When to level down from AP Class

<p>Hi, I'm hoping that some one can give us some clear advise. My DD#2 is a Junior, taking AP US History(and 2 other AP courses) this year. She has been struggling in this class since the start. Unfortunaly the really great AP US teacher (whom my older daughter had and loved!!) retired last spring. So new teacher is not much of a lecturer (think watching paint dry), and does not seem to be doing much of a good job teaching the material. I should have known something was up when all of DD's friends dropped out after two weeks. DD managed to scrape by first semester with a B-, studying twice as hard as for her other subjects. She must have spent three straight days studying for the final to score only a C on it. Ok now we are 4 weeks into second semester and she has a 65%( she is 13th out of 24 kids in this class!). I am supposed to pay $82 for the AP test on this subject, which I think that no one in this class has a chance of passing. At this point, as I see it her options are to 1. Study her butt off and hope for a C in the course with little to no likelyhood of passing test, 2. Level down to regular US History- but unfortunaly she takes the 65% with her to start new class, which I think is extremely unfair considering that a D in an AP class is more like a B in a regular class. I am very concerned how this will look on her college applications as she is in her "critical" junior year. FYI - my DD is getting straight A's in all other classes, so I really feel that this is a teacher problem, not necessarily a no-effort problem.
Thanks for all of your advice, Guidance Counselor will not make any suggestions - damn public school!!</p>

<p>SoCal, before you conclude that your D can't do well on the AP test why don't you get the AP review book (we bought ours on Amazon) and have her go through it? If she knows the material, then you've got the frustration of a potential C but possibly a B in the class, but a 4 or a 5 on the exam which is a great signal to colleges that she did, in fact, learn the material with perhaps some classroom issues. FYI-- the book is a great review tool in any case.</p>

<p>Mr DD has been using the AP review book for several months. We decided to get it as a supplement to the terrible teacher and really bad textbook. It has helped, and she wishes that she got it sooner. Is there a practice test in there? How would we grade the essay portion?</p>

<p>I agree with the suggestion of an AP book. They all have at least one exam, sometimes several, with guidelines on points that should be covered on the essays. You might want to buy an extra one or two books for the practice tests, but just let her study from whichever one she thinks is the best review.</p>

<p>SoCal, I can sympathize. My boys had the same situation in World History, eldest had the best teacher in the school while two years later his brother had the worst teacher in the school. Joy and frustration with administration no help. Since she's a junior and the other teacher just retired, perhaps you can find a current senior with a passion for history who took the class last year who might be willing to tutor her for some reasonable earnings. The material will still be fresh in the senior's mind and it might be a whole lot easier for your daughter to "click" with a peer's teaching style. I agree that I would try a practice test with the AP book and see how she does, at least on the objective questions, before she gives up. Most of the AP books have practice tests in the back and I would even consider buying several from different sources (Peterson's, Barron's, etc.) She may know the material better than she thinks and just not connect with the teacher's testing methods. It would be such a shame to have struggled this far and not give it at least a practice shot.</p>

<p>What a shame that Carolyn isn't around to answer this one! She had a similar situation with her then sophomore daughter in AP Euro and posted about it on the old CC board. I can't pull up the link because it's on the old CC website, but if you do a search on the old site (<a href="http://www.collegeconfidential.com/discus/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.collegeconfidential.com/discus/&lt;/a&gt;) and use "AP Euro" (in quotes) as the search term and select Parents Forum in the search topic box, you'll find a thread titled "Advice on Dropping AP Class" in the 2003 archive. Here's the first post of the thread:

[quote]
I've written about my daughter's struggles with her AP European History class elsewhere. Well, first quarter grades came out and she ended up with a "C." She was crushed. </p>

<p>This was the first C she's ever received (she's a straight A student except for one B in math last year) and I can honestly say that she has worked many many many long hours trying to keep up with this class. We've talked about how she budgets her time and there really doesn't seem to be any slack. She's existing on 4 hours of sleep a night and working 8 hour days on the weekends. She also spends two hours a day every day after school in study sessions that the teacher holds. While the teacher says these sessions aren't "required" she makes it obvious that kids better attend. </p>

<p>Simply put, at this point, she is teetering on exhaustion, has lost 8 pounds from stress (and she was skinny to begin with). Her other grades were OK but there is a definite trend away from studying for other things in order to keep up with AP. I've talked to the teacher several times and while she says my D. is "improving" she also says she needs to put in more effort. I don't know how that is possible at this point. My daughter isn't the only one struggling with this class - there were only 3 B's, and 2 A's out of a class of 18. About 10 students have already dropped out. </p>

<p>So, here's the quandry I face: should I push her to drop the class? </p>

<p>My D. is still saying she wants to stick it out but I'm growing increasingly worried about her health (physical and mental!). History has always been her strongest subject and a passionate interest of hers. It's her intended college major. Or at least it was until this course blew her out of the water. Maybe she just isn't ready for a class this intense as a tenth grader. </p>

<p>Any advice or thoughts would be most appreciated.

