<p>let your kid wait until 10th or 11th grade to take those exams. Don’t rush them into these things. At 10th grade, they will have a much higher level of thinking and will definitely get a higher score then.</p>
<p>I really, really wouldn’t recommend encouraging middle schoolers take AP tests, period. No matter how easy the material, AP testing is a pretty stressful experience. I’m not saying your kids aren’t mature enough to handle it, and I’m sure they’re capable (your description of them reminds me of myself at that age!), but you - and they - should understand that it’s just.not.worth.it at that age. I had tons of fun in middle school even though I wasn’t particularly challenged (my only difficult class was 8th grade geometry, and that was pretty damn easy). Furthermore, it’s much easier to self-study an AP once you’ve taken a “real” AP class and understand the general format of the classes and tests.</p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong, I think self-study in general is a really wonderful thing. I spent hours on the Internet at that age just reading about things that interested me. Please do encourage your kids to explore to their hearts’ content! But as surfcity said, you don’t want them to be limited by the AP curricula. They have all four years of high school to worry about that. </p>
<p>My last two cents - I waited until junior year (not by choice, just because of district rules) to take my first AP classes. I really wish I’d gotten a head start in sophomore year, just because there are so many classes I want to take - plus, as you say, the college credit aspect is quite enticing. I’m self-studying for the first time this year and wish I’d thought of it a wee bit earlier. (Just not 7th-grade early.)</p>
<p>Bottom line: unless THEY really want to do it and think they can handle it, I really encourage them to wait a while. I think middle school is the best time for kids to try a ton of stuff and see what they like best. Then, in high school, they can pursue their real interests. </p>
<p>Good luck to you guys, whichever route you take!</p>
<p>So basically your pushing your kids to take AP tests so that you will be paying less for their college educations? Your the definition of a tiger mother.</p>
<p>Reading about your kids … i do believe they are very gifted talented and smart ( Congrats 
) … however Ap tests are no joke … think they are in middle school … not high school … and im sure your kids are way smarter than some people in high school … but still they are in middle school with 4 years of high school ahead of them … let them when they are freshmen self study (or take the class) of human geography or psychology … since those are the easiest Ap exams … it is not worth it AT ALL for Ap in middle school …</p>
<p>Let us remember that even the “easiest” of the AP classes are NOT easy. AP classes are taken by most to get college credit, therefore these are college level classes and college level tests!!!</p>
<p>Let your kids enjoy the 7th and 8th grade, worry about AP’s and self studying one they hit high school.</p>
<p>yea like AP psych may be the easiest AP, but I studied hard core for it</p>
<p>Are middle school kids even allowed to take AP exams?</p>
<p>They could do AP Human Geo…and that is the only one I think they should do. Though really it sounds a bit drastic to encourage a 7th grader who is what 13 to take a college level course.</p>
<p>AP Human Geo is the easiest AP class, but is no where near being “easy” in itself.</p>
<p>gnasty gnorc:<br>
"Are middle school kids even allowed to take AP exams?</p>
<p>They could do AP Human Geo…and that is the only one I think they should do. Though really it sounds a bit drastic to encourage a 7th grader who is what 13 to take a college level course."</p>
<p>1) Yes. I imagine some schools balk at the idea, but young students may and do take the exams, although not very often.</p>
<p>2) It depends on the thirteen-year-old, you know? Should they be pushed to do it out of some desire to prove something or achieve prestige? No – but that’s not the best motivation for doing anything. If the student is ready for the material, interested in the material, wanting to move on past AP level in the material, it would be just as wrong to deny them the opportunity as it would be to force them to take the exam if they lacked the interest and/or the ability. I think the key issue is whether the motivation is coming from the student or the parent.</p>
<p>I am willing to bet a boatload of money that any 6th grader couldn’t pass an AP exam, I can pretty much guarantee it. In no way do I have any dislike towards 6th graders, but I just don’t think that it is realistic. I could promise that…</p>
<p>It doesn’t even seem realistic to take an AP course in middle school, and I didn’t even believe it was possible until I saw this thread… I think it is great how their ahead of their grade and all, but I seriously think that AP’s in the middle school aren’t the best way to go about. Maybe it is possible though for a 13 year old kid to do it though, eh. I wouldn’t want to take that stress and rigor of AP courses in the middle school. In 7th/8th grade at an AP course, there is no way I could have done it. </p>
<p>Best of luck if they do take them though!</p>
<p>XLBC, you would lose that bet. It is very, very rare, but it does happen.</p>
<p>APs in middle school aren’t the best way to provide academic challenge. In fact, I would argue that they are not the best way to provide academic challenge in general. But an AP exam score can be a great way to document someone’s academic competence and ability; it’s the difference between saying “I’m really good at math” and “I got a 5 on the Calc BC exam.”</p>
<p>If you are dealing with a radically advanced student, it helps to have some tangible proof of ability. You, XLBC, are hardly the only person who doubts that a thirteen-year-old is ready for college-level work. Appropriate scores on APs or SATs help eliminate that doubt.</p>
