SS in MD Posted April 22, 2010 Share Posted April 22, 2010 I'm consideirng APs for dd entering hs... I've heard thru' friends that have btdt AP courses must be college board approved to show as AP on hs transcript. How many of you do self-study (doesn't show AP course on transcript, but take the AP test)?? Is there a place on the college board website to find syllabus', texts, outline for AP courses or what AP test will cover? For those whose dc have taken AP's in 9th, any you would recommend as a good "starter" AP? Thanks so much! Hs is a new territory for us! Sangita dd(14),dd(12),dd(9),ds(6) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane in NC Posted April 22, 2010 Share Posted April 22, 2010 We have not gone through the audit process in order to have courses labeled AP, although my son is currently taking AP Latin through an online provider that has permission to use the label. AP syllabi and recommend texts are available from the College Board website as are the free response questions and grading rubrics of previous years. (AP exams consist of multiple choice and "free response" questions. The CB does not publish the multiple choice questions from year to year.) We are not as brave as some. I wanted my son to have more direction than I could provide at home in chemistry, thus he took General Chem I and II at the local community college. This further solved the lab issue for us. Many of the public schools seem to start students off in AP with US History. I have heard that Human Geography is a good first AP. My son's first AP was the biology exam. Oy--a tough one for a 10th grader. He seems to have survived the experience but it is not one I recommend unless your student is very science oriented and an independent worker. If I were you, I would go over to the College Board site and start reading the course descriptions. Then you can Google course syllabi to help you understand the pace of these courses. Good luck. Jane Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dkholland Posted April 22, 2010 Share Posted April 22, 2010 me ds was 15 at the time and studied with the help of two prep books (Barrons). He did well on the English Lang. and Comp test with a 4 but bombed the American Gov with a 2. We studied a lot on the Government test too....kind of disappointing. But, it was a difficult test we thought because you had to know a ton of court cases and what they laws they affected. I would recommend self-study in a subject area that your child is strong in. My ds also will be taking the Calculus AB test next month, and we expect he will do well. He has been in a co-op setting for calculus, but his teacher has been throwing in AP questions throught the year - although this is not a college board sanctioned AP class. Sefl-study is definately doable. One thing we found was that the time it took to study for these tests took away from other subjects. We had to stop our own study of Government to get into the test. HTH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dkholland Posted April 22, 2010 Share Posted April 22, 2010 i really shouldn't try to cook dinner and post at the same time :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JenneinCA Posted April 22, 2010 Share Posted April 22, 2010 There is lots of information on what is on the test out there. I would just make sure that you know a place to take the test locally. A lady on a different board was having a terribly hard time finding a school that was willing to give a test to her daughter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TravelingChris Posted April 22, 2010 Share Posted April 22, 2010 My dd is self studying AP USHistory. SHe will do it the first week of May. I told her that she should do her best but it really isn't a big deal since we don't have to report the score to anyone. SInce she is a good writer and a very hard working student who will be studying most of the next two weeks for this, I think she will probably get at least a 3 which is fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SS in MD Posted April 23, 2010 Author Share Posted April 23, 2010 We have not gone through the audit process in order to have courses labeled AP, although my son is currently taking AP Latin through an online provider that has permission to use the label. AP syllabi and recommend texts are available from the College Board website as are the free response questions and grading rubrics of previous years. (AP exams consist of multiple choice and "free response" questions. The CB does not publish the multiple choice questions from year to year.) We are not as brave as some. I wanted my son to have more direction than I could provide at home in chemistry, thus he took General Chem I and II at the local community college. This further solved the lab issue for us. Many of the public schools seem to start students off in AP with US History. I have heard that Human Geography is a good first AP. My son's first AP was the biology exam. Oy--a tough one for a 10th grader. He seems to have survived the experience but it is not one I recommend unless your student is very science oriented and an independent worker. If I were you, I would go over to the College Board site and start reading the course descriptions. Then you can Google course syllabi to help you understand the pace of these courses. Good luck. Jane Thanks so much for your help. On the college board website - I'm assuming I go to APCentral? Where can I see sample syllabi - should I sign in as an educator? Sorry to be confused. BTW, where is you son taking AP Latin? Would you recommend it? dd is doing latin this year and would like to continue, don't know if she'll want to take the the AP Latin test, but it wouldn't hurt to move in that direction. Any online class recommendations? Also, if dd scores low on an AP does it automatically get sent to perspective schools she applies to in her senior year? Thanks so much for your help! Sangita Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
