Ranking the Apologia books - Xpost

[sixpence1978]

What are everybody's feeling about the upper level Apologia books (General and up)?

 

If you don't like one, is it a pretty good guess that you'd not like any of the others?  Or vice versa, if you like one, are you likely to like the rest?

 

Or if that isn't the case, have there been some books that you have liked better than others and which ones?

[prairiewindmomma]

While I really like some of the student support materials, and the overall content material covered is ok, the text is poorly edited and organized.  I own Biology and Physics and have reviewed Chemistry fairly thoroughly.....and I'm going to likely sell them all soon.  I'm moving my high school student to BJUP.

[jjeepa]

:iagree: Poorly edited and organized sums up well my feeling about General Science and Physical Science.  Plus, they are so dry in my opinion.  

 

We had the Chem and Bio books as well but I didn't teach from them - my son used them through an online class.  He really struggled with them.  We're just not fans up their upper level books.  At all.  My dd will be using other things.

[MerryAtHope]

What are everybody's feeling about the upper level Apologia books (General and up)?

 

If you don't like one, is it a pretty good guess that you'd not like any of the others?  Or vice versa, if you like one, are you likely to like the rest?

 

Or if that isn't the case, have there been some books that you have liked better than others and which ones?

 We liked them here, some more than others. I posted on your other thread.

[Mary70]

Poorly edited and organized sums up well my feeling about General Science and Physical Science.  Plus, they are so dry in my opinion. 

 

 

We loved those two books. Dry? I'd be interested in hearing about what you might class as 'non dry'? What we loved were Dr Wile's conversational style and his 'rants' on various topics, whether we agreed or not. 

[klmama]

We only used biology and chemistry.   

 

One of my dc enjoyed using the biology text (the dc who doesn't mind memorizing lots of definitions and finds photos and illustrations distracting).  One dc hated it (the one who loves illustrations/photos and hates memorizing definitions), so we used the Prentice Hall Biology text by Miller/Levine. 

 

Neither dc enjoyed the chemistry book, but both learned a lot. There is a steep learning curve with chemistry.  If you don't have experience with chemistry yourself, I suggest finding someone who can help your dc when they need it.  The free video lectures from the at-your-own-pace course from virtual homeschool co-op were helpful, but toward the end that wasn't enough extra help.  

 

 

[Lori D.]

Both DSs used Apologia Biology, and DS#1 used Apologia Chemistry. While the Christian perspective was nice and I have nothing against Dr. Wile, we really did not care for either Apologia text:

 

- poor textbook layout -- larger than usual sized book, and lines of text running from margin to margin, so repeatedly losing your place in reading, as the eye naturally wants to drop down to the next line after a certain length of line

- unnecessarily overly wordy text

- boring tone/style of writing

- learning style not a good fit for us -- emphasis on memorizing vocabulary, and quizzes/tests

- many of the experiments were uninteresting and seemed more like box-checking rather than expanding the learning

 

We switched to Conceptual Chemistry and Conceptual Physics, and, while they were secular, they were far more engaging. We also used parts of Miller-Levine's Biology (also secular) for doing a partial credit of Anatomy, and while not as engaging as Conceptual Chem./Phys., it was definitely more interestingly-written than Apologia Biology.

 

While neither DS were heading towards STEM fields, they have always had a very high interest in science topics, so the disappointment with Apologia and lack of "clicking" with it had more to do with the style of the text not fitting with our family, rather than the students' lack of STEM interest. I should note that all through elementary/middle school, we used living books, documentaries, and lots of hands-on activities for science, and we did a lot of science, so the dry presentation of Apologia was a big let-down. And it was not just that Apologia was the first time out with a formal science textbook -- our experiences were very different with the Conceptual Chemistry and Physics textbooks. I think it was a case of a particular text not fitting with a particular family. Happens all the time with Math textbooks, which is why there are so many different solid math (and science) programs out there -- you're bound to find something that is a good fit for your student. :)

Edited April 25, 2017 by Lori D.

[sixpence1978]

Thanks for the input everyone.  It sounds like since General science was a bust for us this year it probably would just be better to move on.  I think it's just all the homeschool helps available for Apologia that keep me looking again.

[prairiewindmomma]

I hear you.  I watched the Biology video clips yesterday with ds.  Her narration through the material was *so much* more organized than the text that we really enjoyed it. Unfortunately, a bad text really can kill the enjoyment of a class.

[Lori D.]

...I think it's just all the homeschool helps available for Apologia that keep me looking again.

 

Bob Jones is from a Christian perspective and has a lot of supports as well, with DVD lessons, textbooks or e-textbooks, and supply kit for experiments: Physical Science, Biology, Chemistry, Physics. :)

[sixpence1978]

I wish BJU were in our future.  It looks really good.  My DD is a struggling student though and would probably be frustrated trying to keep up.

[Tess in the Burbs]

I think you either love it or hate it.  My DS loved the Physical Science book.  My dd prefers BJU.  However we needed Biology for next year to be together, so we are going with Apologia and the notebooks.  I have an old BJU text set for DD to read if she just really can't do the Apologia text anymore.  I know the topics don't line up, but I'm hoping each will have enough to read with the text they prefer.  I personally like BJU as well.  However, we have found Apologia labs to be easy to implement and BJU harder to complete.  Hence the Apologia purchase with BJU text backup ;-)