Reviews - Potter's School Advanced Composition

[Janice in NJ]

Your experience?

 

Thanks!

Janice

[LynnG in Arizona]

I'll give this a shot since no one else has answered. :)

 

My eldest dd took this last year. It is an excellent class, and one that I would heartily recommend. As you probably know, it covers lots of writing styles, but absolutely no literature.

 

My dd has Nikki Troxell as her teacher. We were extremely pleased with the whole experience.

 

It is a demanding class, but not an impossible one. Mrs. Troxell's writing rules are "extreme" (no "to be" verbs, you have to start each sentence with a different word, etc.). However, there is a definite method to the madness, and my daughter's writing improved throughout the course of the year. She did extremely well on the writing portion of her SAT in March of that year. :)

 

HTH.

[mom2three]

It is a good class, but I don't think this class is for everyone. My son is not a very strong writer. The pace of the class moved too quickly. He had to write an essay every week. He would submit the essay and the teacher would grade it. However, he never had time to revise his essays and rewrite his essays. He complained that he never had a chance to learn what he did wrong. Each week was a new essay topic. He got very overwhelemed with the weekly essays. He also got bogged down with not using all the "be" verbs.

 

I would recommend this class for a student who is organized, likes to write, and is good at following rules.

 

HTH

[CAMom]

My son is taking this class right now.

 

We have Ms. Corrin and have been very happy with the class! Lynn's description of the rules are true. Each AC teacher adheres to them. The kids get automatic grade drops for using "to be" verbs unless the teacher has specified that they can be used for a certain purpose. They also get a grade drop if they put too many sentences in one paragraph.

 

Each paper is graded based on content/style and grammar/punctuation. Those two grades are averaged for the final grade on the paper.

 

There is a variety of types of papers they write from creative to news reports and everything in between. You can expect, on average, a 700 word paper due once a week. A few of the papers are spread over two weeks.

 

In our experience, it has been a very good class! It has helped my son to be able to learn to organize his thoughts and put out a paper much more quickly. My friends who have sent kids to college have commented that one of the hardest things is being about to compose papers quickly.

 

I would definitely recommend the class and will have my daughter take it as well in a few years.

[alegnab]

I second everything LynnG said, except for the SAT part, since ds hasn't taken that yet.

 

Ds is *not* a natural writer, hates to write, and is very disorganized. He has benefited greatly from the class. His writing skills have improved immensely this year. Because he's not a natural writer, and because the assignments are so demanding, he spends many hours on each weekly assignment. He thinks Mrs. Troxell is a great teacher and enjoys the class, but he dislikes doing the assignments. However, he recognizes that the class has been very good for him.

 

Ds took the Write@Home Composition I Foundations course last year. That was a waste of money and a school year. He spent 1/2 hour maximum each week on his papers, and he usually spent five minutes on his revisions, even though they were the weekly assignments for 2/3 of the school year. He hasn't done many revisions (perhaps none) this year for TPS Adv Comp, but he has learned a lot from the notes the teacher has made on his papers.