Any AP test takers this week?

[freesia]

Ds3 is at the Comp Sci A test right now. It's his first AP.  This is my third AP taker, but I'm still a bit nervous for him. We have a good attitude toward the tests in general (we shoot for scholarships not Ivy League schools), but he's worked so hard and often feels in the shadow of his older siblings--one gifted, one super, super, super driven and hard working.

How are APs going for everyone else? Or are we alone this year?  He has AP Eng Lang and Physics 1 next week.

[mlktwins]

We are next week for World History:  Modern, but I wish your DS luck!  I'm sure he will do great!

This will be my guys first AP exam.  Practice tests look good so hoping that translate into real scores.

About how long does it take to get scores back?

 

[Clemsondana]

We did Chem last year and have US History on Friday and Biology next Wednesday.  

[freesia]

11 minutes ago, mlktwins said:

We are next week for World History:  Modern, but I wish your DS luck!  I'm sure he will do great!

This will be my guys first AP exam.  Practice tests look good so hoping that translate into real scores.

About how long does it take to get scores back?

 

Forever!  Usually the first or second week of JULY!!!

[mlktwins]

1 minute ago, freesia said:

Forever!  Usually the first or second week of JULY!!!

Oh, that is a long time 😩

[Arcadia]

39 minutes ago, freesia said:

Ds3 is at the Comp Sci A test right now.

DS16 has eng lit today and human geography tomorrow. It is to knock off gen ed requirements if he gets at least a 3. So very stress free this time. We are on pacific time (11:21am right now) so the kids taking the afternoon paper hasn’t check in yet.

1 minute ago, mlktwins said:

Oh, that is a long time 😩

It’s just in time to pick fall DE classes for us. It does take a long time to come out.

[Lucy the Valiant]

Here, too! Picking him up in a bit.

[JennyD]

DS took Chem on Monday and has APUSH on Friday.   

[cuckoomamma]

Dd had Gov and Lit with Stats tomorrow!

[freesia]

How have your kids felt about the tests so far?

[cuckoomamma]

Dd felt both she's taken went well. Found some of the Lit exam strange but still thinks she did well. Gov went well. How about yours @freesia?

[freesia]

Just now, cuckoomamma said:

Dd felt both she's taken went well. Found some of the Lit exam strange but still thinks she did well. Gov went well. How about yours @freesia?

He thought it went well.  He thought he did better than practice on the MCQs and less well on the FRQs.  He'd guess at least a 4.  We will see.

[Farrar]

Mushroom had comp gov this afternoon. He said everyone in the room agreed that it was a bit harder than expected - that the FRQ's had a bit of a curveball somehow. But I haven't heard more. He went home with a friend who lives in that neighborhood who was taking Comp Sci at the same time so I have yet to see him.

[Lecka]

I have a Junior taking US History on Friday and English next week.

From what I see he doesn’t seem prepared and he also seems nervous.

In his classes his teachers will generally say things about how student perform in the class and how that correlates with the test.  Based on that he should do very well on English and pass US History (his prospective school awards credit for a 3).

It’s looking like this might be his test run so he is more prepared next year, and that is okay.  

Edited May 5, 2022 by Lecka

[kokotg]

My 10th grader had gov on Monday and has Human Geography tomorrow (he's taking a non AP human geography class at homeschool co-op; so it's a bit of an experiment where he takes the class, I hand him a test prep book, and we see how it goes...if poorly then no one needs to see the score)

My 12th grader also had gov and had lit today. If he gets a 4 or 5 on lit then I think he'll have ALL of liberal arts requirements met for Vanderbilt and won't have to take any classes outside the music school if he doesn't want to. 

So far they think they've gone pretty well. 

Slightly funny story: Milo plays in youth wind symphony with a few kids who are taking AP gov and lit at the school where he was signed up to take them. Apparently the AP gov teacher was looking at the roster of students signed up in class and said his name out loud, like "who's this Milo kid?" and then one of the kids said, "I know Milo!" so the teacher invited Milo, through that kid, to come to his review sessions. Which was very nice, but he didn't tell me about it until the night before the test. So oh well. 

