I bought the one volume, hardback edition-if you go for the split edition you will need both. The book is mostly chronological so buying only one volume would leave you missing half the course.

We used Gardner's Art Through the Ages: A Global History 13th Edition and the accompanying student guide. I second the info on Khan Academy-very useful.

It depends on the college/university. Sometimes Honors students have first shot at registration or housing, specialized housing, living/learning communities, special seminars, social activities, special research programs/scholarships, scholarships/merit aid, etc. You need to look at each Honors program, what it offers and what it requires (not just for entry but on a continuing basis), to decide if it is a good fit for your student. Keep in mind that entry to the Honors College can have one set of requirements for first year students and another for students in other years.

I would add the following women's colleges to the list if she is seriously considering one- Smith College Hollins University Agnes Scott Meredith Salem Sweet Briar College is another option but it might feel a bit too preppy for her. (Merit aid at most of these can be generous but it is not obvious when you are researching.) Some co-ed schools to consider are Hampshire and Catawba College. If she isn't looking for preppy/greek life I wouldn't consider Sewanee. St Johns (Annapolis, MD) is a highly specialized and unique curriculum, I would be certain that it is exactly what and how you want to study before applying.

Yup-exactly. However, I'm glad to be proven wrong about College Board getting even more test money. :) SaveSave

I guess I'm just surprised that they wouldn't want the funds generated by requiring a test after the PSAT. I could see them accepting alternatives as they phased in the new version.

I used a superscript designator at the end of course titles to indicate "honors" and AP courses. Then I put a guide to my superscript designators at the bottom of the transcript.

I wonder if in future years the window will narrow once the class year in question never sat both versions of the SAT? (Don't have the relevant dates in front of me so I'm not sure when that would be.)

According to the AP coordinator when my daughter took the exam, yes. In reality if the subject clicks with you then I don't think so, especially now that they have narrowed the list to 250 works. Are you trying to use AP solely to gain college credit? If not, I think art history is a wonderful topic to study both as an academic discipline and as a course that gives you a life long appreciation of art and architecture.

I wrote our syllabus just before the revised guidelines, however much remains the same. We used Gardner's Art Through the Ages, lectures from the Great Courses, and SmArt History (Khan Academy) as primary materials. Be sure to check out these two sites, one is a list of text books that are commonly approved and the other is the Course and Exam Description. I believe the description includes an image of all 250 required works. http://www.collegeboard.com/html/apcourseaudit/courses/art_history_textbook_list.html https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/pdf/ap-art-history-course-and-exam-description.pdf?course=ap-art-history As a side note-writing about art is a bit different than writing for other subjects so your student will want to review some samples or practice before the exam.

I think it really depends on the options your student has... How much grace period after the first class does the professor give before expecting everyone will be reading the text? Is there a campus book store that can supply the required book on demand? Is there a campus book service cheaper or speedier than Amazon/ABE/eBay/etc.? How does your student study? Will the text be useful as a reference for a later course or even reused? Is there a local market for used texts? Is the prof known for insisting on a new edition every year (thereby eliminating resale)? The answers to these questions are very campus and student specific. DD is pretty much expected by the second class meeting to have acquired her texts and there is no on campus bookstore at her small LAC (the online resellers being cheaper drove them out of the book business-now everything is school supplies and spirit gear). You have to factor in the cost of speedy shipping (many used book sellers only ship media mail, especially on sites like Amazon) and how quickly you need the text in order to decide when/how to purchase. Does your student need to highlight or underline as part of interacting with their book? If so, a rental would be a terrible choice. Buying used could be distracting if it is full of someone else's notes. Can a book be sold on campus after the course or if the course is dropped? Do you actually care if you can resell a book or do you just write off book money as a fixed, non-recoverable expense? One other note-DD has a professor who she knows, through prior experience, has long and challenging reading lists. This prof has already posted the syllabus and she plans on acquiring the books now in order to begin her readings, reduce stress during the semester, and then during the semester will prep for class by reviewing notes and text mark-ups. She also hopes that her language prof will announce the text soon so she can begin prepping vocab study cards/flash cards, again as a time saver during the semester. I will add that all of this is hard for a first year student to know. Her first semester, she had to wait for orientation and advising before looking for books. As this all occurred during the week before classes started she was a bit late in obtaining some texts. This was far from ideal but unavoidable.

I wanted to offer one comment on this statement-I've bought many books (including DD's texts) and other products from sellers that are fulfilled by Amazon. Never had a single problem. I don't think they are any more or less likely than any other sellers that advertises on Amazon to be faulty in some way.

Check the ISBN and look for verbiage that discusses the access code. IF necessary you can cross reference with the publishers web site. This is sound advice! Amazon is full of third party sellers and resellers who may not include the same items that the "college bookstore" would. The same advice applies to used book sources, eBay and so forth.

