Does your high school offer AP classes?...

[aliinnc]

Just curious. If they do, when can you take them? We know somone whose school only allows them the senior year.

Do you know how many AP classes are offered?

My DD's high school offers APs and you can take them pretty much as soon as you are ready. She's in two now as a sophomore. The school offers 14 AP classes (I think, if I'm translating the school website correctly).

 

[Teresa]

We have AP classes at our high school. They are offered junior and senior year, I believe. I know that my son took AP classes in Chemistry and Physics, and I can't remember if he took any others or not. Not sure how many the school offers right now.

 

[Trina]

What are AP classes?

 

[HappyMomma]

When I was in high school they offered "honors" classes which I believe they later renamed AP. I was able to take them as soon as I was a freshman.

 

[aliinnc]

Here we have regular English (for example), Honors English, and AP English. AP=Advanced Placement. If you take AP classes, you can take the AP test at the end of the year and get college credits.

It varies how many each school offers (if any) and how soon you can take them. A lot of ours are for juniors and seniors. Colleges like to see kids push themselves and take the harder classes. They say they'd rather see a B in an AP class than an A in a Honors class, etc.

As far as grade point averages: an A in a regular class is 4 points, honors A is 5 points, and an AP A is worth 6 points. That's why you hear about kids now who have GPAs above 4.0.

Hope that explains it!

 

[Trina]

OK, AP = advanced placement. Gotcha.

I have no idea what's offered at our high school, but my kids are only 9 & 11. Guess I'll be looking into this stuff before I know it. Do they have college prep tracks any longer? Back when I was in high school I took all college prep level classes, whatever that meant. I did take a few honors classes, but not many.

 

[TammyZed]

Maybe this is a Canada thing?

We have two streams in high school: applied and academic in grades 9 and 10, and those become college and university in 11 and 12. Courses marked "academic" are preparatory for courses marked "university", and "applied" are prep for "college". You need six university level credits in order to apply to actual university. Some credits are marked both university and college, which basically just means that it's university level, but there aren't entry requirements. Or, in some cases, it's a mixed class and you sign up for either level and do the same work, you're just marked differently.

Confused? You should see the schedules at this school. It took me two years to figure out how it worked, and then only because I had to pick my son up early on certain days of the week because of his spare.

My son was in the university stream for everything except math. There aren't advanced placement classes or anything like that.

 

[Trina]

TammyZed, In the US "college" and "university" are essentially the same thing. I remember having this discussion with a cousin from Canada. The only difference here being that a "college" usually only offers BS/BA and MA degrees, while a "university" offers all of the above <I>and </I>doctorate degrees. If you have a BS, it's a BS, no matter whether you attended a "college" or a "university". Sorry, I just remember my cousin acting uppity because she attended a "university", as if my "college" BS degree was inferior. Argh... LOL!

 

[Amber]

They offered Advanced Placement classes when I attended high school. I took the AP English and AP American History and Government. I was not about to attempt the AP Mathematics, though.

 

[TammyZed]

TammyZed, In the US "college" and "university" are essentially the same thing. I remember having this discussion with a cousin from Canada. The only difference here being that a "college" usually only offers BS/BA and MA degrees, while a "university" offers all of the above <I>and </I>doctorate degrees. If you have a BS, it's a BS, no matter whether you attended a "college" or a "university". Sorry, I just remember my cousin acting uppity because she attended a "university", as if my "college" BS degree was inferior. Argh... LOL!

Right, I knew that. lol

College here tends to be more technical or hands-on, but I don't know anybody that considers it inferior!

 

[Trina]

Right, I knew that. lol

College here tends to be more technical or hands-on, but I don't know anybody that considers it inferior!

That's not true here. Colleges offer many degrees not considered technical or hands-on. DH and I both went to "college". I have a BS degree in Education and he has a BS in Computer/Math. I could have earned my teaching degree at the university where my Dad worked, but it was too close to home and my parents expected me to continue living with them. NO WAY! I wanted OUT. LOL!

 

[HappyMomma]

Right, I knew that. lol

College here tends to be more technical or hands-on, but I don't know anybody that considers it inferior!

It sounds like Colleges there are what we call Trade Schools here.

 

[Trina]

It sounds like Colleges there are what we call Trade Schools here.

Thank you! That's what I was trying to get at, but couldn't remember the term. Trade or Vocational schools. That's it!

 

[TammyZed]

Yeah, that's more what they are. Thanks everyone for clearing that up! lol

 

[aliinnc]

That's so interesting about the differences in Canada. Here Honors and AP are both preparatory for college/university.

One of the things I didn't realize is that my choices for my kids when entering middle school affect the high school class selections. For example, NC requires 4 years of high school math. It doesn't matter how advanced, you still have to take 4 yrs.

My DD's 5th grade math teacher recommended her for the most advanced track of maths in middle school. So that pushes her into Algebra II in 9th, Pre-Calc in 10th, AP Calc AB in 11th, and AP Calc BC in 12th. She doesn't want to study math in college, and really doesn't need to go that far. I wish they would allow a 4 years or Pre-Calc level option.

 

[Claire64]

My son's school does offer AP courses. He's taking AP Psychology and AP Chemistry this year and will take AP Calculus and AP Literature next year.

At his school, you can take AP courses any year, but I'm sure they would be very difficult for a freshman or sophomore, so it's mostly juniors and seniors who take them.

 

[etceterae]

My school has AP as well as IB. Since I'm in junior high (9-10 grade), I'm taking Pre-IB and will take IB in 11-12 grade. =]

 

[Teresa]

What does IB stand for?

 

[etceterae]

International Bacchalaureate. But they're changing it to International Honors - probably because it's much easier to pronounce and spell =] It's considered more advanced than AP - my friend injured ligaments in her fingers from all the writing she had to do.

 

[Shari Nielsen]

My husband teaches AP Chem and has noticed that fewer and fewer colleges accept the AP credits now than they did in the past. AND in order to get the credits kids need to score higher - (4's &amp; 5's). Our school is pushing to switch our AP courses from traditional AP's to UConn classes (we live in CT). This means that he would teach the same curriculum as the university would teach, use the same book, do the same labs, even give the same tests, and the course would run the entire school year, not stop in May when the AP tests are given. The kids would get college credit that will be transferred to other colleges much easier. We are both curious to see how the change is received by students and parents in the district.