Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments How many is too many when it comes to AP?

I was trying to differentiate between what Dude referenced - high schools having lots of courses called AP, and specific AP-approved classes for which there is a test. In my kids' HS, a student is expected to take an AP test for any course which is called an AP course. A student can take additional AP tests (say my kid learns Latin or Japanese at home), but if my son takes ten AP classes, he is expected to take ten AP tests.

Just curious - how many of your kids' school districts pay for AP tests? I hadn't even realized it was an option in some schools, but when my dds went to college, a number of their friends had taken AP tests paid by the district.

Also, is it a big deal in your district for students to NOT take the test after taking the class? My older dd, who had anxiety, didn't take any AP tests (although she took the classes) and our school gave us a very hard time. Other schools, though, seem fine with kids taking them or not taking them.

I have to say that whatever I have written here on this is based on the current trend of declining scholarship and viewing AP classes through a prism that shows them as 6-8 years away.

Obviously HK has had very good success with her daughter taking AP classes and she has the benefit of experience with AP classes.

I don't think that AP classes should be college level (to me in shows the remedial level of some colleges) because I think college should be harder and that ideally an AP will at least prepare a kid for the rigours of an academic college. Perhaps this is why universities like MIT do not give credit form them.

The point about learning to suck it up, produce and develop EF is well taken. I never got this as a kid and I saw my DD learning stuff so fast that she was not seeing learning as something that needed to be worked at.

This is why I have put her into an AoPs class - it is way more rigourous than anything she has done before. She gets it and understands how to do the 'challenge problems' but there is a lot of text to cover, especially in the worked examples. The first couple of weeks were a chore but she is now adjusting and needing a lot less time to go through the book work and do the problems. So far, the experiment is yielding the expected results!

If AP classes do maintain their rigour then I will encourage my DD to take some but somehow I do not see them on a trajectory that is climbing in that regard.

I don't know what the rules are in my school. I do know that students must pay for the exams themselves, there are reduced prices for those who are eligible. Since it's something that costs money, the school can not force a student to take it. And I do hear of seniors not taking exams. Given the high rate of 5's at this high school, I honestly wouldn't be surprised if some teachers recommend students who are struggling in the class take a pass on the test.

There must be some misunderstanding, because I didn't intend to make such a distinction. There was an AP English track that lasted all four years of high school, and ended with an AP test. There was an AP math track that likewise ended with an AP test, though as far as I know that was only the AP Calculus test, because I don't remember being offered one for Trig/Pre-calc or Algebra II. This was many, many years ago.

So basically, while there wasn't a 1:1 relationship between AP classes and AP tests in every subject, every class called AP was directed towards preparing you for an AP test.

Sorry-my poor wording. All I really meant to say is that our HS offers 23 courses that end with an AP test. There are other courses that put you on the "AP track," but they're not called AP until the specific class that ends with an AP test.

Wow - love the varied viewpoints and experiences!

Just for clarification, the AP scholar in my original post took 16 AP credentialed courses and received top scores on 16 AP exams. It is my understanding that top score means 5 although a long time ago my college accepted a score of 4 but only if you have at least 4 AP courses plus 4 AP exams from an acceptable list (not all AP subjects are created equal). My use of the term AP course is in line with momtofour's post rather than the AP subject track described by Dude. Anyhow, I was astounded because 16 is a major commitment as she could have only taken a maximum total of 32 courses during high school and there are quite a few non-AP prerequisites (pre-calc & lower, "regular" GT sciences, etc.) and requirements (fine arts, music, PE, health, etc.)

Ultimately, it will be up to my children to decide how many and which courses they want to study. In line with the reality of college applications and just general educational fit, I think that it is likely that they will take many more AP courses than I did in my day although 16 will be unlikely!