AP Stats - PAH

[cuckoomamma]

Hi all,

My older dd took Stats with Carol Matheny. I'm thinking of having younger dd take AP Stats this year, but Carol has retired. It seems that both teachers at PAH are new this year. Does anyone here have personal experience with either instructor? I'm definitely not looking for busy work for this dd, but I also need a solid class. She doesn't find it easy to self prep right before the exam, so I don't think she'd do well just prepping on her own.

Thanks!

[Farrar]

I believe one is boardie @NittanyJen - it sounded like her class was going to be very good.

[cuckoomamma]

Is she Jen Driscoll?

[NittanyJen]

30 minutes ago, cuckoomamma said:

Is she Jen Driscoll?

Yes, Carole and I have planned for this transition for the past several years, and she gifted me all of the materials she has compiled over the years. I also shadowed her as she taught the course over the past two years, including last year while my son was in the class. I am, of course, making the course my own, while using many of the materials, plans, and methods given to me by Carole, including moving the course to a Canvas site. Several of last year's students and TAs are joining us this year as TAs as well, which is really exciting-- I think those student mentorships are really valuable for both the current students and the TAs.

I taught another AP Course with PAHS last year, co-teaching AP Environmental Science with Terrianne Lavin, and our students had stellar results. One of the students even left me a nice review on the AP Stats page (he also took stats with Carole Matheny, so he wrote a review that included both Carole and I).

I am always available to answer any questions.

 

[cuckoomamma]

Thanks so much for posting 🙂 Do you anticipate that students will spend 2 hours per day on the course?  My older daughter took Carole's class and did very well on the AP exam, but she works incredibly fast. I was wondering what the time estimate per week for a more typical student would be.

[NittanyJen]

1 hour ago, cuckoomamma said:

Thanks so much for posting 🙂 Do you anticipate that students will spend 2 hours per day on the course?  My older daughter took Carole's class and did very well on the AP exam, but she works incredibly fast. I was wondering what the time estimate per week for a more typical student would be.

It is going to vary a lot from one student to the next. The actual mandatory assignments, other than the chapter tests, which should take about 45 minutes each, are usually a few pages of reading and a handful of homework problems, plus scanning the daily message in whatever depth the student finds helpful; in each chapter there is one short hands-on activity. However, many students will want more reinforcement than that, and I do have a menu of optional activities available that I find to be of high value, that students can pick and choose from, depending on what they find to be of the most value to them-- daily multiple choice questions with immediate feedback, additional video lessons, practice Free-Response Questions with feedback, and practice questions on the College Board site, for example. I do, like Carole, offer extra credit points for these additional activities, because they are all curated and not "fluff," but I actually put a cap on how much credit can be earned across the course that way, to discourage students from getting too distracted by all of the extras, or drawn into thinking they need to do everything offered.

In many brick-and-mortar school AP classes, the students are in class for 50 minutes per day, and then have an hour of homework per night for that class (or some variation thereof with block scheduling), so two hours is not completely unreasonable, but I believe the material in this class can be handled in less time than that for many students.

I just looked at a random assignment-- the eighth day of chapter six-- and the assigned homework for that day consists of 8 pages of reading from the text plus four homework problems. This is a pretty typical example.

If your student keeps up with daily assignments each day, they should be able to invest less than two hours on many days. If your student waits until two days before the homework is due at the end of the chapter to begin, it will require considerable time (and, in my opinion, be less effective). Some days will require more time, for review, completion of an activity, or for asking questions or taking the time to pick through a tougher concept more carefully, or if they choose to invest in the additional activities available, such as the additional practice questions or an additional explanatory video.

I'm sorry I can't give a more precise answer, but the necessary time will really vary considerably from one student to the next! Hopefully I gave you something to work with?

 

[cuckoomamma]

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Yes, thanks so much!