Benefits, drawbacks of AP and Honors classes

I'm not a seasoned mom by any means, but I took both AP and honors classes in high school.  In my school honors meant more rigorous work but no college credit.  AP classes meant college credit.  I took both and loved them but it sure was nice to graduate high school with a lot of college credits!!

 

I might start with one or two classes of each type to see what they're like.  The problem is, that the individual teacher has a lot to do with how intense the class is (in my experience). 

 

Since math is something he's good at, I'd start there. 

 

No worries though, even the AP "college level" classes aren't truly college level.  It's more like a high school level or maybe community college level at most.  I'm sure your son can handle the work. 

In our district, high school classes seemed to fall into remedial, average, or honors level classes. I took honors level classes in every subject.

 

AP classes require an end of year national exam (as opposed to just a final exam created by the teacher). Scoring a 3 (passing) or higher grade on the AP exam usually allows you to clep classes in college and receive college credit for the course. That obviously means savings becuase you won't be paying for credits in college, plus they look great on transcripts.

 

I took AP classes where available. Many courses were only offered in an AP class. ie: Calculus. There was only AP Calculus. But I also took AP Physics, Spanish, English, etc. When it was an option I qualified for, I did it. Figured why not. They were all weighted the same at my school, so it didn't beef up my GPA any different, which I was bummed about as I think many schools do.

 

In my mind, you should be taking the highest level class possible in high school. The amount of homework shouldn't have any bearing on the decision. Challenging coursework and more material being covered just sets you up for your pick of choices of schools/careers once senior year rolls up on you. Obviously someone who has struggled with math all through school may not be able to set themselves up on the honors track to be prepared for AP calculus come senior year, but I don't think you should ever take the class you know you can do easily, always take the coursework that presents challenges and requires the effort. If he does well in math set him up for honors courses freshman year (is he just entering high school?) AP Calculus is (was in my school) a full year class senior year. There is also AP Physics as an option since he is math oriented. He could probably get away with taking that junior year, or sophomore year depending on what he gets for science courses early on.

Edited by Karen1985 - 6/12/12 at 7:29am

All three of my girls took AP classes when they could.  As queenofthelaundry stated, honors classes are beneficial in that they may raise their GPA (if the school uses a weighted grade system) and colleges like to see that they took a rigorous course load, but they do not get college credit for them.  AP classes also can be weighted more than Honor classes and depending on the scores they get on the AP exams at the end of the year, they could receive credit for them. 

 

Our school gives a regular class A a GPA of 4.0; Honors A a 4.5 and an AP A 5.0.  

 

Keep in mind a few things.  The AP exams cost about $80 each (I had to dish out $240 this year for N).  They need to score at least a 3 or higher (5 is the highest) to receive credit at most colleges.  Some colleges will only give credit for a 4 or 5.  

 

I always left the decision on what classes to take up to my girls when they reached high school.  I encouraged them to take Honors their freshman year (AP courses usually aren't available to them until Sophomore year).  They chose to take AP classes on their own.

What they all said...BUT please make sure he can handle the work load without it being ALL he does.  Of my six kids, three of the four who are old enough to be in advanced classes have been.  One of those simply could NOT handle the extra work load.  He was miserable, I was miserable, and in the end, his lower grades in the higher classes did NOT equal out. 

 

And, remember that in today's world, gpa alone does not do it for most scholarships.  They want "well rounded", so make sure he has an extra curricular activity (or ten!) that he can excell in.  This was a problem with my son who just graduated.  He "dabbles" in a lot...but never stuck with something.  My 16 year old....SHE can SING...and she excels at it, including practice, practice, practice.  It will help tremendously next year when she goes to apply for colleges. 

I totally agree with this that is why I never pushed it.  Two of my dd's dropped an AP class because they couldn't handle it. 

Both of my kids took quite a few AP classes. Our HS starts offering AP social studies classes freshman year for example. The other folks have touched on many of the same things I think.

1). They're harder. How hard compared to honors classes depends. You DON'T have to qualify for AP classes (at least at our HS) but you do for honors classes. For example, at our HS you are "invited" to take honors classes, but any student may sign up for AP classes. The counselor may discourage the student if they think they really can't handle the work load, but at least at our school they can take them. At my kids HS the counselors told me that the honors classes were actually harder than AP since again, the honors were invitation only.

2). They look GREAT on a transcript if you're applying to college. Many colleges frown if the student hasn't taken any AP classes. When we just went through the college ap process with DS the state colleges even would say they wanted students to take some AP classes. It shows the college that the student can handle college level work, since AP classes are a college level class spread out over a year versus a semester as they would be in college.

3). College credit (or not). As others have said, you may get credit in college without taking a class if you score high enough on an AP test in HS. Some colleges will accept 3 (out of a possible score of 5) on certain subjects. Some colleges on certain classes will only accept a 4 or 5. If your school does a good job of teaching the material and doing the assignments (which are practice essays like used on the year end AP test) the students should have no trouble getting an adequate score.....at least my kids didn't.

