Parents of the Class of 2019

I felt so bad for the juniors and seniors taking the AP Gov. exam this year - it was the morning after prom!

DD has reached a no-stress point with her AP tests. She wants to do well, of course, but there's really no stakes in terms of her college experience. Freshman seminar for Japanese majors satisfies the same gen ed requirement as AP Lit, she'll be taking her intro-level bio course no matter how well she scores on the AP Bio test because we've been warned that two of the grad schools she's considering don't accept the AP credit as equivalent, and AP Calc checks off the math gen ed but so does the required biostatistics class she needs for her biology/ecology major. She does have a couple of gen-eds checked off by last year's government, language and sociology tests but nothing this year will make a difference. So she's not feeling a ton of pressure about the scores. Which is good, because she's spending most of her study time preparing for the Japanese placement test she has to do sometimes this month. The major requires getting through the equivalent of 8 semesters of Japanese, but placement can substitute for the first two years, depending on the score. She doesn't think she'll test quite that high after almost a year of not practicing every day, but having taken a year of college Japanese myself, I'm pretty sure she can place into 3rd or 4th semester without much trouble.
That’s crazy, prom here is followed by kids going away for a few nights (unofficially).
 
In other news, school was locked down yesterday. We're in Highlands Ranch, CO, so the shooting at the STEM school was in our district. One of DD's coworkers at the rec center is a STEM student, thankfully he was OK, she checked in with him to make sure, and another friend from an old swim team was at the school at the time, in the next classroom but wasn't hurt. I'm keeping that school community in my thoughts.

Huge :hug:s!

I'm a wreck today - upset about stupid little things, but I know it's really the school shooting underneath. I can imagine how much worse I'd be if it was in the same district.
 
He's finished with the AP Physics. He said it went better than he feared and he thinks he passed... but I guess we'll find out in July. << He said that when he first got home. Now he's talking to some other people from his class who are less confident that they did well, so now DS is questioning his impressions.

He took AP Gov yesterday and agreed with Eureka's son's assessment. Easy.
Next week he has AP Language and Composition (took AP Lit last year).
And next week he also has AP World History.

If he passes AP Physics and AP World history, he'll knock out 2 more "categories" of general education requirements. If he passes Lang and Gov, he'll get "credit" but it won't satisfy any requirements because he already has enough credit in those categories. (For example, for the English gen ed requirement, you need to take one 3-credit hour class. AP Language maps to a class that will satisfy the requirement. and AP Lit maps to a different class that also satisfies it. He'll get credit for both classes but only "needs" one.)
It's interesting to see in what order the kids take the APs depending on where you are. In our county/state, you do local/state/national government freshman year, US history (with option of AP) soph., world history (with option of AP) junior, and then senior it's up to you if you want to take history. That's when most kids take AP gov, although next year my DS16 will be taking AP world and also possibly the history of sports.

And then with Lit and Lang, AP lang is always junior year here (DS18 didn't take it but DS16 will next year) and AP Lang, which DS18 is testing for today.

DS has orientation in June and won't have any scores back by then, so I guess we'll see what he finds out about that. Unless of course he's not going to take anything in the fall that he could potentially place out of.
 
Next week is my son's only AP exam for this year - AP Calc BC. He scored a 3 on last year's AB exam, so he's hopeful for at least a 3 this time. He's planning on taking Calc 2 in college, so he doesn't jump right into Calc 3 without having college calc, but he doesn't want to have to take Calc 1 for, essentially, his third year in a row.

And his college has mentioned that his other AP tests could earn him credit in a non-major course (e.g. core course), so he's hoping his Comp Sci tests at least get him credit for something else (like a liberal arts requirement). And we'd love it if we could pay for one less class too :D
Good luck with that one. DS took both AB and BC because of the advanced math track he was in, and scored 2 on both, although he did well in the classes. He is having a much easier time with AP stats and thinks he'll get a 4 or 5.
 


It's interesting to see in what order the kids take the APs depending on where you are. In our county/state, you do local/state/national government freshman year, US history (with option of AP) soph., world history (with option of AP) junior, and then senior it's up to you if you want to take history. That's when most kids take AP gov, although next year my DS16 will be taking AP world and also possibly the history of sports.

And then with Lit and Lang, AP lang is always junior year here (DS18 didn't take it but DS16 will next year) and AP Lang, which DS18 is testing for today.