In The Great White North Posted April 23, 2010 Share Posted April 23, 2010 We do both. Ds took PA Homeschoolers' US Govt and did well (it's his passion). Dd is self-studying German and Chem this year. Our local high school is very cooperative about ordering tests for any subject. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edithcrawley Posted April 23, 2010 Share Posted April 23, 2010 Thanks so much for your help. On the college board website - I'm assuming I go to APCentral? Where can I see sample syllabi - should I sign in as an educator? Sorry to be confused. Sangita Google College board AP Central and click on it. Hover over AP courses and exams on the left side, click on courses home page. Click on the course you want to look at. The sample syllabi, as well as other helpful information, are all located on this screen. I don't think you need an educator account to see anything, I was able to click on lots of stuff without signing in at all. HTH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane in NC Posted April 23, 2010 Share Posted April 23, 2010 Thanks so much for your help. On the college board website - I'm assuming I go to APCentral? Where can I see sample syllabi - should I sign in as an educator? Sorry to be confused. BTW, where is you son taking AP Latin? Would you recommend it? dd is doing latin this year and would like to continue, don't know if she'll want to take the the AP Latin test, but it wouldn't hurt to move in that direction. Any online class recommendations? Also, if dd scores low on an AP does it automatically get sent to perspective schools she applies to in her senior year? Thanks so much for your help! Sangita As another poster mentioned, you do not need to sign in to access information at AP Central. You can, however, sign up as an educator on ListServs for the specific AP subjects your student will study. My son is taking Latin through the NC Virtual Public School, an option for NC residents who can find an accommodating counselor at an area public school. I would not count on this as a future course of action down the road--the education budget is tight in NC. Dual enrollment rules changed last summer and it would not surprise me if NC Virtual Public School rules change as well. My son's AP Latin class is more of a tutorial than a class. It has been perfect for him. His knowledgeable instructor always responds to questions in a timely fashion. Everyone on this board has had great things to say about the PA Homeschooler's AP Statistic's course which is taught by fellow board member, Blue Hen. If I did not love teaching Calculus, I would have had my son do this. Others know more than I about AP so I'll let them chime in. Jane Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nissi Posted April 23, 2010 Share Posted April 23, 2010 Ds. is taking AP Human Geography in 9th grade. It is a great AP to start with provided your child has some interest in the subject. Other APs that could be good to start with maybe US Government and Politics, Art History, Music Theory, and English Language. I think if your child has mastered any subject upto highschool level then he/she is ready to take an AP course in that subject or if your child has great interest in a subject that would drive and motivate him to study indepth about it. We are doing most of our APs with PA Homeschoolers. But I think Danielle's daughter self studied for AP Human Geography successfully. You can google for her posts. HTH! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SS in MD Posted April 23, 2010 Author Share Posted April 23, 2010 Nissi & others thanks!!! These posts have been very helpful! The two APs we have narrowed it down to are Human Geography or Comparative Govt both thru' PA Homeschoolers. Has anyone taken the AP Comparative Govt course? Is it good/bad/tough/not a good one to start with for 9th grade??? Thanks so much, Sangita Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kareni Posted April 23, 2010 Share Posted April 23, 2010 My daughter took AP Comparative Government and Politics as an 11th grader and through an out of the home class not through PA Homeschoolers. In the class she was in, the text the class read was much shorter than the tome (1000 plus pages) that she read for AP US History; however, there was a significant amount of time dedicated to reading other current events material (for example, the Economist and articles on line). My daughter learned a great deal in the class even though she had little previous interest in politics. I would be inclined to let your daughter's interest be the determining factor. If my daughter were to have had the choice between those two APs as a ninth grader, I believe she would have chosen AP Human Geography. Your daughter's interests may lead her to chose otherwise. Regards, Kareni Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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