<p>But the original poster seems interested in APs for their middle-schoolers more as a way to get a jump on college applications. I think that is a waste of time and effort, energy that would be better directed toward a hobby, a sport, a service activity, or reading lots and lots of good books.</p>
<p>I got a 5 on APHUG in 9th grade with a 5 week, once a week (well, it was supposed to be three times a week, but I could only attend once a week) class and about a week of cramming. It’s doable. That said, the exam is purely common sense for anyone who reads a newspaper frequently. (I’ve read the paper almost cover to cover since sixth grade.)</p>
<p>It’s September, so your kids won’t have to cram. Instead of giving them a prep book to read, give then a practice test, and then encourage them to keep up with current events. APHUG is basically like a history class without the history. You learn why historical events happen, but you don’t study any specific things, except as examples. By reading and discussing news articles, they’ll learn about the forces which drive events before they learn the official terms for them. </p>
<p>Finally, don’t waste too much time studying. The other posters are right; hobbies, good books, sports, service, and travel are much better uses of their time.</p>
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<p>For the average 6th grader, I would bet quite a bit at least. I have never in my life seen of or heard of a 6th grader passing an AP test. 7th/8th grade is debatable. It’s just a personal opinion.</p>
<p>Now for someone who is like 9 years of age, I could promise under a 3…</p>
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<p>I doubt that the majority of 13 year old people could do it. Most 13 year old kids don’t have much of any prior knowledge of the course. I guess they could, even though I’m 13 and would have great difficulty getting a 3 in even the easiest of easy AP classes.</p>
<p>I guess a 13 year old could do it though…</p>
<p>[AP</a> Program Participation and Performance Studies 2011 | Research and Development](<a href=“http://research.collegeboard.org/programs/ap/data/participation/2011]AP”>http://research.collegeboard.org/programs/ap/data/participation/2011)</p>
<p>If you scroll down and open the doc for AP Scholar data in 2011, you will see that out of nearly 393,000 AP Scholars, eleven were students who were not yet in ninth grade. So, it does happen, rarely, but these kids are ready for the exams. (I have heard of students taking AP exams before high school and doing poorly, too, to be fair.) Most thirteen-year-olds could not do it, but a few can.</p>
<p>And I would add that my son started with the exams that were easiest for him, which to me seems like a good strategy for anyone. But they were not the exams generally considered easiest, such as Human Geography.</p>
<p>OP here with a few comments. First, as I mentioned, I am leaning against encouraging my daughter to take an AP exam this year. She’s in 7th grade and has a full plate with several extra-curricular activities.</p>
<p>As for my son, he doesn’t have a lot of activities and wants to tackle this. He made a 24 on the ACT as a 7th grader last year, which is a good score. It put him at the 94th percentile of all Duke Tip participants, who in turn represent roughly the top seven percent or so of seventh graders. A 24 on the ACT is considered “college ready” by the College Board.</p>
<p>Add to this that my son has a November birthday. He really should be in the 9th grade, but they changed the rules at some point to require that children be 6 before entering school rather than 6 before Jan. 1. In the “olden” days the smarter kids with Sept.-Dec. birthdays would start school at age 5 while the slower kids would wait a year. I had several fraternity brothers and other friends who were only 17 when I started college and knew a few 16-year-olds, but today the emphasis is on keeping everyone back to made the slower children feel better about themselves.</p>
<p>I’ve looked at the sample questions put out by the College Board and by the Princeton Review, and roughly half of the questions are just general knowledge questions that most people should know without ever opening a textbook. Mastering the other half will take some work, but is very doable.</p>
<p>Remember, one of the goals that every student should have is to get the National Scholar award. Obviously this needs to be earned by the end of the junior year. Getting it any later is a useless as teats on a boar hog. So students must either take 2-3-3 in the Freshman, Sophomore and Junior year and get a four on every test, or else take a test or two before entering ninth grade to get some breathing room. Obviously taking one of the easier tests, or even two, as an eighth-grader makes this a much easier task.</p>
<p>Slightly off thread, but when I was in school I had at least one study hall every day. Now study hall is abolished. But during study hall, which was held in the library, I would read the nearest major daily newspaper cover to cover, plus a number of magazines. I learned as much from reading the newspaper as I did from any of my classes.</p>
<p>Why should it be a goal to get the National Scholar award? I think a better idea would be to take the APs you want to take, and then do well on those. You shouldn’t be slapping AP scores in just so you can get some title barely matters. Echoing what someone else said on this thread–there’s a difference between saying, “I’m pretty good at this subject” and “I got a 5 on this test!”</p>
<p>You cannot compare yourself to your children, and vice versa. Instead of pressuring them (which is the vibe I’m getting from this thread) into taking tests and “scoring in the top percentile,” why don’t you let them explore their interests? And no, studying AP Environment Science is not an interest.</p>
<p>Don’t mention tests around them. Let THEM bring it up, and then you’ll know whether they’re actually interested in it or if you’ve been pressuring them into testing all along.</p>