DS has orientation in June and won't have any scores back by then, so I guess we'll see what he finds out about that. Unless of course he's not going to take anything in the fall that he could potentially place out of.

It is interesting. I have a friend in the DC area and her son took Lang first and Lit second, too... but at our school mostly juniors take Lit and seniors take Lang. I have no idea why and didn't think to question it.

My son took world history (honors but not AP) as a freshman, then AP US History as a sophomore. As a junior he took AP Lit, AP Psychology, and AP Macro/Microeconomics (one class, but two AP tests). This year, he's got AP Lang, AP Government, AP Physics 1, and AP World History. I think World History is a complete elective... he didn't any more history credits, but he liked the teacher (same teacher who taught Econ.) I don't think he's enjoying world history as much as he expected, but if he passes, he'll be able to count it toward his "world studies" gen ed requirement.

My daughter is a current freshman and she's scheduled for honors (but not AP) bio and chem next year. I don't think it's common for kids to go STRAIGHT into AP sciences here (at least not Bio and Chem). She is considering taking AP Bio and/or AP Chem as a junior or senior, though.

DS told me last night that there was going to be some sort of cookout for the seniors on the parking lot today (he was grumbling because it's the lot where he normally parks that would be closed.) I think he thought it would just be for the lunch periods but apparently it's an all-day thing. Kids brought their dogs, etc. He said so far, only two teachers have held class (they are the two whose AP tests are yet to come). The rest of the classes released the seniors to go outside. I think he had fun... but he said he thinks he's going to come home after his "real classes" are over. The kids still have "senior finals" next Tuesday so the year isn't over, but maybe it sort of is. (DS only has 2 finals, and they're in his semester-long mixed grade electives. His AP classes don't have finals, and his non-AP Calculus teacher said that if you have an A average after the most recent unit test, you're excused from the final... so DS is excused.)
 
My son's brief (and completely unsuccessful :p ) tennis career came to an end this morning, losing his first match in the sectional tournament. He really learned a lot and definitely improved through the year, but didn't win a set all season. But he seemed to enjoy it and as an added bonus, today's tournament gave him the chance to miss school today, so it's only really been a 3 day week for him, with Friday being an day off for Seniors due to Prom. :)
 
My son's brief (and completely unsuccessful :p ) tennis career came to an end this morning, losing his first match in the sectional tournament. He really learned a lot and definitely improved through the year, but didn't win a set all season. But he seemed to enjoy it and as an added bonus, today's tournament gave him the chance to miss school today, so it's only really been a 3 day week for him, with Friday being an day off for Seniors due to Prom. :)
Everything ending is killing me this week. DS ran in what we think was his last meet yesterday, the county championships. We don't think he'll qualify for regionals. He PRed and broke a time in the 2-mile that he's been trying to break all year and really all four years. I didn't get to see it but DH did and I am so happy he did it. He's not very fast but he tries hard and he would have been really upset to not get it.
 


It is interesting. I have a friend in the DC area and her son took Lang first and Lit second, too... but at our school mostly juniors take Lit and seniors take Lang. I have no idea why and didn't think to question it.

My son took world history (honors but not AP) as a freshman, then AP US History as a sophomore. As a junior he took AP Lit, AP Psychology, and AP Macro/Microeconomics (one class, but two AP tests). This year, he's got AP Lang, AP Government, AP Physics 1, and AP World History. I think World History is a complete elective... he didn't any more history credits, but he liked the teacher (same teacher who taught Econ.) I don't think he's enjoying world history as much as he expected, but if he passes, he'll be able to count it toward his "world studies" gen ed requirement.

My daughter is a current freshman and she's scheduled for honors (but not AP) bio and chem next year. I don't think it's common for kids to go STRAIGHT into AP sciences here (at least not Bio and Chem). She is considering taking AP Bio and/or AP Chem as a junior or senior, though.

