Interesting. I think D25’s school might have a limit of 4 for junior year, but she really wants to take 5. I really don’t know which she could not take. I think she has 5 because she has AP Calc BC junior year.
S22 took AP classes at his high school. D25’s high school offers IB, she’s planning to do that. A whole new world of Standard Level, High Level, Extended Essay, etc.
My kid’s high school’s AP/IB class limits are:
- 9th grade: 0*
- 10th grade: 1*
- 11th grade: unlimited
- 12th grade: unlimited
The asterisks reflect a pair of exceptions: Students of any grade can take an AP/IB math or foreign language class that they place into.
0 Freshman Year
1 Sophomore year
Junior and Senior year there is no limit but if more than three you need to get special permission. All AP exams are mandatory as well. You cannot take a class for the weighted grade and not take the exam.
No limit. My kid goes to a competitive Bay Area high school. She knows a handful of kids who are taking Calc BC this year as 10th graders. So, yeah.
There’s not an official limit on AP classes in S25’s school, but there are only so many available each year. He took one last year and is taking two this year. I’m not sure that there was an option for more than that. Honestly, I don’t want him loading up on more than three next year. He’s a smart kid, but the ADHD makes it really challenging for him to stay organized. He finished the first quarter with straight A’s and as of last week was briefly failing English for this quarter thanks to a missing assignment. He’s rallying, but it’s a rollercoaster with this kid. Thankfully he’s his father’s son, and I know it will click for him eventually like it did for my husband. I will just have many more gray hairs before then.
My daughter is at a very small college prep school. The school is moving away from APs and towards their own advanced study curriculum which they say offers greater depth and flexibility. The only APs currently offered are math and science courses, and they aren’t allowed until junior and senior year. To take an AP science course students have to have earned an A in the regular version and typically a math prerequisite as well. It’s interesting to see the different ways that schools do things.
Technically the only limitation is that you can only take 4 per year. However, in reality I don’t know of anyone who was able to place into one as a frosh, and you have to be creative with the schedule to get more than one as a soph. So it ends up being:
Frosh: 0
Soph: 1/2
Junior: 4
Senior: 4
Loading up more as a Soph usually means you will get less as a junior/senior, because you run out of classes to take. D21 ended up with 0/2/4/4 but that’s unusual. I think D25 may do 0/2/4/3, to let off the gas a bit at the end. It will still be enough to get the “most rigorous” box checked, and if she only has 1 in Senior Spring, that won’t affect class rank (it’s finalized after first semester Senior year).
Right now she is kind of getting burned out already. So maybe we back off even more, who knows. I think she is as smart as D21, who was at the top of her class and is at Amherst now. But she isn’t as driven. D21 complains about being on the treadmill, but then gets a waiver to sign up for 20 credits anyway. That’s definitely not the attitude of D25.
It will be interesting what the next few years brings. She’s #4, but following the pattern of not following anyone else’s pattern. I get to relearn how to parent each time!
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I don’t think the school states a limit, but given what is offered, my daughter’s (former) public school had the following:
0 frosh (unless you placed into AP foreign lang bc of dual immersion in earlier grades)
2 soph (AP World and AP computer science principles)
4 junior (APUSH, AP Lang, AP foreign language, AP Physics 1, AP Calc AB if double accelerated math)
4? senior (AP Lit, AP Chem/Bio/ES, AP Calc AB/BC, AP Art History)
Her present charter school is similar, although dual enrollment is pushed as well, so I think kids sometimes take fewer APs and more DE classes.
Typically Freshmen year there are no AP’s, I suppose one could if super advanced in math. My son isn’t taking any this year, but is taking all the advanced options including advanced pre-calc. He didn’t want to take APUSH because of all the stories of hours of busy work every night. He’s planning on 2-3 next year. The school offers maybe around 14, and CHS classes but they are about $400 and just through the community college. And where he wants to go does not give credit for AP’s or take transfer credits (he wants to go to a service academy)
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No strict AP limits, but each year have to place in/be invited by faculty:
9th : 0* (unless APstat or APForLang , but only 2 kids total in 7 yrs have done an AP in 9th)
10th: 1-2 but vast majority does none;
11th&12th: unlimited as long as you qualify ; about 25% do 3-4 APs each year with 2-3 Honors in addition.
Yes. We’re at a private college prep HS in the Bay Area. Honors and AP fall under the same heading.
Freshman - 1 max (only possibility is really an Honors level math)
Sophmore - 3 max
Junior and Senior - 4 max
All years, maximum honor/AP classes are only achievable if you also schedule a free period, so essentially no additional electives are possible. There’s pretty strict criteria to take honors/AP as well - typically have to earn A- or higher the year before in the subject and have to solicit feedback from current subject teacher.
I think our HS policy is not the norm in our area though.
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Did anyone’s child take the Pre-ACT in October? Have you received scores? I reached out to the guidance counselor because when my senior took it, the school sent home a paper copy, we then created an account for her on the website. This time, the counselor said they no longer send the school paper reports and we should check online. I created an account for my S25, but it says under score reports “no report found”. Unlike the College Board site, it doesn’t even show that he took a test and we are waiting for scores.
Wish I could help, but the pre-act is really hard to find around here (potentially offered at private schools, but not public), so d25 didn’t take it. I hope you can get the results!
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Our public school offers it…. I reached out to the ACT and they said he has two accounts with that email (weird because he hasn’t taken it before- wonder if I used that email for his sister years ago), so we had to create a new email and they are fixing it for us. My daughter liked it much better than the SAT and got a 34 first try then a 36 on her retake. Only did one practice test. My DS 25 thought it was easy, so kind of anxious to get his results. He took the psat the week before and should have that score Dec. 5. Hoping to pick one or the other to focus on.
It is probably under their school email. Have them try checking that.
Maybe this has changed, but for S19 we HAD to get it through the school, the guidance counselor had access but we did not. It was a bit of an ordeal, because they were sitting on them over the summer, but S19 was taking the real test in early fall so wanted to know how he did to help with studying. Eventually I got an administrator to get me access during the summer, but ACT said there was not way for me to get to it on their end.
Again, that was 6 years ago, so things may have changed.
Guidance counselor said the school doesn’t get reports. The ACT help email said he has two accounts set up and they are consolidating them, we had to provide a brand new email address to them to merge accounts. Waiting for that to happen so we will see.
Ugh! Still looking for scores. Emailed with ACT, since I never heard back about the email issue. Then got a response from a different person (even though I replied to the thread) asking for all the information I already provided. So I called and a woman was helping and said she could see the two accounts and would merge them then had me reset my password- still no scores. I called again and got another person who insisted that Pre-ACT scores are not even available online and that the school provides them. So I emailed the counselor again, who is the one who told me that the school doesn’t get paper copies anymore. Round and round we go.
Our kids PreACT only show up in the school’s communication/parent portal through Infinite Campus under “Reports”.
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