That's part of the impetus behind my original post. A part of me suspects that the students are not necessarily getting smarter or better educated, just that there is massive dilution. On the other hand, it is possible that colleges may not look at AP Environmental Science in quite the same way as AP Chemistry or AP Physics.
Yes.
Honestly, I'm not thrilled that AP Physics B (which my DD took and did well in) is now a
two year course. Oh please.
The pacing is now undoubtedly completely unsuitable for gifties. It was about right when DD took it (without any preparation other than an honors physical science course taken years earlier which had about a month of classical mechanics topics and very little math).
As for "who takes this stuff," well, we didn't care about COLLEGE credit for the course, but we
did care about GPA weighting, and the course is far, far more rigorous/better designed than the alternatives that DD's school had on offer. She hadn't had calculus, so AP Physics C was out. Frankly, that course was a nightmare in terms of pacing before the redesign, but it was
great for the tiny handful of HG kids in it. The pacing was
perfect. For them, I mean. LOL.
She needed the challenge of the pacing and high level content, but without the expectation of calculus, and yes-- she'll probably take a sophomore level calculus-based mechanics course in college, but so be it.
