Honestly this whole notion of “credited” is completely arbitrary. What the heck does it mean anyway? So I took a class and passed it and now I have so-called “credit”. So if I forget the information do I then lose the “credits”? And what about someone who studies the information on their own and consequently knows more about the subject than most of those who sat in a classroom and paid a ■■■■ load of money? Should that person get “credits” as well? As for as I’m concerned that whole system of “acreditdation” is a scam.
It depends on the degree. My first two years were chem, bio, calc and english. AP classes are frowned upon in prehealth, whose students constitute about a third of my university.
I can see this being somewhat relevant to engineers, but I doubt highschools can tailor the difficulty of the curriculum on par with a 4 year institution.
Engineering is an extremely difficult major and no AP class can compare to what is taught at the college level.
No AP class can compare at all to courses at the elite schools, either. The one community college course my son took (at his private high school all Physics courses were taken at the CC) he was only able to use it to fulfill a science lab course requirement, but it did not fulfill the credits needed to graduate. If he had been a Physics major it would not have even fulfilled the requirement for freshman Physics.
Most of these schools are fully aware that AP courses are not the equivalent of the actual college course.
Many students at schools that do accept AP classes as credit, go into the next course for which the AP class was the prerequisite and find they do not have the foundational material necessary to successfully complete the next course in the sequence and have to drop it and take the prerequisite course again.
Also, anyone who believes the first two years of college is remedial, has not attended any of the top colleges and universities.
They’re not going to add it to the website.
The biggest problem in our education system, specifically higher education, is not that students forget almost everything that they will learn, it is that a lot of what is required to learn has little to no practical value and adds little to ones productivity in the workforce. But I am with you in that 4 years of high school and another 4 years of college is a joke and can easily be condensed into half the time, but the fact is that “education” is much more about money than anything else.
Have you tried going to your local board of education or contacting the Department of Education in your home state? That would seem like the logical first steps? I don’t believe that there is any absolute law that states education has to be the way we are currently doing it. The biggest fight will be from the lobbying forces that control education, because those forces want education to take a long time and cost a lot. They are not going to want things to change.
I agree on all points.
1 Like
Thanks for the update. I am disappointed that it was not even considered.
I sent my plan to the former Texas Commissioner of Education, Robert Scott. His reply was longer than my plan and he went on about how well he liked all of it. Then last paragraph, “Unfortunately we cannot tell the independent school districts how to teach.”
That sums it up. I appreciated some really great replies, but I am getting nowhere so I will now leave this board. For those who did not write down some good links: Waterloo U for the Curve of Forgetting and Collegeboard. for their CLEP program. They also have practice CLEP exams. For those who did not know about Collegeboard they also have the AP, SAT and more. Bye all.
Great thoughts and I am wondering about where you are now as to education and future career plans. I like your comments so well if I were rich I would sponsor you the rest of the way until you reach your objective. (Not or never will be rich but would just like to know)
You mentioned health and that may include medicine. My oldest is an MD and he knew what he wanted to be when he was four years old. Amazing in itself that he got there. One point is that he took his clinical rotation in the UK and found out that he was two years older than his classmates and the reason was that they only went 10 years there,not 12 as we do.
For $10 a month I will unlock the education secret the public school system is afraid of.
Please say more
Eh… but AP is not for the first 2 years, more like the first semester/quarter (if one were to take the intro classes concurrently).
It really depends on the quality of High School, but some certainly can knock out the intro course of a core series in bio/chem/calc etc…
How does one create a new topic here?
What I really like about all of the comments so far is that none have been political at all.
Our sorry education situation is in fact the problem we all share in as a country regardless of political persuasion and that is just super. I was going to leave, but will stick around now to see what develops.next.
signed: William
A button at the top right, under the blue box should say “new thread”.
A button at the top right, under the blue box should say “new topic”.
Why would anyone want to repeat high school for 2 years at a cost of 50K /year?
The OP is contending one can enter college as a Junior by getting credit for AP courses (some kids take a whole mess of them in high school,) and by taking the CLEP exam.
Yes, some colleges/universities accept a few AP courses, but not the elite uni’s - and many schools don’t recommend skipping the intro class even if you’ve taken the AP exam and gotten a 5, as they really are not equivalent to the college class.
My son’s college didn’t accept AP courses as credit at all and only allowed my kids CC class to fulfill a curriculum requirement but it could not be used to fulfill credit requirements.
Oh, yeah, I agree that beyond the basic introductory class… no way AP is equivalent.
As for those introductory classes, I had some very talented AP teachers and in retrospect the intimate class setting was a good thing. I would have to say it is hit or miss, a 300 person intro calculus course isn’t really some special thing… So going in a quarter/semester ahead is fine IMO.
But beyond that the continuity of curriculum at colleges can’t be encroached on by two years and work for most people IMO, so yeah.
Sigh… a reminder of how ridiculous school costs are now 