DS told me last night that there was going to be some sort of cookout for the seniors on the parking lot today (he was grumbling because it's the lot where he normally parks that would be closed.) I think he thought it would just be for the lunch periods but apparently it's an all-day thing. Kids brought their dogs, etc. He said so far, only two teachers have held class (they are the two whose AP tests are yet to come). The rest of the classes released the seniors to go outside. I think he had fun... but he said he thinks he's going to come home after his "real classes" are over. The kids still have "senior finals" next Tuesday so the year isn't over, but maybe it sort of is. (DS only has 2 finals, and they're in his semester-long mixed grade electives. His AP classes don't have finals, and his non-AP Calculus teacher said that if you have an A average after the most recent unit test, you're excused from the final... so DS is excused.)
Here it depends about the sciences on if you're in a science-based program or not. My kids are in a biotech program, so they went straight to honors biology as freshmen, whereas most other kids take it as sophomores and honors chemistry as sophomore when most people take it as juniors. DS18 also did AP environmental science as a soph, AP Bio and AP Physics 1 as a junior and AP Chem this year. He took the bio test but not the others, scored well but not high enough for credit at his school next year. But he likes science, especially chemistry, and won't mind taking one. He wasn't supposed to be in AP Chem, he was supposed to take organic but there was a scheduling conflict, and the AP chem teacher is not great, so I am glad he decided not to take the exam.

Oh and at their school, freshmen are not allowed to take any AP classes.
 
Everything ending is killing me this week. DS ran in what we think was his last meet yesterday, the county championships. We don't think he'll qualify for regionals. He PRed and broke a time in the 2-mile that he's been trying to break all year and really all four years. I didn't get to see it but DH did and I am so happy he did it. He's not very fast but he tries hard and he would have been really upset to not get it.

Congrats on the PR. Great way to end the season. DD only seems to make soccer goals at the few games we don't attend so we still haven't seen her make a varsity goal (she has 3 now, at 2 games that were 1.5+ hours away).
 
Here it depends about the sciences on if you're in a science-based program or not. My kids are in a biotech program, so they went straight to honors biology as freshmen, whereas most other kids take it as sophomores and honors chemistry as sophomore when most people take it as juniors. DS18 also did AP environmental science as a soph, AP Bio and AP Physics 1 as a junior and AP Chem this year. He took the bio test but not the others, scored well but not high enough for credit at his school next year. But he likes science, especially chemistry, and won't mind taking one. He wasn't supposed to be in AP Chem, he was supposed to take organic but there was a scheduling conflict, and the AP chem teacher is not great, so I am glad he decided not to take the exam.

Oh and at their school, freshmen are not allowed to take any AP classes.

And this is another interesting difference. At my kids' school, I have never heard of anybody not taking the test. If you're in the AP class, you sit for the exam at the end. As far as I know, taking the class, but opting out of the exam was never presented as an option (and they collect the money for the exam at the beginning of the year)!

I don't think freshmen take AP classes at our school either, but I have a friend in Indiana whose freshman son is taking AP World History right now. (Both her freshman and my senior will be taking the exam next week.) In general, APUSH is the only one sophomores take...but I think there are a few exceptions for students who are exceptional. (DS's best friend took AP Computer Science as a sophomore, I think, but most sophomores don't have that option.)
 
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I think APUSH is the only AP class offered to Sophomores at our son's school (maybe an AP Computer Science class). AP Chem and/or AP Bio is usually a junior year class and AP Physics is only normally taken as a senior because their school requires Honors Physics as a junior pre-requisite. Their school doesn't require students to take the AP test. I'm sure there's other AP tests that students can take junior or senior year, but my son only focused on the STEM courses.
 
And this is another interesting difference. At my kids' school, I have never heard of anybody not taking the test. If you're in the AP class, you sit for the exam at the end. As far as I know, taking the class, but opting out of the exam was never presented as an option (and they collect the money for the exam at the beginning of the year)!

I don't think freshmen take AP classes at our school either, but I have a friend in Indiana whose freshman son is taking AP World History right now. (Both her freshman and my senior will be taking the exam next week.) In general, APUSH is the only one sophomores take...but I think there are a few exceptions for students who are exceptional. (DS's best friend took AP Computer Science as a sophomore, I think, but most sophomores don't have that option.)
We have to pay for the AP tests (we get reimbursed if they score 3 or above) so I don't think they can make them take it. DS18 has taken a bunch of APs in his high school career and only did not take two tests. They also collect the money early, in November I think, so they have to decide pretty early on. And my DS16 has several sophomore friends taking AP Comp Sci this year.
 
We have to pay for the AP tests (we get reimbursed if they score 3 or above) so I don't think they can make them take it. DS18 has taken a bunch of APs in his high school career and only did not take two tests. They also collect the money early, in November I think, so they have to decide pretty early on. And my DS16 has several sophomore friends taking AP Comp Sci this year.

