Never again.
*exhale*
Somehow I managed to pass all my AP classes, one honors, one normal, and one gym this semester. Why did I agree to this?
Granted, there was a lot I did that was my fault. It’s like a game to me to see how long or how much effort it takes to make it with a good enough grade to pass but not turn into a typical honors/AP student: boring. I took the game much too far and nearly flunked AP Chemistry. I was saved by a near-ace on the Final exam. Woah. (Granted it was curved. 95% after the curve. Raagh I almost set the darn curve)
The rest were fine – I don’t get nearly as much homework from the rest. Heck, my best class, Honors Pre-Calculus I passed with an A. Easy. Guess what? I did no homework. Why? The class doesn’t check it.
Homework to me is this: If I don’t get the material from lectures, I do it.
College? Yep, doesn’t work much that way.
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Along the way, I’ve gotten to know a lot of the AP students who have been taking these classes for much longer than me. I just took Honors classes for only Science up until now. They have been doing AP History and AP English since Sophomore year.
Also along the way, I’ve gotten some opinions from my teachers. Most teachers that teach my classes are also “seniors” – They have been doing it for a very long time (Fun Fact! My AP Chem teacher is retiring this year.) These teachers have seen a lot, and while they don’t force their opinions they got from experience, they still share the facts of the matter.
The facts of the matter is that District 214 needs to stop pushing.
A lot of the teachers agree on this: It’s nice to see a lot of students into AP classes, but it is not nice to see them crash because they aren’t ready, didn’t want to take it, or just can’t handle the curriculum. Students who pull straight A’s in normal classes can nearly fail AP. What looks better? I’m not sure, but I’ll go with the A’s.
It is actually one of the district’s goals to get as many students into AP as possible. But my AP Psych teacher tried to show us some hard facts about AP classes and how they help. It was direct from their PowerPoint on the matter.
The PowerPoint takes the time on one slide to stop and say “students who take the class do (some number) better in college” BUT THEN goes on to “students who take the class and do the AP test do (much better number) better in college”
What?! Is the district really suggesting to the staff that we should take these classes, even if we have no real purpose in them? The point of an AP class IS to take the test and earn college credit!
The reason for AP is two-fold: Take a college level class to get ready for college, and earn some credit for the class. But what if you are there for only one reason: to get ready. Would an average student really have enough foresight (is that a real word?) to see that this is really worth their effort? NO. Most want to take easy classes, relax before college, and have fun their last year of high school – They only get one chance.
I’m taking AP Computer Science. I want to be there for credit because THAT’S WHAT I WANT TO DO. This class, however, required no pre-requisites to get in. The class is filled with three kinds of people: Freshmen and Sophomores who thought it wasn’t going to be that bad, Juniors and Seniors who thought “Hey, an easy AP course!” and are now hating the class, then me and a friend who already know what to do because we take what we like seriously.
AP classes should be for people like that: People who wanted to be there and want to take it seriously. Not people who get thrown in to meet some stupid statistic.
–Brian