Now you don't HAVE to take the AP test at the end of the year (the fee Diane mentioned is only if they take the test). My DS's senior year he didn't take one of the tests. I don't remember why, but it wasn't a big deal to me. My kids like to be academically challenged and would probably take the classes without any credit at all.

Also you don't HAVE to take the college credit and test out of a class. DD for example.....she did test out of english comp, all her foreign language, and took all 4 years of her social studies classes, and her AP calculus credits when she got to college. BUT......although she could have gotten credit for the AP biology and chemistry classes she took, I suggested she not do that. Since she was majoring in biochemistry, I didn't want her going straight into 2nd year classes. I thought it was best she make sure she had a good base and then work her way up from there. I had made the mistake of going straight into a 2nd year calculus class my freshman year and it was a nightmare for me. She DID go into 2nd year calculus in college and also had a hard time doing it.

So you can choose to take the AP class and then choose to take the college credit or not.

4) Too much time? Yes, they are harder than an average run of the mill class, but they're not THAT hard in my opinion. If the child struggles with a certain subject I wouldn't take an AP class in that. But if they're making A's already in regular classes, I think they'll do fine. My DD DID have to spend a lot of time on the social studies AP classes (yet insisted on taking them all 4 years) but they were a breeze for my DS. My DD did the AP calculus, but my DS struggled with math so we didn't do that with him. It's really just the individual child. But I personally wouldn't let the fear of too much homework keep me from doing them. But except for my DD with the AP social studies classes, I never really saw much more (if any) time spent on the class.



Where I do disagree with the other posters is I wouldn't start with AP math. There are no AP math classes (that I know of anyway) until AP calculus. That is usually jr. or senior year for those kids working ahead of the traditional math schedule. I'd start with an AP social studies or AP science class first.

Also.....in my experience (getting two kids scholarships on merit) the colleges don't pay that much attention to extracurriculars. Yes, they might look at them if they're on the bubble, but unless they're outstanding in something they need (band, or especially sports) they just don't care that much. My DD who was first chair in our top orchestra (we have 5 levels of orchestra) applied for some music scholarships (even though she wasn't majoring in music) and got none. Even if she HAD gotten them, they would have been small token type scholarships. Now she did have a few friends who got music scholarships, but they were outstanding (not just your run of the mill good) and were music majors. What both of my kids qualified for academic scholarship wise were purely based on GPA and just as importantly SAT scores. I do agree that GPA alone isn't enough unless you have the SAT score to go with it.

Hope that helps!!

I'm just going to clarify one of Aliadam's points.  No, you don't have to take the AP exams at the end of the year, but that is the only way to get college credit.   

 

Also, you don't have to take an AP class to take the AP exams.  My next door neighbor took many of the AP exams at the end of the year, even though she didn't take the class.   Things just came easy for her...

The only thing I can add is that I went to a high school that was a "college prep". In short, by the time we got to Junior year all our classes were honor classes. The school offered a few AP classes but not many - probably 3 to 4 total - because we were such a small school.

 

All I can say is my first two years in college were mind-numbing dull!

 

I went to school when they first made the requirement that you had to take English 1A and 1B no matter what you scored in high school. I was able to get out of it because I graduated with honor's English, but later when I changed schools I was forced to go through 1A/B because the rules changed and there were no exceptions. It was so annoying to have to review material that I had learned in sophmore year in HIGH SCHOOL. Some of my college literature required reading were the same books as the ones I studied in high school! (I was in liberal studies) As I said earlier, the only place I had trouble was in algebra and it was agony having to repeat that, too.

 

Anyway, that's my 2-cents. If AP classes save you from taking some courses in college, great. If you're sure you're going to a top rated college, take honors classes so you can compete. But be careful.

I agree with what most everyone said.  I only took two - and I only passed one.  But it was AP calculus and it got me out of the required math GE in college.  Also, at my school AP classes were weighted, just like Honors classes.  It was kind of the same thing as an Honors class, except it was a class you could also do an AP test for.  There might be different options as well.  Regular Calculus wasn't offered - it was AP or none (of course the test is not required).  AP/Honors Chemistry wasn't offered, but you could study and take the test if you wanted.

 

Drawbacks: They're harder. The test costs money.

 

Benefits: Possible college credit. (It's not just that some schools require a 4 or 5; Some AP tests might just not fulfill any requirements for the school, so it's useless.)  More challenging work (I can see that being a benefit for your son!)  Students in the classes are likely to be more "serious."

 

The other test I took was US History. I felt like I spent a LOT of time studying for that test outside of class, so not passing was pretty disappointing.  But the Calculus one, I just did my homework, studied just like any other class, and took the test.  So it probably depends on the subject, if the AP is more work or not.  But it's definitely going to be harder than regular college prep classes.

 

You could always have him do concurrent enrollment with a local JC or something, too.