning and said "you have to go take a test..let's go." Now, it's prep courses and year-long preparation in school. Sigh.</p>

7

<p>I agree with what you are saying MtaU. It could look worse for a kid from Standard HS not to have any APs. But it might be different in a well known prep school/boarding school situation where the colleges know that the program is rigorous. I would imagine that the schools where Westtown (for example) students matriculate understand that the program is rigorous. </p>

<p>I don't know why colleges do give credit for AP exams anymore. I don't think it is comparable to college work. Freshman and Sophomores are now routinely taking AP tests. It may be "hard", but it's not college and prepping for a test is not a good use of year of a high school.</p>

8

<p>Colleges don't mind giving credit because it's always for the introductory level classes (like English composition or whatever is the first level of required English writing) or basic language skills. Those are always classes which have to stay small (20-25 people) but there are TONS of people who need to take them, because they are often required courses. And universities have to pay a lot of graduate students money to teach those classes....so they don't mind exempting kids out if they show a competency level. I sort of think that credit should only be given to scores of 5, maybe 4 too. But a 5 on an AP exam is certainly comparable to skills acquired in an introductory college course. English writing? When you make a 5 on the AP, should you really have to take basic composition? I don't think so. That kind of score demonstrates basic good composition skills. </p>

<p>Now, maybe this does not with as equal force across the curriculum....BC Calculus? Dunno...never took it. :-)</p>

9

<p>I took AP English in HS but didn't bother taking the AP Exam so I can't say whether the class was taught to the test or not. Same for AP World and American History and Chemistry. It was either regular or AP, (no honors options). The only students who bothered taking the exams were the ones who were planning on going to state schools where they gave credit. This was twenty years ago.</p>

<p>That said, when I got to college and registered for COMP101 the first day of class we were given an essay to write. The next class, I was told I had placed out and would receive credit. I don't know if they cross-referenced students' HS transcripts to see if they had taken AP, if they made an exception for students in the school of music, or if they offered it to everyone. I tend to think that they gave music students the most opportunities to test out of intro classes because our course loads were crazy even with pared down core curriculum requirements (21 -23 hr a semester to graduate in 4 years plus 6hrs a day of practise). </p>

<p>It is also interesting to note that some of the BS catalogs I have looked at recommend taking the AP exam after completion of classes that are not specifically designated as AP. I think this was what my HS was shooting for but gave the honours classes AP status.</p>

<p>I will say this: the author of that article will, no doubt, impress his college interviewer and write one helluva essay. I hope his lack of AP Am. History doesn't hurt his chances. If what people say is true about BS admissions holds for college admissions, they will be looking for a self-motivated scholar and not just another grade-grubber.....but maybe I'm naive.</p>

10

<p>How long have AP courses been around? I graduated high school 30 years ago (yikes!) and our public did not offer AP's.</p>

11

<p>The dilemma for students/schools is this: imagine there are two classes: AP Am History and, say American Colonial History. The American Colonial History is taught by a teacher who designed the curriculum, is interested in the topic and who picked the books. The AP class is designed to teach to the test and produce good scores.</p>

<p>The college bound student has to pick AP Am History because that will earn the little "most difficult" checkbox. </p>

<p>In this way, schools, teachers, and students are losing the opportunities to create courses which might be better suited to themselves than the standard AP. I think it is very possible that it is eroding education, not enhancing it.</p>

12

<p>Grejuni, you say, "In this way, schools, teachers, and students are losing the opportunities to create courses which might be better suited to themselves than the standard AP. I think it is very possible that it is eroding education, not enhancing it."</p>

<p>I grant that Exeter doesn't need AP courses. Not far below that level, however, I do have to say that I would have concerns about the quality of the material presented, if it's the teacher's own course. It can become an ego trap for teachers, and schools, to believe that their courses are superior. I'll believe that of Exeter. As a parent considering boarding schools, however, there is always the question of the rigor of the course of study. I would not automatically take the lack of AP courses as a sign of quality. I am more likely to suspect that a private school really wants to avoid the sort of direct comparison AP exams provide. If students at a public school down the street score just as well as the $30,000 day school next to the golf club, that's a point in the public school's favor.</p>

<p>I think it's possible to teach any subject badly. It sounds to me as if the instructor of this student's AP course was trying to cram everything in, rather than teach the subject thematically. In an AP history course, there should be essays assigned, in part because the essays are so important on the exam. When I took AP history, we had weekly writing assignments. We didn't get through the 20th century, but we had a wonderful preparation for the exam, and for college level work. As a class, our scores were very high.</p>

<p>On another level, I am worried by the student's lack of appreciation for the value of a survey course. I know that in-depth study of smaller topics is the vogue now, but without the structure of a course which covers the landscape, it's hard to see the large themes of history emerge.</p>

