SAT Subject Tests, Honors Classes, and AP's

[BLT]

It seems to me that there wouldn't be a substantial benefit in going to the trouble to earn the right to label your course AP.

If your student earns a good grade on an AP exam, a college won't care what the corresponding course was called. If he doesn't, then - well, I don't know.

But in any case, a college isn't likely to believe that you really went to all that trouble instead - it's much more likely that you just don't realize you can't claim it's "AP" (since so many parents think that just means "advanced").

In addition, I would doubt that TOG would meet the designation unmodified. Some of the requirements for AP are fairly specific, if I recall correctly. But I haven't checked into this.

[Wrightflyer]

Hi,
I'm a homeschooling mom of 3 (5th, 7th & 10th graders) with a 2-year-old. I wanted to let you know about my experience with the College Board.

I submitted my syllabus last fall to the College Board for A.P.European History. It took about 15 hours of work for me to compile a submittable syllabus. I'm sure it wouldn't take others that long, but I guess I'm either slow or a perfectionist. It took so long because a)there's a huge learning curve to writing a syllabus with their myriad of requirements, and b) having to synthesize the course myself. I based it partly on a book recommended by the College Board, but also partly on assignments from Tapestry culled from Years 2,3 & 4. The theme-based essays we practiced were right off the Tapestry evaluations/weekly quizzes. The big difference is adding the document-based-question essays, which I found online. My syllabus was quickly approved by the College Board.

AP European History and AP World History are survey courses, with a ton of reading, moving quickly through history --- not in-depth like Tapestry usually is. For AP European History, you have to cover the period from 1350 to the present, so imagine doing 2.5 years of Tapestry in 8 months (the test is at the beginning of May). The average number of questions per day was about 12 (compared to that many per week in Tapestry)and it was about 12-15 hours per week of work. I checked with a friend whose child took AP World History in public school and she said the course load was comparable.

Teaching AP required a huge amount of my time as I had to do the readings in the non-Tapestry books and be up on the questions and essays, so I can't say I would do it again. Still, I think it was rewarding to try something hard. The best part was picking apart the college text we used for bias and world-view.

What is great is that once your syllabus has been approved by the College Board, you just have to re-submit it the next year for instant re-approval (reflecting any minor changes they may ask for). They store your syllabus on the web-site, so you don't even have to type it again.

We chose to do the AP class and not have our son take the test for personal reasons. Since I knew the test wasn't an option, the next best was showing that he did the hard work required for the class. I will certainly be including my College Board approval letter certifying that we can use the AP designation on our transcripts in our portfolio.

I hope that's helpful. -Lisa

[musicmom]

My oldest did dialectic years 1 and 2. Then he did rhetoric years 3 and 4. He was a 10th grader for year 4. I bought a SAT II American history prep book. I allowed him to skip the last month or so of TOG history written work. ( He still read the material and watched the documentaries.) Instead, his written work consisted of taking the practice exams and studying the flashcards. He made a 730 out of 800 on the exam. If he goes to Baylor, they will give him credit for 1 semester of American History with that score! ( Most colleges don't give you credit for SAT II, and Baylor only does it for a few.) I chose to have him take that because his transcript says 19th Century World History and 20th Century World History, and I didn't want them to think he didn't have or know any American History. That way, they know he has a good background in it! Preparing for that was much easier than trying to prepare for the AP exam. It was just multiple choice whereas the essays for AP are VERY hard and take a lot of practice. I'm not sure what I'll do for middle son.

[Renaissance Mom]

I know this is an older thread and is mostly about AP class status. However, the original poster asked a question I have been pondering for some time now. Does anyone have a suggestion for how Tapestry subjects and year plans could dovetail with the list of available AP tests or CLEP tests? That current trend for colleges wishing to see AP classes (or, I assume, AP test scores) on the transcript is driving me nutty. (Dh would say it wasn't a long trip!) We really enjoy the flow and pace of the 4-yr cycle with Tapestry. I really don't want to try and re-arrange history studies to do American History one year or World History only another year. I like the Tapestry assignments in other subjects, too. I mean, that's why we use it!

Has anyone put together a schedule of sorts for which AP or CLEP tests (any subject) would make sense at various points in the Tapestry rotation? Could a reasonable bright R student tackle one of the English exams after a year or two of R level lit studies? Any specific year plans? Do any of the history, geopgraphy, or government tests make sense at any specific points in the Tapestry rotation? I know we could target one of the science or foreign language tests, but I'm not sure if my oldest dd will be working at a high enough level in either of those subjects during high school to warrant taking these exams.

The wisdom of those who have BTDT would be much appreciated!!!

Many thanks,
Monica

[jibaker103]

I know this is an older thread and is mostly about AP class status. However, the original poster asked a question I have been pondering for some time now. Does anyone have a suggestion for how Tapestry subjects and year plans could dovetail with the list of available AP tests or CLEP tests? That current trend for colleges wishing to see AP classes (or, I assume, AP test scores) on the transcript is driving me nutty. (Dh would say it wasn't a long trip!) We really enjoy the flow and pace of the 4-yr cycle with Tapestry. I really don't want to try and re-arrange history studies to do American History one year or World History only another year. I like the Tapestry assignments in other subjects, too. I mean, that's why we use it!

Has anyone put together a schedule of sorts for which AP or CLEP tests (any subject) would make sense at various points in the Tapestry rotation? Could a reasonable bright R student tackle one of the English exams after a year or two of R level lit studies? Any specific year plans? Do any of the history, geopgraphy, or government tests make sense at any specific points in the Tapestry rotation? I know we could target one of the science or foreign language tests, but I'm not sure if my oldest dd will be working at a high enough level in either of those subjects during high school to warrant taking these exams.

The wisdom of those who have BTDT would be much appreciated!!!

Many thanks,
Monica

I am very curious about this as well. I want ds to take some type of combination of AP and SAT Subject II and maybe a sprinkling of CLEPs.

Jennifer