We've used pieces from Adventures in English Literature-lots of reasonably priced older editions available if you don't need the "newest" https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=adventures+in+english+literature+&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Aadventures+in+english+literature+ Also enjoyed Excellence in Literature's Brit Lit selection (Be sure to scroll down and read the full description.) https://everyday-education.com/product/british-literature-english-4/

Based on our experience--anything that happens during the summer isn't as good as what happens during the school year. Summer was all we could do so we went in expecting this and that was the best we could do. During the summer faculty members are off on vacation, pursuing the own research interests, teaching in summer programs around the world. They are not as available or behind their desks at regular hours. Courses to sit in on are minimal to non-existent. Student's are home, on internships, study abroad programs, working full time, and so on. Therefore the campus isn't as vibrant, the most of the top students who help run admissions events are not on campus, dorms and facilities are closed, on limited hours or being used by contracted summer programs. Facilities are restricted by cleaning and remodeling crews. Some campuses don't offer summer semesters so they are really limited. If you understand this then you can properly evaluate a summer visit. Some schools do a poor job of welcoming prospective students in general. One school was so disorganized with our dd that she didn't want to apply. By the time the admissions officer had forgotten to show up to interview her she was pretty upset and after the rescheduled interview she swore she wouldn't attend no matter what they offered. Felt she had wasted precious visit hours by choosing their campus over some others we never visited.

I have history loving kids-#1 has already declared it as her major in college and #2 is considering it. Sequence for kid 1- 9th-Ancient World 10th-Early Europe 11th-AP European History (also AP Comparative Gov) 12th-US History (also AP US Gov) (took WTMA Advanced US History with AP exam) Kid 2 9th- AP European History 10th- Ancient World (WTMA) 11th- Middle Ages (WTMA) (also AP Comparative Gov) 12th (planned for next year)-US History (also AP US Gov) (WTMA Advanced US History with AP exam) We did lots of geography in elementary and middle school and the kids both took AP Human Geography in high school. Also, I did write AP syllabi which were approved by college board for several of the above classes.

I've noticed that some summer programs for teen will presume a particular year for US Government, US History, and state gov/history. Where we live this is assumed in 11th grade as per state requirements. Our ignorance of how this impacted some programs nearly caused a few problems for my rising senior.

Photos of the hind end of the duck mascot from U of Oregon featured prominently in several mailings. There have been many jokes made by my kids over these photos. U of O didn't come off looking cute or smart.

It was hard buying them after the first class-dd's school does all text books by mail (there is no bookstore) so waiting for shipping became a problem in some cases. For those courses she is confident won't be dropped she buys the books ahead of time. That said, her professors tend not to drop books after they publish the syllabus, they might add but not usually drop.

I might consider deciding on if bio and physics will end up being full year courses (i.e. Bio 1 and Bio 2). She may want to take those sequentially and not skip a year before enrolling in Bio 2.

Yup-change to "graduation date" and change to "Final Transcript", also recalculate the GPA to reflect all courses. And send AP scores. Totally forgot to do this, had to be reminded by college (possibly more than once). In my own defense over the two months before the start of the school year I travelled to another country for surgery and moved half way around the world. That just didn't make my to do list on the first go. Trying to be better next time.

All summer work plans are out the window. Summer is now being spent treating and recovering from an illness that campus health should have been better about following/fixing and waiting for a broken arm to heal. Sigh. The upside is lots of quality time with a kid that soon won't be home much.

I would think any courses that were essentially comped by examination wouldn't count. They are looking for "class room time". I think 3 years of high school and a year of DE would certainly count, at least for admissions purposes. Yes, some schools will say 2 years recommended/required for admission and 4 years preferred. There are also some schools that will take 4 years of high school language as being the equivalent of their own language requirement and check that box. Others offer exam based placement. Exam based placement can lead to helping on one of two paths. Path 1-school requires a language proficiency equal to a given level (i.e. second semester 200 course); this can lead to needing fewer (or no) semesters of language to fulfill the requirement. Path 2-- requires x number of credits, at any level; placement here can allow a student to skip ahead to the next level or take more literature courses in their preferred language until they achieve the required credits. All very school dependent. Admissions requirements and general education requirements are two separate issues that can be prepared for concurrently during high school.

If she is a strong writer I'd say the English class would probably be ok, especially if it is an opportunity that appears to be time critical. I would think twice about the two bio classes in one semester though. Keep in mind that freshman year, particularly first semester, is about more than just the ability to handle course work in a given subject. It is about balancing all of the course work, all of the daily life tasks, club and other outside activities/commitments, and a social life. (I'm not advocating planning time for serious partying here-just acknowledging that students do meet up to chat, see a movie, attend a campus event, relax, watch or participate in sports, etc. and that this relaxation is a part of life.) It is a challenging time for most students, full of adjustment; I'd allow a bit for a successful transition. (Again, I'm not advocating taking only the easy path, just not doubling down on the hardest from day one.)

I don't know, I taught the course prior to this revision but Gardner's certainly worked well on the earlier version. You should be able to find the list of works on AP Central and I think there are copies of Gardner's index on the internet. The various AP documents also tend to list approved text books and I can't imagine Gardner isn't on the list.