<p>Im considering taking AP psychology this spring and AP Micro (or Macro) economics in the summer . both online through john hopkins cty . i just want to know like the good and bad aspects of taking an online course</p>
<p>I’m taking AP Psychology right now on Virtual High School. It’s not hard, but it is very time consuming. If given the choice, I’d never take an online class again. You always have access to the work, so it’s never like you’re “done” and you never feel like you can relax because you always have work to do (if you get behind, I mean). I’m two weeks behind right now, but fortunately my teacher is wicked chill and doesn’t take off points for lake work (this is not common). If you choose to do it, just make sure you have a lot of free time and DO NOT get behind. I got behind after week 3 and have been behind since (it’s week 18 right now). Catching up is awful because new work keeps on coming as you’re working on old work. Oh and also, the schedule often does not jibe with your high school schedule. For example, when your school is on break, your online class is not. I had midterm exams last week so of course I needed to spend my free time studying, but my online class wanted me to keep doing my work. I chose to study for exams and get even further behind on my online work. I’m spending all this weekend trying to catch up now.
If I had to give only a few pieces of advice to help in your consideration of online classes, they’d be 1) make sure you have sufficient free time to dedicate to your work, 2) don’t get behind, 3) think about if you can handle two different schedules at once (school and online). I hope this helped.</p>
<p>I don’t know anything about CTY, but I completed AP US Gov online via my school district and APEX Learning.</p>
<p>Good:
- The entire course - with every single assignment and every single point - was clearly laid out at the beginning of the term. I was able to tell exactly what needed to be done.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>My teacher was very flexible with deadlines.</p></li>
<li><p>I could work from anywhere with an internet connection.</p></li>
<li><p>For all objective assignments, grading was instant and immediately inputted into the overall system so I could see the results. No waiting for lazy teachers to run Scantrons through the machine.</p></li>
<li><p>The highly structured nature of the APEX curriculum got me into a kind of nice rhythm.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Bad:
- The way my program was set up, I had to take all tests with a school-designated proctor. Usually this was at lunch. Perversely, test essays had to be hand-written and scanned/faxed. I didn’t mind that too much because I think better in print anyway, but it seems kind of bizarre.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Many of my AP courses at school are very test-oriented; often, tests account for 70-80% of the total course grade. This class was not, and I was not able to skip too much homework. Normally, I cope with school stress by just not doing pointless assignments and then scoring well on the tests. Couldn’t do that here.</p></li>
<li><p>This is probably specific to my course, but some of the assignments were severely dated. Not good when we’re talking about current politics.</p></li>
<li><p>If I scored below a 70% on a quiz, it gave me the chance to review and then take the quiz again. Unfortunately, I always hit “Reset” before reviewing and then got stuck with the new quiz and no extra prep time. Then I might fail again, and after two attempts you have to contact the teacher to get the quiz reset. The Reset button was not intuitive.</p></li>
<li><p>The APEX online lectures had either volume or a transcript. You couldn’t watch the slides without listening to the speaker. I like the visuals, but I need to listen to music when I work and turning the music volume down while simultaneously listening to the lecture was weird. Also, one of the speakers had a very annoying voice.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Neutral:
- You must schedule your work yourself. I ended up leaving well over a month of work for the last week. Slamming through it was actually kind of fun, but my hand hurt a lot after writing over ten essays that week. For me, this worked well. If you are the kind of person who procrastinates and then is unable to handle the pressure, don’t do online.</p>
<ol>
<li>Only cursory interaction with my teacher. To be honest, I didn’t mind and I don’t think it harmed my learning environment.</li>
</ol>
<p>Summary:
Overall, I was pretty happy with my online class. It got a little stressful at the end, but I work well under pressure and I liked being able to schedule myself. I would be very positive about it if there had been less emphasis on assignments.</p>
<p>Wow! thanks guys . i think i might do it and getting behind really wont bother me because i tend to procastinate but i work best under pressure</p>
<p>I’m taking a CTY course…don’t procrastinate! Whatever you do, don’t. It’ll get you in a lot of trouble. Do your homework, do well on the quizzes, avoid problems with tech (a lot of the stuff you do is scanned in obviously). Know your information well enough to get a 90%+ and you’ll be good.</p>
<p>It’s a bit hard with a distance learning course as you really don’t have any peers…or a teacher to ask you questions. I mean, sure, you can always e-mail the instructor but it’s not always the same. PM me for any other questions.</p>
<p>I soon will take CTY, but am taking online courses on art of problem solving, and it has both pros and cons, the biggest pros are the timing schedule, and ability to do it at your leisure, not to mention simplified notes and hw’s are more portable. You get access to the brightest kids, and for me that’s the biggest pro, because I’m now in a ****ty school with stupid kids, cons include the hassles of technology and limited facial contact. as well as the nuances of expressing yourself online rather than in person, but it’s worth it, :)</p>
<p>Pros:
- I can “go to class” at 3am.
- I can do the work on my own schedule. There isn’t nightly homework so I can do the work as I want to.
- It is something that I cannot do at my own school.
- Class credit is always nice.</p>
<p>Cons:
- It takes a lot of time.
- It takes so much self-discipline.
- Not being a a discussion-based class is really hard for me. Ask lots of questions when possible.
- Lack of student interaction. I have no idea who my classmates are.
- As someone said before, tests are like 70% of the grade so, when you don’t do so well on one, it’s bad. We are not allowed to retake quizzes.
- I have to take the tests at school and have to fit it into my schedule somehow.</p>
<p>Even though there are more cons than pros, I still would recommend taking one because colleges like to see a challenge and if you have to take an online class in the future, you will be ahead of the game.</p>
<p>
LOL, I was actually saying the opposite.</p>
<p>A few of my fellow students were former classmates from elementary school. It was really awkward commenting on their forum entries given that we knew each other but hadn’t talked in years…</p>
<p>No interactions with students and teacher! Huge negative for me, IMO</p>
<p>I take AP comparative government online through my virtual state. It is dependent on your personality and your teacher. My teacher is pretty relaxed and doesn’t hold us to deadlines, but I also started the class late due to tech problems but she is understanding and doesn’t count things late. The class isn’t that hard but when it is combined with your other schoolwork and conflicting schedules like exam week and snow days it ends up sometimes overwhelming. It was nice to take a class that my school doesn’t offer and have a relaxed environment to do it in</p>
<p>what exactly do you mean by taking the tests at school ? like how do they know where you take the test?</p>
<p>My mentor has the passwords so he knows when I’m taking one my IP address is also logged</p>
<p>
The proctor has to be the one to send over the test, either by fax or scan+email.</p>
<p>ohh i see . another question: the course is from feb-april . will i still be able to take the AP exam ?</p>
<p>I don’t think anyone can stop you from taking the exam. Just sign up if you think you will be ready.</p>
<p>I love taking online Latin. My school doesn’t offer Latin as a regular class, so I was thrilled when I learned that I could take it online. I don’t know who my classmates are, but that doesn’t really bother me as I usually spend my whole designated online period talking with my friends who are taking Creative Writing and Economics. Of course, I’m behind because of that, but as my course takes around 20 weeks, I’m allowed to take longer than the other classes.
Pros
Wouldn’t be able to take Latin otherwise
Can work at my own pace</p>
<p>Cons
I don’t grasp the material as well as I probably would in a regular class
All homework(which is uncommon); I usually depend on tests to boost my grade
Harder to stay on track
annoying if I have questions</p>