[Avonlea]

First timers - took Gov on Monday, they thought it went well. Guess we'll have to wait until July to see. Any thoughts on which AP classes to take next?

[MamaSprout]

Micro on Friday. No class just self study… that she started three weeks ago. Not holding my breath on that one.

Calc BC on Monday. She’s done Calc 1 & 2, but target school can be picky about transfer credits.

[Eos]

Lit yesterday for dd, she thinks it went well.  She's been doing fine on practice tests and I think she's peaking just right.  She did Psych last year and she's done with APs.  It's nice to have a couple on her transcript but she much prefers DE to the high stakes testing game.

[Farrar]

11 hours ago, Avonlea said:

First timers - took Gov on Monday, they thought it went well. Guess we'll have to wait until July to see. Any thoughts on which AP classes to take next?

Government is a good first one. From that... any of the other social studies ones. I teach AP World online, for example. But really, any of them - the econ exams, APUSH, human geography, or even comparative government. AP Lang is a good one to do that's not too difficult, but I'd wait until junior year for an English exam for most students, so depends on the age. AP lit if they love literature. I think only do the AP sciences if your student really is committed to them. Same with the art exams. Obviously only tackle AP languages or AP maths if your student has laid the groundwork.

[UmmIbrahim]

My middle son took AP CSA yesterday as well. Not sure how he did, but he's the kind of kid who somehow never has a sense of how he did. His biggest issue is sometimes interpreting the questions and knowing what "they want from him." His divergent thinking is always a challenge on standardized tests 🙄 

It also probably didn't help that the high school where he was taking the test had some kind of a power issue during the morning testing session. So the afternoon tests started quite late, but by that time he was back in the testing room with no phone and nothing else to do but sit and wait for more than an hour and a half. Eek! This school did a big production of escorting him through the hallways going and coming since he wasn't a student there (last year's host school was far more casual about things), so I think the other official students were able to float around, use the bathroom, hang out in the hallways, but my son just had to sit in the room because he wasn't a student. He didn't really complain about it, so I guess he was able to entertain his mind with something. It was just an unexpected "homeschool student" drawback.

Regardless, that one is done and now he's preparing for AP Calc BC on Monday. I can't wait until he's finished! Good luck to all of the other AP test takers out there.

[kokotg]

13 hours ago, Avonlea said:

First timers - took Gov on Monday, they thought it went well. Guess we'll have to wait until July to see. Any thoughts on which AP classes to take next?

My favorites to teach are the history courses and literature; I think with all of those "test prep" involves actually learning good, transferrable writing and reasoning skills (and if you do one history you have the format down and can do the others more easily). This year was my first time doing US gov, and I don't love the test format; it seems like they mostly want you to memorize a lot of information, and the FRQs are sort of weird, tortured attempts to pretend they're asking for higher level reasoning than they really are. My kids were sort of confused by what they wanted after doing history exams in years past. We had fun with the content, but the actual test prep parts were annoying at times.

Art history is fun; it's definitely mostly memorizing huge amounts of information, but it's really interesting stuff if you have a kid who's into it, and it makes for a pretty straightforward exam experience. Human geography is the same kind of thing; lots of definitions and concepts to learn, but they're interesting, and if you learn them you'll do fine because there's not a specific kind of writing expected. 

After that we're past the ones I'm personally comfortable teaching (well, we're doing lang next year, and I'm excited about that). My husband's a public school math teacher, so he's the calc guy. And my 12th grader did a self-guided course for Physics 1 and took it last year; it was fine, but that's probably the only science we'd attempt without an outside course (and it wasn't ideal; it was a plan B because of covid thing).

But if you're talking 10th grade, World History's a good one, and maybe combine with Art history if you have a kid who's interested in it, because they pair very well. 

[RoundAbout]

DS did his first - AP Chem on Monday. He said it was easier than he expected. He did Connie's Advanced Honors Chem over 1.5 years and then self-studied for the AP Exam. Fingers crossed.

[NittanyJen]

16 hours ago, Avonlea said:

First timers - took Gov on Monday, they thought it went well. Guess we'll have to wait until July to see. Any thoughts on which AP classes to take next?