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</p>

<p>After you've read that thread, search the same way for one titled "AP Update - Great Surprise" to read the happy ending to Carolyn's daughter's story. It was quite inspiring and really demonstrated the value of sticking it out even when it seems hopeless.</p>

<p>Thanks for all of the advice, I will continue to look for a tutor. I did call the dept. head for tutoring suggestions, we had one lead that did not pan out. On the bright side, my DD got a 81 on the last test. She studied for two straight days, all evening (4 hours) on a Tuesday and from 4pm until 11 pm the following night, all for the one quiz!! She has at least brought her grade up to an 72% (from 65%). So there is hope that she might pull out a B after all. Still don't know about the AP test, but I really am not concerned about it right now.</p>

<p>I suggest buying a better textbook (possibly Enduring Vision), but I don't know if you guys still want to risk the money, since it's 2nd semester already. An AP prep book helps, but it definitely does not cover everything in the same kind of depth that a txtbook will. The textbook was my best friend during the course, and since my teacher didn't even try to teach, basically everyone just walked around the school cradling that thing everyday. It was the only reason I did well in that class.</p>

<p>And though the tests in the course may be impossible, the actual AP test isn't too difficult.</p>

<p>I think your daughter needs to switch to the regular AP US History class. I enrolled in it in high school, and I only lasted a month. The workload was so torrential that it dwarfed that of my other classes, and I was taking Honors/AP classes to the hilt. Even after dropping AP US History, my junior year was STILL my hardest year. I can't believe I survived.</p>

<p>Given that I graduated from high school back in 1992 and things have gotten harder since then (or so I've heard), I'm surprised anyone can hack it in AP US History.</p>

<p>I wouldn't worry about her grades in the one class looking bad on her college apps. If she continues her stellar performance in all of her other classes the one errant grade can and should be easily explained in her college apps. She's taking 3 AP courses in her junior year and getting straight A's in 2 of them. That's a great accomplishment! Colleges know just how demanding that is for a Junior. </p>

<p>If you google "AP US History" you will find a lot of study resources available, many for free, right on the internet. One nice thing is that there are some excellent AP US History teachers out there who have put up study sites and links for their students which can be used by anyone.</p>

<p>
[quote]
Still don't know about the AP test, but I really am not concerned about it right now.

[/quote]
but you should be concerned about the AP exam. That's where she can demonstrate that she knows a whole lot more of the subject than the grade in the class might indicate.</p>

<p>Socal- </p>

<p>I don't think a C in an AP course will matter too much for college apps unless your D is only applying to highly selective schools (maybe top 25 schools or so). My D had 2 Cs in her junior year in Precalc and AP Biology and was still admitted to several national universities in the top 25-50 range. In the essays for the more competitive schools she touched on her struggles in Precalc as an indication of her perserverance. Her Precalc teacher was also new and half the class dropped after 2 weeks but my D stuck it out because she was determined to get through it. My D does not intend to be a math/science major and colleges should consider specific grades in light of the applicant's interests. If your D plans to be a math/science major, then maybe one weak AP History grade might not be as relevant.</p>

<p>Incidentally, my D took regular US History rather than the AP US History because she felt the work load might be too much. She did not work herself to death and got an A in the class. In contrast, several of her friends took the AP class, studied 2-3 hours per night, and got Bs and Cs. Those kids felt so stupid after taking the AP class that they did not sign up for the AP exam. My daughter, however, felt confident based on her performance in regular class, took the exam, and got a 4 on it. Her only extra preparation was looking over some old practice AP tests from the library.</p>

<p>Socal, do you have any way to get in touch with the previous APUSH teacher? The books are great for review and practice tests, but she should be able to help immensely with the DBQs/essays. You could pay her to tutor, or she might even look over one or 2 of your daughter's essays, and know whether or not she is on track. If the teacher had a good track record with APUSH, this should be a no-brainer. All she can say is no.</p>

<p>CANGEL, that was my plan all along. I got another teacher to give her a call, and she originally said yes. But now she has changed her mind, she says that she is going to Germany the second two weeks in April and is unable to tutor. Maybe she is just burnt out, who knows. The old teacher really liked my older DD (1st in her class) so I was hoping that would help us here!!</p>

<p>I'm not sure if this an option, but at our school if you do not feel like you will do well on the actual exam, you can refrain from taking it. You still will be recognized as taking an AP course, but you will not have to throw away 85 bucks on a test that you doubt you'd do well on.</p>