AP stats

[Roadrunner]

DS’s school has a terrible stats teacher. Apparently he is so bad he can barely explain the material. We know it’s an easy class when taught well and DS wants to take it because he is interested in the material. My question is what would be the best prep material for the exam? Best videos maybe? 
I have a textbook PA Homeschoolers uses. We dislike it very much because we think it takes 15 pages to say what needs just a page. So something to the point, maybe a workbook, some videos would be preferred. 

[cintinative]

We have NOT done AP Stats here but I have consistently found Mr. Tarrou's videos helpful, and he has an AP stats play list.  https://www.profrobbob.com/ap-statistics

He said they use this book at his school, but I have used his videos to supplement many times although we have never used the same book:

AP Statistics: The Practice of Statistics by Yates, Moore, and Starnes

ETA: it looks like Tarrou uses the same text book as PA Homeschoolers.  Wilson Hill Academy also uses that text.

Edited November 19, 2022 by cintinative

[EKS]

The AP Stats class the kid I'm tutoring is taking uses this book: The Practice of Statistics.  In my opinion, it is extremely readable, though if it is the same one that you're saying takes forever to get to the point, you would be right.  I'd argue that that is why it is readable.  That class is also using the workbook that goes with it called Strive for a 5.  It can be difficult to find, and I have only seen a few questions from it.

A statistics class I took last year, which I think was somewhat more mathematical (but not much!) than the AP course, used this text: Elementary Statistics.  It isn't bad, and it is much more compact than the AP aligned book above, but it isn't AP aligned, and if the student is taking the exam, that can be important, since among other things, you want the terminology to align.

[stripe]

Do you have the option to have him take it anywhere else? Online, dual enrollment, etc?

[Roadrunner]

1 hour ago, stripe said:

Do you have the option to have him take it anywhere else? Online, dual enrollment, etc?

There is a DE option on high school campus but he prefers an AP score. I agree with him. 
His older brother took AP stats and found the material extremely easy and a textbook overkill. So the thinking at home is couple of succinct and good videos to explain the material is all he would need. 
The only other option that seemed promising was calculus based stats NetMath was offering though U if Illinois, but they pulled those classes off and are redeveloping them. Who knows if that will even be an option next year. 

[Roadrunner]

Just to give an explanation why I think DE on our school campus is a pile of …….

They are one by one pulling AP classes that were hard and replacing them with DE. Example. So APUSH was a tough course where kids wrote every week and had a significant reading load. They replaced it with DE US History. It’s now a remedial level course with 80% of kids getting A’s. It’s so bad that few kids have been attempting to fight to reinstate APUSH. But most kids and parents think DE looks impressive and why not grab an A in an impressive class even if you are learning 25% of what you were learning before.

They are doing the same to AP Lit among other courses. 
So I would rather not touch their DE with a 10 foot pole. If it was on an actual college campus, especially if it was Calc based, I would think differently. 

Edited November 22, 2022 by Roadrunner

[cintinative]

1 hour ago, Roadrunner said:

So I would rather not touch their DE with a 10 foot pole. If it was on an actual college campus, especially if it was Calc based, I would think differently. 

my brother's family experienced/is experiencing this. So I have a possible spinoff/naïve question: can you take the classes at an actual college campus or are you required to take them at the physical high school building if they are offered? That is how it works at the school my family members attend. If it is offered at the high school (as DE), they can't take it elsewhere. I wondered if they could enroll in the state virtual school, and then would that open up the door to them taking classes at the college campus instead?  I don't know how that works at all. 

 

[Roadrunner]

1 hour ago, cintinative said:

my brother's family experienced/is experiencing this. So I have a possible spinoff/naïve question: can you take the classes at an actual college campus or are you required to take them at the physical high school building if they are offered? That is how it works at the school my family members attend. If it is offered at the high school (as DE), they can't take it elsewhere. I wondered if they could enroll in the state virtual school, and then would that open up the door to them taking classes at the college campus instead?  I don't know how that works at all. 

 

He can't take it at the college. Only at his high school. 

We value statistics, so I think the best option is to reinforce bad teaching and go for an AP exam. At least there is some standard with AP. 

[stripe]

On 11/22/2022 at 2:56 PM, Roadrunner said:

There is a DE option on high school campus but he prefers an AP score. I agree with him. 

I was curious whether an online class with another provider would be workable. Or is this not an option if the school offers it? In my state, kids can take online classes offered through some sort of state organization. (There are also obviously other online options as well, but this is the school-extension option.)

[Roadrunner]

24 minutes ago, stripe said:

I was curious whether an online class with another provider would be workable. Or is this not an option if the school offers it? In my state, kids can take online classes offered through some sort of state organization. (There are also obviously other online options as well, but this is the school-extension option.)

Ours doesn’t allow this. He could take it on his own without receiving school credit, but that would mean he needs another credit bearing class in school, which would be too much work. We have gone back and forth on this and decided with good supplementation school AP option is the easiest to do.