To AP or Not to AP?: A Guide to River Dell’s AP Courses

Continued from Page 9 think about future college endeavors, as many college programs require statistics for graduation as opposed to calculus—a fact that students are often unaware of.

Expectations:

One major misconception surrounding AP Statistics is that it holds the same expectations as a typical math class. As an applied math class, AP Statistics requires students to practice other skills not typically needed in regular math classes. For instance, Mrs. Clark remarks that the class “…requires a great deal of writing which many students are not used to.” Of course, proficiency in mathematics is still very helpful to succeed in this class.

The summer assignment involves learning the first unit of AP Statistics—one variable data. In the past, students have also had to complete guided readings and solve textbook problems. During the summer, students are offered two checkin dates where Mrs. Clark reviews and provides feedback on the summer work. Also expected to be completed is a “Getting to Know You” assignment due by the first day of school.

Students should expect to receive approximately 30 minutes of homework—typically on OneNote— every night.

Class Structure:

Prior to the AP exam, most classes in AP Statistics are spent learning a collaborative, hands-on statistics lesson. More specifically, Mrs. Clark mentions, “Every lesson comes with an activity (many times with sweet treats) where students work together and use their prior knowledge to develop new ideas.” At the end of each lesson, the main points of the activity are summarized, and notes are provided for the lesson. Students then practice their new skills with “Check Your Understanding” questions. A current AP Statistics student stresses that it is “…a very consistent class: all lessons and assignments are structured in an orderly manner. Class time almost always runs with the same general schedule, and assignments—including homework, extra credit, quizzes, and tests—are very predictable. Mrs. Clark’s highly-organized teaching truly makes the wide range of topics covered in AP Statistics a lot easier to handle.”

As for assessments, AP Statistics grades mostly come in the form of quizzes and tests. All quizzes are take-home quizzes, and all tests are given after finishing a chapter of the AP Statistics curriculum. After the AP Exam, students may be given projects or interactive statistical activities for the remainder of the school year,.

In addition to introducing fundamental statistical concepts, the AP Statistics course trains students to critically analyze data they are presented with in real life. As Mrs. Clark states, “Statistics is an applied math class, and its applications extend far beyond the classroom. We live in a very data driven world and it’s important to be skeptical of how this data is collected and presented to you. I tell my students on the first day of school that I would love for them to get a 5 on the exam but I was more concerned with them becoming educated consumers of data.”

If necessary, Mrs. Clark is always available for extra help throughout the school year. Students are able to gain extra credit—a two percent boost—and qualify for a test retake upon watching AP Daily Statistics videos on the website AP Classroom and completing guided notes corresponding to the videos before an upcoming test. Only students that score below an 85 on a test are eligible for test retakes.

The AP Test:

For RDHS, the pass rate (3 or higher) on the AP Statistics exam is generally around 75%. The test itself is divided into two sections: a multiple-choice section and a free-response (open-ended) section. There are 40 multiple-choice questions and six free-response questions.

AP Physics C

Overview: AP Physics C, taught by Mr. Pohling, is a calculusbased, college-level Physics course. According to Mr. Pohling, on a difficulty scale from 1 to 5, “Many students would find the AP Physics content challenging and would rate this course a 5 in difficulty.”

For students interested in learning physics but concerned with the difficulty of AP Physics C, Mr. Pohling suggests signing up for AP Physics regardless. As stated by Mr. Pohling, “I believe you will find this course very rewarding, even (and especially) if you find yourself confused at times. That’s a necessary part of learning physics!”

Expectations:

AP Physics C requires students to conceptualize motion with assumptions and express the associated physical models using mathematics. As a result, logical and abstract thinking abilities are of high importance in this course. Additionally, to understand descriptions of motion, reading comprehension is also crucial. As expected, mathematical capabilities are also of utmost importance in AP Physics C. Throughout the course, math skills learned from all four high school math subjects— geometry, algebra, precalculus, and calculus—all must be applied. “The equations of motion can get somewhat convoluted for a few of the lab activities, but on most assessments, the math isn’t as difficult as you would think,” Mr. Pohling notes. “What students find most challenging are the physics concepts themselves.” Going against traditionally helpful skills, he also stresses that memorization will not be helpful in AP Physics. “A student could memorize every equation used in every practice problem, but that won’t be useful in understanding the broader context and necessary assumptions for those equations to be properly employed” he says.

Aside from academic abilities, Mr. Pohling states it is important that AP Physics students possess “…curiosity, courage, and persistence” in order to “…ask seemingly trivial or outlandish questions that place assumptions in a broader context” as well as “…answer questions incorrectly with the aim of exposing misconceptions.”

Before starting the school semester, summer homework—including a quick survey, a two-paged math review, and a very short reading of advice from previous students—is assigned.

