Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Parenting and Advocacy How do you know if it's really too hard?

HowlerKarma while I usually agree with you I'm going to disagree that any HG kid can just jump into some of the AP classes. It entirely depends on the subject, the kid, and how the class is taught. I agree that the course might not be "too hard" intellectually for a 11 year old HG kid. But they still might need to have previously learned a certain body of data, say in the case of Chemistry basic stocimetry. Would you suggest a kid take AP Calculus that has never seen Algebra 2 or Trig? It's not necessary to take an official course with that name but they do need to have been exposed to those topics.

This may depend on how this school/teacher is implementing this course. Not all AP courses are implemented the same way at all schools. What I don't know is what prerequisites THIS school expects for THIS class. Perhaps they just expect "middle school chemistry". We don't have that class so I'm not sure what material this covers. And perhaps what this parent needs for her child to be a success is the knowledge that she skipped certain information, and find some resources that can fill in those gaps.