<p>Also, age does not equal emotional/mental maturity. The fact that your son “should” be in ninth grade means very little. Just because he “should” be in high school does not mean he “should” be doing high school work.</p>
<p>I’ve taken a couple AP tests. They require motivation from the student himself–not a friend, not a teacher, and not even a parent. At the end of the day, he’s going to be the one taking the test. Try not to live vicariously through him. Good day.</p>
<p>Mascara,</p>
<p>Since I mentioned the possibility of taking an AP test my son has asked about it repeatedly. He says he wants to do it. And he has complained bitterly about my not allowing him to take geometry over the summer. So he does have a personal desire to get ahead.</p>
<p>My guess is that the National Scholar award earned by the end of the junior year would be quite impressive on college apps. Some schools offer merit scholarships for a set number of years, so arriving at school with 45-60 credit hours allows a student tremendous freedom to pursue whatever he wants to.</p>
<p>I get the feeling that many of you take the attitude that it doesn’t matter if you get in the honors college of your choice, everything will just fall in your lap. It doesn’t matter if you get a free ride to college, Daddy will just pick up the bill or you can just amass mounds of debt. Well, it matters!</p>
<p>I think your time would be well spent figuring out why he’s so embittered about not taking geometry. Is it because he actually fully understands the concepts and feels that he’s mastered them, and and that taking the class would actually hurt his intellectual journey? Or is it because he wants to get bumped up another level so that “it will look better” to colleges that he’s in an even more advanced math class? </p>
<p>Instead of going for the national scholar award, I highly suggest your son take the tests that will actually give credit to the classes that he will be taking in college, not tests that are there just to pad his resume and make him appear “better” to colleges.</p>
<p>What I think is that right now is a great time to fuel his other interests, and try to build new ones. You probably know that colleges look for students who have more to their name than just a couple high numbers. Use this time to allow your son to find out what extracurriculars he might enjoy. There are tons of activities that any young student can fall in love with, and they don’t have to be expensive. Sports and music may be out of the question, but that barely narrows down the list.</p>
<p>Your children sound like high achievers, so they’ll probably get some type of merit aid. But for more competitive scholarships, colleges will want a real human being–not just a list of AP scores and a label of “National Scholar.”</p>
<p>By the way, not everyone has that attitude that you described. Many of us understand the ridiculous cost of higher education, and I’m willing to bet there are quite a few members on this site who have to pay tuition, etc. by themselves. That logic does not surpass us, thank you very much.</p>
<p>Your children might not know it now (I know I didn’t learn this until last year), but the only thing they should do in high school is push themselves as much as they can. What they’re doing should be worthwhile. They should be doing it for them, and not for anyone else.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, that’s not a lesson any lecture or AP prep book can offer. They’ll have to figure it out somehow.</p>
<p>I get a sense that you’ve already made up your mind about this. Wish your children the best of luck in their endeavors. Remember–it’s their journey.</p>
<p>AP Credits taken to get college credits, when they are not related to what a student plans to study, are not particularly useful. If your kids start college with 30-40 credits, yes it means on theory they can graduate early, or spend more time of classes that interest them. But that only works if the credits they gain can be used toward their degree. If your son is going to major in Engineering, how many AP credits does he need from history or social science courses? They won’t count toward the degree, and many colleges have caps on the number of AP credits that can be used toward distribution requirements. So in stead of replacing those classes with something that interests him, your son will find himself having to take even more of the classes that might not interest him (or retake the ones he already took, and "losing: the AP credit.</p>
<p>It’s great that your kids did well on the ACT - but they didn’t do THAT well. The students you refer to who claimed these exams were easy, and they only studied a week often did so after taking the class! Those that self-studied often did so after already mastering the art of taking AP tests, and are scoring far above a 24 on the ACT. A 24 in 7th grade suggests that he will do very well when he takes it again in HS, but it hasn’t happened yet. How will he end up doing well then? By living his life now! </p>
<p>If your son taken an AP test this year, and scores well, it won’t mean he has significant experience in that subject, it will mean he did well on a particular test. That’s all. Top schools are not going to be excited about a National Scholar, if he doesn’t do anything but study - that doesn’t make him an interesting student, someone they want as part of their community. Pushing AP exams this early, unless he plans to graduate early, can backfire. Too much emphasis on academic endeavors does not make for a well-rounded person. Encourage him to find a hobby, not study for a test. If he’s interested in Psychology, let him read about psychology for the sake of learning - not for the sake of a test. If he learns well, he can always take the exam later. It’s not taking the exams in HS that is the most stressful, but the preparation leading up to the exams.</p>