Somewhat OT--Austin, when did you graduate from high school? I took a pretty full AP/honors load at one of the most competitive and highly ranked high schools in my highly populated northeastern state and it was not like this.
Early 1980s.
I still read and did other things on my own. I also held down a part time job. I'd do my homework then stay up until 1 am or later reading or programming. I also played sports.
Here is what I recall.
In Humanities we had 50 vocab words a week with the words given to us on Monday and a test on Friday. We read one book a week in that class. I was constantly reading. We had one essay due every Monday that had to use half the vocab words from the week before on the historical topic.
Our calculus teacher had a MS in Math. She spent the first 10 minutes lecturing, worked a problem or two, then we worked on homework the rest of the class. Every other day was new material. One of the problems was always a proof. I always had to work an hour a night.
Chemistry and physics were no different. Both teachers had majored in their subject in college. Everyone feared the physics teacher - and with good reason. Those two classes were 30 minutes to an hour each night.
Right there, four core classes - 3 to five hours a night. Now add in band or journalism or yearbook or Latin or sports and it was a full load. Some of the kids had dance or music or non-school sanctioned sports outside of school, too.
I'd leave school at 3:15, walk to a local restaurant, sit in the back studying until 6, walk home, eat, then study until 8, then I'd be free to do what ever I wanted, usually reading or programming until 1 am. I also studied during lunch, eating first, then spending my time in the next class prior to it starting, studying.
In 10th grade we started with about 30 kids on the honors track and out of that group only 14 stuck with it through to their senior year.
My senior year I met a number of kids from elite NYC public schools while on a class trip to DC and when we compared our schools, I felt we were on par in terms of course material and workload.
Talking to friends with kids in the Plano school district here and looking over their AP homework, I do not see anything different from what I did almost 30 years ago. The pacing and intro of the material is the same. Ditto in Humanities, etc. Looking at the top private schools, its the same.
One difference is that nowadays the top graduating seniors spend a lot of time at Chinese or other enrichment schools from K onwards along with a lot of time at private prep academies. I am beginning to think the statistical anomalies are due to hard work rather than countless hours self tutoring at the library. But this mirrors the experience of the top athletes who also spend a lot time practicing on their own or going to camps.
