Our HS math sequence for gifted kids is honors Alg II/Trig (9th), Honors pre-Calc (10th), BC Calc (11th), and then Calc III (you need a 4 or higher on BC exam), AP stats, or AP Computer Science for senior year- overall, 3 years of math, so you could also skip senior year.
Our gifted science curriculum is Honors Bio (9th), Honors Chem (10th), Honors Physics (11th), and then usually one AP science senior year. Students can also double up or take a summer course to fit in more AP. Honestly, I like the way this is done. Honors Bio was a very general course and not nearly as rigorous for my dd as AP Bio, so I didn't feel like it was a lot of overlap. Maybe it depends on what they do in middle school. Dd majored in bio in college and felt like she went in with a really deep understanding; her AP course was rigorous. I guess she could have taken AP Bio without the first course, but this worked well for her. The last two years, AP bio has had the lowest or second-lowest percentage of 5s for all test takers, and I wonder if that is because more freshmen are taking it.
History curriculum has AP Human Geo, Honors World History or AP World (considered the most challenging) for 9th, then AP Euro (10th), APUSH (11th), and AP micro/macro and/or APGov and AP Comparative Pol senior year. For my dd who did liberal arts in college, she found these better/higher level than the English courses, and they really developed her reading/writing skills. Again, though, AP World has had the lowest or second lowest (changing with bio) percentage of 5s in the past two years, and I also anecdotally hear of many more freshmen taking it.
English is honors 9th and 10th and then the two AP in 11th and 12th. We found these relatively watered down, and the results on both are usually relatively low as far as percentage of 5s. I think too many kids are taking them.
At our local HS, a student can take AP Computer Science as a freshamn with no pre-reqs except math (drop out rate is high), AP Human Geo or World History, AP Art History, or any course in which you are sufficiently advanced (for ex, one could take AP stats in 9th if the student had taken AlgII/Trig in 8th, or could take AP French if he or she had already taken outside French).
I don't see my son's AP World being diluted - it's a tough class and there is the expectation of an hour a night of reading/note-taking. It's very rigorous. I've seen the AP Computer Science syllabus (he's not taking it) and I understand why so many drop out. The only pre-req at our school is Geometry, but if the student has never taken any programming, I think it would be really, really challenging.
Yes, it is different than when I was in school, but honestly, my kids are so much better prepared than I was. The standards are so much higher and the curriculum is pretty tough at MS.
