AP (do-it-yourself), online,...at all!

[Guest FuzzySlippers]

I'm in a tail spin over this. I want my Jr. next year to take some AP courses in history or English. What I was wondering is how do all of you do this. Online classes can be pricy but I would be willing to here the scoop on those.

 

Do any of you just get the required textbook and do it yourselves? We have Western Civ. by Spielvogel to prepare for AP European history. The biggie in my mind is how do I prepare my kids for the essay part of these where the really have to think analytically and WRITE whatever the test happens to come up with that day. I do have some AP prep books (Peterson's) that say generally how to handle an essay. My kids love history, but sometimes writing like AP wants you to write is impossible for them.:lol:

 

Is there a resource, online class, or SOMETHING that I am missing here? My impression is that kids who do an actual AP class either online or at a public school, are getting lots of essay practice and critical thinking mixed in.

 

How do y'all do it? Resources? Anyone....Bueller-----Bueller. HEHE

 

Thanks all, Tammy

[Jan in MO]

We successfully used Western Civ by Spielvogel for our AP Euro spine last year. Then we used the Princeton Review for test prep and Modern European History by Viault for a concise review of the material.

 

The test prep books should explain the grading rubric for both type of history essays -- the free response questions and the document-based questions.

 

The College Board also has past essay prompts online along with the grading rubrics.

[Gwen in VA]

We have gone the AP-class-online route for both my older kids. They have done a total of 11 AP classes.

 

We have really appreciated the outside teaching for a couple of reasons --

 

1) I have two younger kids, a hubby, a house, and additional things I need to do. I could probably put together an AP curriculum, but it would take time and energy, and since I don't have any extra time or energy, the time and energy the AP class took would have to come from somewhere -- something else would suffer.

 

2) My kids have REALLY appreciated the outside opinions on their writing. When they get a strong score on an essay, they know that it wasn't simply that Mom was busy and didn't feel like taking the time to do a careful reading! :-/ The teachers have focused on aspects of their writing that I have ignored -- so the extra feedback has been VERY helpful.

 

3) The AP essay sections are scored according to a specific rubric. The graders are looking for specific things. I spent some time investigating the details of AP essay questions for US history and got quite muddled. Figuring out what specifically the AP graders are looking for and then teaching that to my kids would take time that I don't have. The teachers for all my kids' classes have been VERY well-prepared and have effectively taught how to deal with those questions.

 

4) At least for my son, he needed to be responsible to someone outside the family for his schoolwork. Doing AP courses onl;ine was a wonderful way of combining homeschooling with some of the benefits of school -- "real' deadlines, homework that sometimes doesn't fit his learning style, grade competition, etc.

 

Again, I know that homeschoolers do do AP courses at home and then do very well on the AP exams. For our family that is not the right way to go -- the cost in terms of time and energy is too great. And we have found outsourcing classes during the later years of high school to really benefit the student and the family dynamics.

 

And kudos to all you hard-working moms who do do AP prep at home and whose kids do well on the exams. I am SO impressed!

[Bev in B'ville]

I'm doing an Advanced World History with my dd (since I haven't tried to get approval to call my course AP). I will do the majority of the teaching at home myself. However, I have hired a tutor to help with the essay parts. He's an AP reader for this exam and a college professor here at the local cc. He'll guide my dd in how to write the appropriate responses and, hopefully, by the time the AP test rolls around in May next year, she'll be ready for the entire test.

 

Perhaps you can find someone local to do something similar?

 

Just an idea.

[Hilary]

What Gwen said ...

 

We have found the classes through PA Homeschoolers to be extremely effective.

 

That being said, after doing European History through PAH, my DD was able to do US History on her own and scored a 4 on the exam. She used the BJU Homesat classes, some AP study books, and the text used by PA Homeschoolers (America and Its Peoples). She also got a 5 on the French exam without an online class ... we had a tutor who worked with her twice a week and who was familiar with the exam, and she did a lot of studying on her own. DD was a more self-motived student. My older son, who's taking three AP classes this year with PAH, REALLY needs the accountability and structure inherent in the online format!

[Susan in IL]

We did AP US history when ds was in 11th. We used American Pageant, which is a pretty widely used AP text. We also incorporated AP US Government (no test) and American Literature since they are all closely tied together and you need to know information about govt and lit for the test.

 

There are tons and tons of resources for APUSH online. Teachers have websites with reviews and quizzes and the publisher has a website with quizzes.

 

For the essay, I used old DBQs and FRQs from past tests that are available at APCentral. They have the scoring rubrics so you can grade your own essays.

 

You just need to make a plan working backwards from the test date. You can't get behind and it is pretty intense covering a lot of material. It takes time to plan and pull together the resources but it can be done.

 

We were going to do AP Euro but went 20th century for 12th instead.

 

Hope this helps.

[Guest FuzzySlippers]

(NT)

[Gwen in VA]

We have done AP courses through both Scholars Online and Pennsylvania Homeschoolers.

[mktkcb]

Hi Tammy,

It seems like you are looking more for a world history AP, but you might enjoy this link for future reference anyway. The courses are totally laid out, with assigned spine and supplemental reading, and totally free. My dd is currently doing the Algebra 1 and tolerating it (she hates math, so that is a success in our house!). http://www.montereyinstitute.org/nroc/nrocdemos.html . These are very thorough courses. HTH,

Kayleen

[Pamela H in Texas]

Try: http://www.montereyinstitute.org/nroc/nrocdemos.html

 

 

Edit: Ooops, I just looked and saw someone put that already....helps to read the thread first I guess...