Well I think everyone should take stats, and you need algebra 2 as the math prerequisite 😉 (self-promotion).

Jen

AP Statistics/PA Homeschoolers

Honors History of Western Science/PA Homeschoolers

 

[SanDiegoMom]

My sophomores are in the middle of it. DS 16 is experienced and took AP Stats yesterday -- he's taken AP Chem and Calc BC so this was one he wasn't worried about. Next week is physics (Mechanics) and his class has been doing a lot of review and he's scoring very high, so again not worried.

DD16 is taking her first exams ever.  She's been a basket case this week with anxiety (actually fainted at school in the library after sitting and worrying - and not having eaten enough the day before).  She texted me after the first one, AP Environmental Science, "That was easy, hell yeah!" Lol.  She's taking AP European History today and should be fine.  She had some great teachers and she feels very prepared, and hopefully next year it will be less scary. 
 

Edited May 6, 2022 by SanDiegoMom

[Clemsondana]

On 5/5/2022 at 1:26 AM, Avonlea said:

Any thoughts on which AP classes to take next?

I would say that it depends on your purpose for taking AP exams.  A friend who is an instructor at a state u says that a large number of the AP credits that most students come in with just count as electives (and most students only need a small number of elective hours).  If your goal is to have APs because they will help with admissions or scholarships, then that might lead you to different tests than if your goal is to actually earn college credit.  Locally, AP seems to be synonymous with 'honors' or 'advanced', with AP Human Geography and AP Gov being common for freshmen and sophomores.  Those may be helpful for some degree plans, but for the colleges and programs that my kid is considering those would be electives. 

We've chosen to only take AP exams if they align with a class without much modificaton (as with chemistry and calculus at home, or our co-op US history class) or if the class is painlessly modified to match the test (we may do the AP Latin exam next year, and since the Latin tutor had to pick something to translate, they went with material covered in AP).  We are only taking tests if they fulfill requirements in the degree program at a college that student is considering, such that passing the test will fulfill a college requirement.  If there isn't an AP that falls into those categories, then we choose to DIY with interesting materials at home or take a co-op class that kid will enjoy.  

[Lecka]

My son took AP History this morning.  He has no idea how he did, he says, but he is not acting like he feels bad about it.

There are two high schools here that are 2,000+ students 9-12, and they both tested at a church, for all the AP tests offered this morning.

I was very surprised by how few students there were.  It looked like fewer than 200 to me.  I thought a lot more people took AP classes and US History is a common one.  It does fulfill a degree requirement at the local university where my son plans to attend. 
 

Edit:  my impression is that “concurrent enrollment” has fewer students than AP, too.  Maybe I’m wrong about that.  

Edited May 7, 2022 by Lecka

[Farrar]

12 hours ago, Lecka said:

My son took AP History this morning.  He has no idea how he did, he says, but he is not acting like he feels bad about it.

There are two high schools here that are 2,000+ students 9-12, and they both tested at a church, for all the AP tests offered this morning.

I was very surprised by how few students there were.  It looked like fewer than 200 to me.  I thought a lot more people took AP classes and US History is a common one.  It does fulfill a degree requirement at the local university where my son plans to attend. 
 

Edit:  my impression is that “concurrent enrollment” has fewer students than AP, too.  Maybe I’m wrong about that.  

Well, APUSH is only a single year. So if your high school has 2000 students, there are about 500 per class year. Let's say it was about 200 students. That means roughly 2/5ths of all students are taking APUSH at the school. 

But also, schools with large AP programs are often running multiple "sites." My kid took AP Comp Gov with 16 other kids in a regular classroom. But next week, he'll take AP Lang at the same school in a church site, with just under 200 students. And it's one of THREE sites that the school is running for AP Lang.

[Lecka]

I didn’t realize they might have multiple test sites!

[Farrar]

3 hours ago, Lecka said:

I didn’t realize they might have multiple test sites!

I only realized because of my kid's experience. Even at my giant high school, I don't think they did it that way. But there's definitely a cap on space. You're required to have a certain amount of space. And for reasonable distribution and directions, then obviously you need to be able to monitor the whole room. I think most schools don't have a space where they can reasonably put 500+ students if they have that many taking a single exam. Also, and this is just obvious, but I had not thought about it - students with accommodations may get grouped together.

