Quess I am caught up in the high school planning.
I have been at it for four years and I think I am
understanding it better. Do hope this helps you.
1) you can not beat a good high school; Seems
about 20% are good. Either AP courses or IB.
Ihe AP are a little more science/math, and the
IB may be a little harder, but less choice.
The IB are more in the field of languages.
2) I prefer learning the course material well;
as opposed to a higher GPA. You may take Bio,
Chem , Physics and other AP courses without
taking the same course at the honors level. You
can get and "A" either way. But the child is
not as mature in the subject as one year later.
And you would be more sure of a 5 on the AP.
Maybe more important is the fact the the AP
courses are not at the college level. And these
courses are fundimental to the the rest of the
field that the child will follow. One can not
measure the differences, you have to believe.
3)For sure I believe that mastering the subject
matter is better. Here are four examplies that
we are following. Honors Biology before the AP
course. Honors Chemistry before the AP course.
Physics honors and not physics AP until college.
Because you need the maturity for a good under-
standing of physics. And 4 years of French before
the AP French course. She started in the 8 grade.
Same for any language.
4)Outside courses are of interest too. But it
seemed better to take courses that were not core
courses. Those summer courses,(ie) that are fun
and not involved with graduation or the school.
There are a lot of these and will help the gifted
child into many other areas besides the core ones.
5)GPA: you can work backwards to calculate it;
assuming all "A"s. If you take 10 APs courses;
that's 50 points. 12 Honors is 54 points. And
some required courses; 3 is 12 points. That is
a GPA of 4.64. Still not bad for learning the
course work well. Hope this helps ! Oh; science
courses require a lab and therefor 25 courses is
about right for 4 years of high school.
6)For those going into science or math; it is
great to take the two calculus AP courses. You
must get ahead start to complete them by the
12th grade. They will help the general under-
standing of the rest of the sciences courses.
This is only one point of view; I do hope it has
been of some interest.
