<p>Has anyone taken AP courses from Virtual Virginia in the past? If so, which courses? What is the workload like? I'm considering taking some this year and I'd love to hear about people's experiences with it.</p>
<p>What’s Virtual Virginia?</p>
<p>@Academicterror- Virtual Virginia is VA’s online class program. </p>
<p>@OP- I can’t say I’ve taken any AP courses (I’m taking AP Pysch on there this year) prior to this year, but I can assure you, there will be a lot of reading (more and less depending on the class). </p>
<p>How much note-taking you do is left up to you most of the time. </p>
<p>I’ve taken Chinese I and II and Latin I and II on VV, and I know plenty about the Mythology course, but unfortunately, my school just picked up a few AP classes on VV this year because we lack teachers for Calc, Physics, and Psych. </p>
<p>So I can’t really tell that much about the AP’s. </p>
<p>In general:</p>
<p>Um, the format is pretty neat. The tests and quizzes are all computerized, so it’s less writing. </p>
<p>Essay tests are easier because they involve typing instead of writing. </p>
<p>I recommend having a scanner ready to use (either at home or at school) because some classes involve scanning homework and stuff.</p>
<p>Depending on what AP (usually languages), I would recommend having headphones with a microphone.</p>
<p>Also, the classes typically do something called “Elluminate” which is a live interaction program that a teacher uses for tutoring. It’s a neat program. It has an IM chat, an interactive space that you can write on (kinda like an art program has) and that the teacher can bring up slide shows and write additional notes on. (I recommend having a microphone for this too.)</p>
<p>You can go to the VV website and look up the general course descriptions and such. </p>
<p>Actually, you may have taken a VV course before (you didn’t say). I might have just told you a bunch of stuff you already knew. </p>
<p>Whoops. xD</p>
<p>No, I haven’t taken any courses from them before. Thanks for the information. =) Is the workload really heavy? I suppose it’s probably heavier for APs than regular courses, but did the courses you took involve a lot of work? As in, more work than normal classes would. Also, are you allowed to do work in advance?</p>
<p>I want to take courses from them, but I’m a bit hesitant as I’d like to know more about what I’m getting myself into first.</p>
<p>For my classes, the workload was not really heavy. AP’s probably have a little more. Like I said, there will most likely be a lot of reading, and note-taking is usually left up to you. </p>
<p>For work, you’ll have lessons split into days (but you can usually work a little ahead) and you’ll be required to do the lessons (they include notes on MS Word, Power Point presentations, videos, visiting other websites, and of course, your textbook) and then do either written homework and scan it or do homework on Word and such. </p>
<p>As for how much work there really is, well, that’s left up to you. You can work your a-- off to make every assignment perfect (power point presentations, essays, etc) or just slack off and half-a-- them all. Like a regular class.</p>
<p>The work load is basically the same as a regular class, just on the computer, so there’s less traditional writing and more typing than in a regular class, and a lot of time, you can save the teacher’s lessons and cut out in Word what you don’t need instead of hurriedly copying notes during lectures (unless there’s a video, of course, but you can watch those more than once).</p>
<p>In my opinion, online classes are easier in that you can work at your own pace during class and sift out the info you don’t need more easily, but harder in that, if you get stuck, you can’t go up to the teacher and ask, you have to send a email/PM and wait for him/her to respond (or call them via telephone). </p>
<p>Anyway, if you want to take AP’s on VV, take them. It just takes a few days to get used to doing your class in front of a computer with a set of headphones rather than setting in a normal classroom listening to a teacher talk. After that, it’s not any harder than a normal class.</p>
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<p>As for my personal experience, whatever you do, don’t just skim through your readings and then go play games on the internet. I watched like three Mythology students do this all year last year (my school mixes all the online class students together so they can give everyone good schedules), and then they all complained when they failed…</p>
<p>Not a single one of them really read the lessons. They didn’t take notes. They didn’t pay attention. So they failed.</p>
<p>The most important thing to remember about online classes is that they’re just as important as regular classes.</p>
<p>My advice: Read your required material, take notes, do your work, and study. Everything you do for a regular class. </p>
<p>Do those things and you’ll be fine.</p>