After beginning the school year, AP Physics students can expect to receive less than one hour of homework each night, in the form of readings and ungraded practice problems, which will later be discussed in class. Mr. Pohling emphasizes that AP Physics C is mostly about understanding underlying concepts in mechanics rather than completing assignments. “The most successful students,” he states, “will spend significant time outside of class thinking about physics, reading about physics and discussing physics with their friends and family, because they are interested in the subject and not because of any required ‘work’ that is assigned.”

Class Structure:

During class, one-third of class time is spent partaking in lab activities, the focal point of AP Physics C. Every lab activity takes two consecutive days to complete, with the first day being used to collecting measurements and the second day being used to derive information from the measurements, as well as to compete for the lowest percent error in results. Aside from lab activities, the class also consists of lectures, discussions, demonstrations, problem-solving, assessments, and AP practice. Each lesson builds on the previous, so students who are often absent may especially struggle.

Overall, there are two to three overarching concepts in every unit of AP Physics C. Students who understand these concepts may find AP Physics C to be “remarkably easy.” Each assessment, including the AP exam, is curved, and lab and project grades are able to counterbalance suboptimal test grades. While Mr. Pohling admits that it is difficult to obtain a 95 or higher in the class, it is also difficult to maintain a C or lower in the class.

Students will gain a better understanding of the motion of objects according to classical mechanics after completing this course. Since, as Mr. Pohling puts it, the AP Physics C curriculum only “… scratches the surface of our present understanding of the physical world,” students are admittedly left with more questions than answers. However, the fundamental concepts learned from this class are sure to benefit stu-

Source: www.wikimedia.org dents’ future ventures in science and engineering-related fields.

For AP Physics students who are in need of assistance, Mr. Pohling offers extra help on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays after school as well as before school by request. Students who correct Mr. Pohling’s mistakes on answer keys are awarded with extra credit.

The AP Test:

On the AP Exam—which is comprised of a multiplechoice and free-response (open-ended) section— more than 80% of RDHS students pass (obtaining a 3 or higher). Most students score a 4 on the exam; however, multiple students are still able to score a 5.

AP US History

Overview: AP U.S. History—commonly abbreviated as APUSH—covers U.S. history from 1491 A.D. to the present day. In RDHS, it is taught by Mr. O’Toole, who ranks this class a 5 or 6 in difficulty on a scale from 1 to 5. Mr. O’Toole attributes this to the “…great deal of reading at the college level” and informs that it is “much harder and more time consuming than an honors class.”

Admittedly, APUSH is a rigorous class, requiring a great investment of both time and effort.

Expectations:

To succeed in APUSH, students must display historical thinking skills in “…developments and processes, sourcing and situation, claims and evidence in sources, contextualization, making connections, and argumentation,” as stated by The College Board. The development of these skills aims to encourage students to train habits necessary to critically analyze the past.

More specifically, skills such as time management, general critical thinking, evaluation, historical argumentation, reading comprehension, and writing are of utmost significance.

The challenging summer homework consists of several parts, designed to help students recall information covered in U.S. History I. One example of a summer assignment includes memorization all 46 U.S. Presidents in chronological order, reading a few chapters of a college-level textbook, and completing general review of information from U.S. History I in preparation for a test at the beginning of the school year.

Throughout the course, students should expect to receive one to two hours of homework every night. On the weekends, more homework may be assigned. Students with better study habits are able to complete the assignments more efficiently, so the true length of the homework assignments may vary depending on the student.

Class Structure:

For each APUSH class, students generally arrive having completed homework assignments the previous day. Class time is spent expanding on those concepts and often includes examining and discussing primary source documents. In these class discussions, all students are expected to participate productively and in a meaningful way. In addition to the analysis of primary source documents, APUSH seeks to teach students skills and methods that will support them as they prepare for the AP Exam.

APUSH students can expect to leave the class with a solid understanding of U.S. history. Throughout the class, students will learn about seven APUSH themes, nine historical eras, and various other trends that have influenced the development of the U.S. As an effect of the intensive reading, writing, and analysis in APUSH, students will also be able to read, write, analyze, and discuss crucial topics at the college level.

Students who are in need of help are able to schedule extra help appointments with Mr. O’Toole. Retakes are only offered if absolutely necessary and would be considerably rare and unusual.

The AP Test:

Thankfully, RDHS students generally perform “exceptionally well” on the AP Exam, according to Mr. O’Toole. Over the past five years, the average school on the AP Exam was 4.124, including the school years influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic. Mr. O’Toole attributes the success of his students to “…the rigor and high expectations of the course.”

The APUSH Exam itself is separated into four parts: a multiple-choice section, a short answer section, a document-based question (DBQ) section, and a long essay section.

See our next issue in September 2023 for Volume 2, in which we present the remaining AP course offerings at RD.