What Does "Advanced Placement" Really Mean?

 

By Amalia Halikias

There is a terrifying rivalry that exists between the most academically strong students in 11^th and 12^th grade at B-CC: who can achieve the most with the least amount of sleep?  For most high school students, time is a scarce resource that we can’t seem to get enough of.  The stressful environment of smart students vying against one another for college acceptance is one of the main factors that lead to this unhealthy competition.

Last year, one girl—let’s call her Jane, for the purpose of this article—won “first place”.  Ice-skating 21 hours a week outside of school, enrolled in 6 AP courses, and interning at NIH, she managed to stay up four nights in a row.  One school week.

It was frightening for all who knew her.  What was more frightening, however, was that Jane’s parents encouraged her behavior.  They scolded her for sleeping or resting and provided her with an unlimited amount of caffeine-supplement pills.

School is supposed to prepare us for the real world… But does it?  The average full-time employee over 25 is required to work 40 hours a week.  At age 17, Jane spent approximately 96 hours on pure academics every week.

OK, now let’s assume the time-commitment of taking an AP course does not pose enough of an issue.  It is an unspoken assumption that AP courses—and other comparable advanced classes—provide students with a stronger or more complete education.  After all, the AP course is designed and advertised as “college level”.

It would be wonderful if this were true… but is it?  Are we truly getting a “college level” education?  Student experiences in the classroom say no.  “We are being taught to the test,” says one senior who is taking a mixture of high-level AP and IB courses.  “If, for example, a student is really interested in a topic and asks a specific advanced question, the teacher usually responds ‘That won’t be on the AP/IB’ and moves on.”

“It’s true,” adds another advanced student.  “Class time is all about preparing for the exam.  If we want to learn more, just because we’re interested, we have to do that at lunch or after school… but who has the time?”

Some teachers provide study guides designed by the College Board, or even specific formulas for creating a successful thesis.  Many students are dismayed at this return to elementary writing outlines and ‘recipes for an A’.  “I thought we were finally going to move away from provided essay formats.  Instead, we’re literally writing our essay theses with ‘fill-the-blank’ templates!” exclaims one academically advanced junior.  Rather than providing students with the necessary tools to do well, both in and outside the classroom, it seems as if some courses are geared solely towards one goal: a specific score on a specific test.

And so we begin to ask ourselves, “Are non-AP, non-IB courses actually providing stronger educations and sturdier building blocks for the future than the AP/IB classes?”  It seems counter-intuitive, but let us consider: there is less stress, since there isn’t an AP or IB exam at the end of the year.  There is less of a time commitment, as most on-level classes wouldn’t ever assign more than an hour of homework per night.  And there is more time in class to focus on students’ personal questions and interests, which is impossible in a big AP or IB class where everyone is racing against time to learn the material—however superficially—before the exam arrives.

An AP NSL class may be furiously copying down notes and taking practice tests, while an honors NSL class next door acts out the signing of the Constitution or the Brown v. Board Supreme Court case.  At the end of the day, who receives a stronger education?  “It’s not our fault, and it’s not the teacher’s fault,” explains one senior enrolled in five AP courses.  “It’s just the nature of the class.”

Economic principle states that if the costs outweigh the benefits, you shouldn’t do it.  So ask yourself, is it worth it?