[MamaSprout]

On 5/6/2022 at 8:29 PM, Lecka said:

My son took AP History this morning.  He has no idea how he did, he says, but he is not acting like he feels bad about it.

There are two high schools here that are 2,000+ students 9-12, and they both tested at a church, for all the AP tests offered this morning.

I was very surprised by how few students there were.  It looked like fewer than 200 to me.  I thought a lot more people took AP classes and US History is a common one.  It does fulfill a degree requirement at the local university where my son plans to attend. 
 

Edit:  my impression is that “concurrent enrollment” has fewer students than AP, too.  Maybe I’m wrong about that.  

My dd took micro with the big metropolitan high school. They do all of their testing offsite. I thought it was a Covid thing, but I think it's just how they do it. Our county owns and uses an old school building, so they do it there. She only had 12 testing with her- and she knew 5 of them, which was kind of funny.

[Lilaclady]

Mine also took micro at a high school not local to us. Most of the local ones won’t allow homeschoolers to test and one that does does not offer micro. They took it with about 60 other students. It was first AP test for

one and just glad to be done. 

[Lecka]

My son had AP English this morning, and it was packed!  There were a lot more people there compared to when he went for US History.  
 

He was much less nervous for the second one!

 

 

[Farrar]

Unbeknownst to me, my kid was mildly dreading his exam today because he knew the person who he was supposed to sit next to! He could tell from the list. And there were more than 250+ kids taking it with him. This kid from an unfortunate moment in his past just happened to be alphabetically next to him. Luckily, they didn't show up! Ha.

[Lecka]

I’m glad that worked out!

[freesia]

Ds did the AP English Lang today. He said it went alright.

[SanDiegoMom]

Both my kids had one test each with larger groups -- they took it in the gym (2000+ high school)    AP Euro and AP Stats.  Today my son had Physics C (mech) and about 40 kids took it.  

They are all done and super relieved.  DS said the Physics was harder than anyone in his class expected (and harder than any of the review material) but he's not super concerned.  I am just amazed at how much he's gotten over his academic anxiety this past year.  

[pgr]

My daughter took Chem last week and will take Bio today. We're in a smaller city, and there were only about 15 kids from the local HS that took Chem exam with her. She felt the exam was on par with the review materials, maybe a bit harder.

[mlktwins]

My guys go tomorrow morning for World History: Modern (fingers and toes crossed).  This will be there first.  They are taking it at their base public school, which happens to be the local school with the AP Scholar specialty program.  They should be pretty on the ball with administering them there.  It will be in the auditorium, which will be new to the boys.  They've taken tests in the classrooms there before. 

All 3 of us will be glad when it is over -- LOL.

One question - just to confirm for me - they do not require admission tickets for this exam like they do for the SAT.  Correct?

 

[kokotg]

6 minutes ago, mlktwins said:

 

One question - just to confirm for me - they do not require admission tickets for this exam like they do for the SAT.  Correct?

 

Correct. The college board says to bring a photo id if you're testing somewhere other than the school where you're enrolled....but I don't think any of my kids have ever been asked for that even.

[MamaSprout]

On 5/5/2022 at 5:55 AM, MamaSprout said:

Micro on Friday. No class just self study… that she started three weeks ago. Not holding my breath on that one.

Calc BC on Monday. She’s done Calc 1 & 2, but target school can be picky about transfer credits.

Monday it was just her and one other girl for Calc BC so they moved it back to the high school. I had to laugh that one of her last days of homeschool... was at the local high school. The bells about drove her batty.

[mlktwins]

Well…both boys walked out of World History: Modern today with big smiles on their faces.  Feel really good about it and are glad this class is done.  They have announced they are not doing any school until Monday 🤣🤣🤣

Funny incident (not really) for DS1.  They were in a big auditorium and their backpacks were not near them.  They announce no gum allowed and kiddo doesn’t have anywhere to put his gum.  So he sticks it in his pants pocket 🤣🤣😩😩.  I’m thinking the kid has a 4.0 unweighted and can’t figure out something else to do with his gum 🤣.  I’ve attached a pic as evidence.  Now I’m off to research how to get gum out of clothes.  I made it almost 17 years with kids and no gum stuck anywhere so I guess I am due 🤣🤣!

