Adapted by Leslie Gorin from an article by Howard and Susan Richman This adaptation of the article was first published in Treasure Valley Homeschool News
My daughter is tapping away at her computer, online once again and at her e-mail. I'm suspecting she's just writing frivolous chatty notes to her homeschool friends, and wander over to check things out, as it is 10:00 a.m. and a bit early for goofing off. But as I come up, I see she has The Federalist Papers propped up by her monitor, and she's leafing through it to find a section she wants. Then more typing, some page-flipping, some musing. She then turns to me and lets me know that she's right in the middle of an AP U.S. History e-mail discussion, and that it's helping her understand more about the debate between the Hamiltonian Federalists and Jeffersonian Republicans than she'd imagined. She's radiant and invigorated by it all. I head off to other tasks, secure in knowing that she is right on track after all.
AP stands for Advanced Placement. Run by the College Board, AP is a program of annual examinations for academically oriented kids who want to do an introductory-level college course while still in high school-and have a score at the end of the year to prove they did it. It lets kids move right into more advanced coursework when they enter college; it allowed my older daughter, Arielle, to gain a professor's permission to enroll in an upper-level economics class during her freshman year in college, enabling her to skip the notoriously large lecture halls of macro- and micro-economics. A friend of ours was able to skip all freshman English composition requirements and take Honors Shakespeare as one of his very first courses, and another moved right into second year physics and calculus courses in his first semester. There's an AP exam to interest any bright kid: you can study English literature, U.S. history, European history, American government, psychology, economics, art history, music theory, French, Spanish, German, Latin, physics, chemistry, biology, calculus, statistics-34 subjects are offered this year alone, and more on the way. By scoring well on AP exams-the exams all include both multiple-choice questions and essays or "free-response" questions-students can demonstrate to a college that they really have mastered the coursework.
I can see five main reasons why homeschoolers should consider taking AP courses and exams: First, if homeschoolers take and earn their college's passing grade on enough AP exams, they can sometimes skip a semester, or even a full year of college. That option is available to my older daughter: She can graduate from college in three and one-half years because of the approved AP credits she accumulated during high school. With two more credits, she could have graduated in three years, as other students have done. That can add up to a tremendous savings in money as well as time. Second, AP courses can prepare students for college writing assignments. Homeschooled students who have scored well on AP English exams will attest to the excellent preparation they received for being able to write essays on demand. Third, colleges are anxious to enroll the best students, and if you can show that you've taken the most difficult courses available, it's a sure sign you're worth taking a second look at. Having a couple of AP courses on your senior year transcript makes a student much more attractive to colleges, and demonstrates that you're not afraid of taking on the kind of academic challenges that college will pose. Fourth, homeschoolers who score well on AP exams before their senior year (the scores are not available until July, which is too late to help seniors applying to college) often get scholarship offers from colleges. Where some colleges don't always know what to make of a homeschooler's grade given by mom or dad, they all know what AP grades mean. Finally, some of the available online AP classes are available only to homeschoolers (more on that later). These offer the added perk of a community of bright and intellectually curious classmates from all over the world. The conversations, debates, humor, and friendships that emerge from many of these classes can give an exciting dimension to the homeschool experience.
When you do plan an AP course, keep in mind that it's a big time commitment. Few students score well unless they devote a minimum of five hours per week to the course, and most courses require ten or more hours per week. So don't just pile an AP course onto an already heavy schedule. Many a student has started out with the best of intentions when taking on a gaggle of AP courses on top of a schedule already laden with other classwork, a job, and/or a heavy extracurricular schedule-and something always has to give.
Lots of homeschoolers study for AP exams on their own, without using an Internet course or an outside teacher or class. It can be done, especially with a very self-motivated student who can set the needed study schedule and stick to it. Arielle took two online AP classes during her junior year, and by the end of it felt ready to self-study for several more during her senior year. There are lots of good helps available: Barrons publishes some very good guides to the AP exams (available at most book stores and online at www.pahomeschoolers.com). These can point out what type of work you need to do over the whole year, even suggesting texts and other resources. There are also CD-ROMs, course descriptions, and sample questions available from the College Board at their website, www.collegeboard.org. The website offers a gold mine of information about the exams, and is a "don't-miss" if you're serious about AP.
Afraid you might not really know how to structure an AP course on your own, or just want your student to work with another teacher-but still be at home? There are a variety of sources of AP Internet courses available to homeschooled students. These courses usually include teachers who can answer students' questions, give them feedback on their essays and problem-solving approaches, and keep them on-track to cover all of the course material in time for the exam. The best of the courses feature much interaction between participating students. You can read all about them at their Internet sites. Among the best-known are Pennsylvania Homeschoolers at www.pahomeschoolers.com; Scholars Online Academy (SOLA), embracing a classical Christian approach, at www.islas.org; APEX at www.apexlearning.com; Stanford University's Educational Program for Gifted Youth (EPGY) courses at http://epgy.stanford.edu; and Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth at www.cty.jhu.edu/cde/ap.html. The PA Homeschoolers and SOLA courses are the least expensive and are only available to homeschoolers, while the others are available to all students.
Exams are offered only once a year in early May, as established by the College Board. High schools offering AP exams each have an AP Coordinator who orders and oversees the administration of the tests. It pays to contact them early, as high schools have different policies related to offering the exams (i.e., some don't offer all the exams, some only offer them to students from their district, and so on). You cannot sign up directly with the College Board as you can with the SAT; you must work through individual high schools. Here's hoping the AP option gives you yet another worthwhile item on the ever-expanding menu of exciting and enriching ways to homeschool our children!
Adapted from an article originally published in Practical Homeschooling July/August 1999 and © 1999 Home Life, Inc. Practical Homeschooling magazine is a publication of Home Life, Inc., PO Box 1190, Fenton, MO 63026-1190, (800) 346-6322, www.home-school.com. An annual subscription to PHS is $19.95. Used by permission. Authors Howard and Susan Richman are the founders and owners of Pennsylvania Homeschoolers, a family-run business, www.pahomeschoolers.com.
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