<p>To balance this out, I would say that a school, in my opinion, has the responsibility to consider their students' work load. A school should set limits on the number of APs, or highest-level courses any student may take, and then defend those limits against pushy parents. The school must also clearly communicate their decision to all colleges. I am very concerned about the academic arms race developing in high school. More coursework is not necessarily more rigorous coursework, and to place an undue emphasis on a child taking "20 APs," or whatever the lunatic fringe is doing these days, is to encourage burnout and rampant cheating.</p>

13

<p>Periwinkle,</p>

<p>Part of the problem is that public schools around here don't start teaching actual history (who, what, and when) until middle school. Sure, they do "social studies" and throw around a few battles, generals and wars; but they don't give them the kind of background knowledge necessary to go into detail and make meaningful connections. So students have to cram everything into this one AP course because many of them are essentially starting from scratch.</p>

<p>The essayist may or may not have a broad knowledge of US History, but his willingness to jump into one area is not unusual among very bright kids. It is often the "mile wide and an inch deep" curriculum that drives the intensely curious out of the classroom. For some kids, a class like that just teases them.</p>

<p>Don't misunderstand me. I agree with you 100% about the necessity of seeing the landscape. I have been an avid reader of history since I was a little girl and can say that it is only within the past few years that the connections have take shape beyond mere superficial similarities. I mean, one has to know an incredible amount of sheer data to honestly draw truly meaningful connections. This is one of the reasons I am constantly bemoaning the lack of history, and especially the lack of chronology, at the elementary and middle school levels. Dividends are determined by the size of the principle.</p>

14

<p>"I will say this: the author of that article will, no doubt, impress his college interviewer and write one helluva essay."</p>

<p>To me, that is the issue. I used to read admissions essays for one of the Ivies. We could have easily filled our freshman class with straight A students who had all been valedictorians of their class and editors of their school newspaper. And, indeed, many of those kids were admitted. The best applicants, though, weren't the kids who had fulfilled every academic obligation and leadership position dreamed up for them by some adult. The best applicants were the kids who had rigorously pursued a path of their own choosing. (As someone who also worked in the Development Office, I can tell you that those students made the best alumni, as well!)</p>

<p>Yes, APs have a place in raising the bar at mediocre public high schools. However, I'd like to see more private schools, boarding schools and top-notch public schools, schools that have the benefit of excellent teachers and small classes, find more ways to encourage kids to think about possibilities beyond subsidizing the test prep industry.</p>

<p>You're right that the way things work now, if your school offer APs, you'd better take them. But it may be in your best interest if your school doesn't offer APs (especially since, if you're so inclined, you can still take the AP exams).</p>

15

<p>I’d just like to point out that this is much more of a problem with your school’s curriculum than with the AP program. The AP program is perfectly capable of coexisting with normal college-level classes – it’s just the case that in most schools, it doesn’t.</p>

16

<p>I have to say that I don’t think that the AP USH course could possibly equal the intro courses that are offered where I went to school. They were not surveys in the usual sense, in that there was no “textbook” but many books with various viewpoints, which the Prof lectured on and gave his own views about. Our job involved no fact memorization at all, but to write essays with insight. I majored in Government and also in American Studies, so these areas are really my passion still. I love American History. I looked at the AP booklet and sample questions to get an idea of what the course must be about (did not exist where I went to HS) and it seemed straightforward and basic “stuff”: mostly what we learned way back when in my old “regular” american history course (honors that was).</p>

<p>I do find that the average HS grad that I come into contact with, and that I have employed, knows almost nothing of US history. I don’t mean the prep school or elite HS kids. They know nothing of the New Deal, or even whether Franklin Roosevelt came before or after Teddy. I can’t really imagine how you can graduate with such a paucity of knowledge at all. </p>

<p>I never took an AP science course, but students that I know seem to have gotten the basic science that they might get in a first year college course from these courses. </p>

<p>My own experience with BC calc was that I did fabulously in Calc, took the next level course in college and dropped it within two weeks after hitting the wall. I think today, more than just integral and differential calc is taught in AP, and it is necessary for the next level. I again studied Calc for my MBA, and it was nothing more than what I learned in HS.</p>

<p>I think if you can place out of a foreign language requirement it is helpful, but AP is even more than what is necessary. Way back when (and I think even now) a 600 on the SATII equivalent let you go on to 2d year language. Where do you get placed with AP scores?</p>

<p>As to the freshman english comp, almost no one placed out of this, and it was almost universally taken. Having been an excellent student in HS english and getting a 4 on the AP, I was stunned not to be getting A’s in that class. I actually don’t think it helped in learning to write well. I did not develop excellent writing skills until I was in Law School. There I found peers who were willing to go over the writing in excruciating detail, but the college profs gave it short shrift. This was a a college that is very highly regarded.</p>