ETA:  He actually got in the car and said, "Mom, I messed up my pants."  I was a little relieved it was gum and not something else -- LOL!  

Edited May 12, 2022 by mlktwins

[Arcadia]

@mlktwins I grew up when bubble gum was popular. We would have asked the proctor for a serviette to spit the gum into though.  Inconsiderate people used to jammed the train doors and bus doors with gum. The lazy way was to sun the spot so that the gum gets harden and can be scrap off using fingernails. Then laundry detergent was rub into any gum residue to get those off.

[freesia]

Ds had physics 1 today. He thought it went well, but probably not a 5. So relieved to be done. He only has a couple of classes left to finish and he’s going to work on his college essay. He has a super busy summer starting at the end of June. 
oh, and @mlktwins try putting rubbing alcohol on the gum. 

[mlktwins]

Just now, freesia said:

Ds had physics 1 today. He thought it went well, but probably not a 5. So relieved to be done. He only has a couple of classes left to finish and he’s going to work on his college essay. He has a super busy summer starting at the end of June. 
oh, and @mlktwins try putting rubbing alcohol on the gum. 

I watched a video about this today.  Rubbing alcohol breaks down whatever makes the gum sticky.  Once it sets on the gum for 30 seconds, they put a piece of duct tape over it and it came right off.  I will report back tomorrow 😂😂.

[Miss Tick]

Dd did Envirinmental Science last week and was pleased. She is really on the ball with academics, so I wasn't surprised.

Ds did Physics 1 today. He thought it was easier than the prep material he had used.  I was so relieved to see him smiling, because he hasn't officially finished the class material yet! I wasn't sure how the test would go.

I was glad I had been reading this thread so that I was not surprised that the test took an hour longer than we expected. He said the morning test went a little long and that his procter was. very. deliberate. about. everything.

[Miss Tick]

@mlktwins  I would seriously consider just cutting the bottom half of the pocket off and sewing on a new pocket. Probably easier than removing the gum!

[mlktwins]

Just a quick update on the gum issue 😁!

I let it sit overnight and it hardened a bit.  I did the rubbing alcohol/duct tape method.  It was all gone in 10 minutes.  I did have to do a couple of spots twice, but very successful!!!

In case you want to know, you take a q-tip with rubbing alcohol and dab it on the spot.  Let it sit for 30 seconds.  Take a piece of duct tape and push it down on the treated spot.  Rip it off.  Amazing.

I am washing the pants separately now, just in case, but there didn't appear to be any damage to the stretchy athletic pants.

 

[Miss Tick]

10 minutes ago, mlktwins said:

Just a quick update on the gum issue 😁!

I let it sit overnight and it hardened a bit.  I did the rubbing alcohol/duct tape method.  It was all gone in 10 minutes.  I did have to do a couple of spots twice, but very successful!!!

In case you want to know, you take a q-tip with rubbing alcohol and dab it on the spot.  Let it sit for 30 seconds.  Take a piece of duct tape and push it down on the treated spot.  Rip it off.  Amazing.

I am washing the pants separately now, just in case, but there didn't appear to be any damage to the stretchy athletic pants.

 

Yay! This could be a pilot episode for something like Mom-gyver on some obscure streaming channel. We could get all our content ideas from Forum threads.

[SoCal_Bear]

On 5/5/2022 at 12:23 PM, RoundAbout said:

DS did his first - AP Chem on Monday. He said it was easier than he expected. He did Connie's Advanced Honors Chem over 1.5 years and then self-studied for the AP Exam. Fingers crossed.

I seriously hope this will be the case for my son...AP Chem will be his first one next year. He is with Connie is year.

[mlktwins]

10 minutes ago, calbear said:

I seriously hope this will be the case for my son...AP Chem will be his first one next year. He is with Connie is year.

Connie is awesome!!!