We also have to pay for the test (and do not get reimbursed no matter what the score). I'll have to ask DS if taking the class, but not taking the test is ever an option.

Ours is a public school so there's no tuition, but "school fees" are paid by the parent. Most non-AP class fees are pretty small ($5-$15/class) for "consumables" like workbooks and lab supplies. The AP exam fee is part of the fee for the class, payable within the first week of school (so the fee for an AP class might be $15 for consumables + $95 for the exam).
 
We also have to pay for the test (and do not get reimbursed no matter what the score). I'll have to ask DS if taking the class, but not taking the test is ever an option.

Ours is a public school so there's no tuition, but "school fees" are paid by the parent. Most non-AP class fees are pretty small ($5-$15/class) for "consumables" like workbooks and lab supplies. The AP exam fee is part of the fee for the class, payable within the first week of school (so the fee for an AP class might be $15 for consumables + $95 for the exam).

Ours is a public school as well and we pay for the AP tests and are not reimbursed regardless of the score. We don’t generally pay for labs or workbooks although one year (can’t recall which class) there was a study guide the teacher highly “recommended” to those taking the exam but it was not required so we ordered that and paid for it ourselves. In our district you can take the class without taking the exam.
 
We pay for our own AP exams, and it adds up fast on top of other expenses, especially senior year. Kids don't have to take the exam, but don't get their grade weighted unless they take it.
 
We pay for our own AP exams, and it adds up fast on top of other expenses, especially senior year. Kids don't have to take the exam, but don't get their grade weighted unless they take it.
That’s interesting. Here, their grades are weighted just by taking the AP class.
 
That’s interesting. Here, their grades are weighted just by taking the AP class.
I always thought it was dumb. You shouldn't penalize a kid if their family can't afford several hundred dollars for the exams.

Senior awards night was tonight. DD wasn't in the program or recognized for receiving the Bright Flight scholarship (others were). Turns out she didn't get the needed form to the counseling department on time. Says she doesn't know why it matters. She really has checked out. Too bad finals aren't over. :scratchin
 
That’s crazy, prom here is followed by kids going away for a few nights (unofficially).

I'm not sure how it started, but our school's tradition is to hold dances on Sunday nights with Monday off for students. But of course, the AP schedule doesn't take that tradition into account, so some years can be a little rough on kids in a particular AP course. Taking the exam is mandatory for students who take AP classes too, so there's no getting around it even if it isn't something that has a ton of value for their specific college plans.
 
DS got student of the month- a check in his name.
And an alumni of the school scholarship- a check in his name. From personal donors not from a company.

So I can’t remember for DD scholarships; I kinda think were not in her name. DD’s was from a company. Her’s were given to her college and they went against her tuition.

Since DS has scholarships that cover his tuition, I want to find out if they can go towards his room and board.
 
We have to pay for the AP tests (we get reimbursed if they score 3 or above) so I don't think they can make them take it. DS18 has taken a bunch of APs in his high school career and only did not take two tests. They also collect the money early, in November I think, so they have to decide pretty early on. And my DS16 has several sophomore friends taking AP Comp Sci this year.

We have to pay for our tests too, and taking them is mandatory. It is part of the agreement parents have to sign off on when the kids are planning their schedules for the upcoming year. It is a private school, though, so add-ons and extra fees are just par for the course. We also buy our own books, though the school does have a hand-me-down program, and have a couple required seminars/retreats with an additional cost each year.

I always thought it was dumb. You shouldn't penalize a kid if their family can't afford several hundred dollars for the exams.

Senior awards night was tonight. DD wasn't in the program or recognized for receiving the Bright Flight scholarship (others were). Turns out she didn't get the needed form to the counseling department on time. Says she doesn't know why it matters. She really has checked out. Too bad finals aren't over. :scratchin

Our senior awards are tomorrow after the school mass and DD's only concern is whether my mom and MIL coming means we'll sign her out to go out to lunch afterwards. She's about done with all of it right now, especially since we're in the middle of the softball season that will never end - more rained-out games than those we've played as scheduled so far - and she's getting increasingly frustrated with her teammates who aren't making the sport enough of a priority to handle all of the schedule changes. The team made the state playoff tournament for the first time in 6 or 7 years and their starting 1st baseman has already announced that she won't be at the first-round game because she planned her graduation party for that date on the assumption that they wouldn't make it that far.
 

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