Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Learning Environments AP success stories for younger students?

Hi, everyone,

Thanks to good advice on these boards, I am inclined to jettison the standard course offerings for 9th graders and instead have dc do AP World History as a 9th grader next year. I bought the Stearns textbook (used!) on amazon, and I like it. So I am excited about this. (We homeschool, but I shadow a standard curriculum, above-grade-level and with enrichment.)

Dc is on the fence, though. Dc has picked up on some of the "AP fear" that percolates in the culture, and dc worries that the work will be beyond his capabilities. I tend to think the AP fear is exaggerated for g kids -- judging from Stearns, AP World History is a nice, thoughtful, respectable but not intimidating course for an intellectual kid.

Still, I think it would help dc to know that other younger kids have done this successfully. DC consistently scores in the 99th percentile on above-grade-level standardized tests (aptitude and achievement) and has aced Honors English two grades ahead without breaking a sweat. (Indeed, I'm worrying about boredom in HS Honors classes, which led me to AP.)

Thanks for any stories/advice. I do note that the World History AP exam has a relatively low high-score rate -- roughly 5% score a 5, compared to far higher numbers for other APs, but how much of that is the over-selection into the course, I can't say.

There is a difference between studying a subject and taking the exam. The subject may be fascinating, a school's busywork may be crushing, the exam may be fun. Since you are skipping the school's busy work, there may be only positives. You may wish to check in advance about the process and timing for scheduling your child to sit for the AP exam.

At some high schools, freshman may have the choice of taking world history or AP world history. US gov't, Human Geography, and Environmental Science may be other courses offered to high school freshmen. Regardless of what is offered in a school, students can and do study on their own to take AP exams.

DD14 is polishing up her fourth AP class thus far-- she actually really prefers AP to the standard high school offerings, if that helps, and truthfully, if I had it to do over again, I'd insist that any class she took which HAD an AP version, she should have taken that and not the honors or college prep version. That would have brought things to 6 or 8 of them.

It's not that they are "awesome" but that there is SO much more depth to the material in AP as compared with the watered down "honors" or "regular" high school offerings these days. What you've noted in the textbook is entirely accurate, I'd say.



DD hasn't cared about taking the exams-- and frankly, unless you need them for external validation or for college credits (as in NEED them) I probably would skip them, unless you have a child who really enjoys taking tests. Mine doesn't.

Your child sounds much like mine in terms of previous performance-- and the workload in AP has been a godsend, because it's ENOUGH for her to turn on her brain and engage-- at least working in large blocks, it is. It has really helped tamp down her perfectionism and procrastination. (bonus!)

I'd say go for it.

Thank you both! I really appreciate the advice.

The 2012 thread "Predicting AP scores from PSAT scores" http://giftedissues.davidsongifted..../all/Predicting_AP_scores_from_PSAT.html may interest you.

My 13 yr. old rising freshman will take AP Human Geography in the fall, along with about 50% of her class, and the majority tend to earn 4s and 5s on the exam. I bet he will do fine.