Here in New Jersey, we pick next year's classes now. Here's what I'm taking:

English 12 AP
European History AP
Latin V AP
PreCalculus
Prob/Stat H
Environmental Science H
First Aid
Whatever PE
Independent Study in TV Production [for Honors Credit]

The only class I'm sure I'm taking next year is trig/algebra 2...problem with being in 8th grade is I dont get to pick my high school classes yet...maybe I'll join ROTC if i can

In middle school (7th Grade)... Classes I know I will take / electives

Geometry
Spanish 1B (at least, hopefully 2A or 2AB)
Band (advanced hopefully, don't know yet)

Interesting language level names! At RHS, languages go 1A, 1B, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and they are thinking of offering 6 for some languages. 1A and 1B levels are for the sped people, hence why I think the naming is funny. :rolleyes:

Yay! I love band. I'm also in Percussion ensemble, which is pretty awesome. My stupid school has one elective Monday Wednesday and one Tuesday Thursday. :blink:

^ :lol:

They do that for every class that a high schooler can take here in Montgomery County. I'm currently in Algebra 1AB, and accelerated Spanish would be Spanish 1AB Or Spanish 2AB. English 12 AP becomes English 12, Honors A/B. I like your system better though.

Wow, weird system. Here, "English 12 AP" is 12th grade college level English, the highest level of English you can get to. Our classes have numbers associated with grade level, then a second letter/[s] designating Advanced Placement AP or Honors H. No letter indicates a regular level course. For example English 11 H, the English I am currently in.

I am taking 3 AP courses and 2 Honors next year, which will be brutal, but is very impressive on a transcript. Some people are taking 5 AP courses. I don't see how they plan to survive. :lol: Taking 5 AP courses is like skipping senior year and going right into college! :rolleyes:

Hmmm, I'm gonna be taking Calculus this coming year at my local college. And I'm only 15! :D

Old thread, but I just got my scheduling put into the computers so I was reminded about this. ;)

That's impressive. I know someone my age who took Calc III at the local community college, but they got a D, so it wasn't very impressive. Regardless, they aren't very smart to begin with.

Get a calculus book from your local library and look ahead at what you are doing. I sure wish they taught me calculus concepts a few years back because they would have really helped me understand the world better.

Here's what I am taking next year:

AP Calculus II (Calc III isn't offered here, and I need to save something to college)
AP Physics II (electricity and magnetism as it is called elsewhere)
AP Statistics (a throwaway)
Spanish 4 (5 and 6 are called "AS 1" and "AS 2" here)
AP US History
AP Psychology (apparently extremely difficult, but I don't mind a hard class)
Strength Training II (another throwaway, but I won't say that it is easy)
AP Language (the "AP writing" class here other than AP Literature which is bullshit)

This might seem hard to others with 6 AP classes, but I really think that the only classes I will find difficult are AP US History, AP Psychology, AP Language, and potentially AP Physics II. Math is my thing apparently, so AP Calc II is nothing (besides, I know half of what they are doing anyway from AP Physics I). AP Statistics, here at least, is only a little more advanced than the regular statistics class and has an AP exam.

What I find hilarious is that some kids are stupid enough to take two full years of AP classes. According to the person who does the schedules here, I'm actually not near as heavy as some others are. Apparently some people take 10+ AP classes in two years, which only makes me wonder why they just don't go to college or learn on their own.

I also find my potential scheduling limited. We have barely any classes offered here. They give us a fairly thick book of classes offered by the county, but nearly every non-curriculum class has "Not offered at Brunswick High School, Catoctin High School, etc." written below the course description. Some of these classes might require me being shipped off to a larger school or the "Career and Tech Center." This was the first year we ever offered AP Physics and AP Calculus II. I sure wish I could have classes such as European History or the one that we've been trying to get since I was a freshman, World War II. We simply don't get enough money, have enough teachers, or have enough students to support anything. If we get any more budget cuts, I don't think that what is going to happen will be good.

Next year, I'm going into 9th grade, and these are the classes I have picked:
Pre-AP English I
Pre-AP Geometry
Pre-AP Biology I
Oklahoma History/Health (one semester each)

Electives I chose:
Pre-AP Spanish II
Stagecraft
Computer Applications/Outdoor Living (one sem. each)

I have to take Computer Applications to take any programming classes, and 9th grade is the only year you can take it. Outdoor Living is cool, because you get to do hiking, archery (ya!), and orienteering.

What is "Pre-AP" at your school? I know some states have "AP" classes which are not the same as AP = Advanced Placement, the college level courses offered at certain levels. I can tell that your system is different, based on the way "AP" is used.

Here, we have a high school larger than some tiny colleges [~1700 students] so there is no shortage of courses. We have some of the most bizzare, obscure, and downright cool electives and clubs. Like The History of Ridgewood, Foods of the World, etc. They are working on making Dart Wars [a nerf competition] recognized as an official club. We have like 50 clubs and 100 electives.

@Ben: 6 AP classes would be hell here. 5 is generally the most a teacher is willing to approve, and that is a stretch. Plus, the cost of the AP Exam is $82 each, so more AP classes = expensive. Ridgewood High sends lots of students to Ivy-League schools, and the colleges know that, so overloading AP courses is not as important here as it is elsewhere.

Alas, I was not in an advanced class until third grade. Acually, they didn't have any advanced math program of any kind before third grade... which is... sad. Very sad. I could be going Pre-cal by now if I had been started earlier. I slept through math before third grade. I'm glad I got to be in the advanced class (there were two in our grade who got in, me one of them) because the teacher was great and he taught me a ton of tricks for mental math that I use everyday, even though it was in third grade. Now I'm a class of my own (no one else that advanced beecause the other guy on my level left the school) but that's mostly because it's a tiny school. Compared to Hannibal, I will be taking Calculus when I am 16. I may run out of classes at high school, too because they only go through Calc II I believe.

Please forgive any spelling mistakes my computer is lagging about 5 seconds behind what I'm typing. It feels like I'm blind. I'm not even bothering to reread because it would take me several minutes and it would probably make things worse! <_<

Man was I pissed when i got my classes this year. Over here in California, the schools suck. The classrooms are packed, so I didn't get tha classes I wanted.
I got put in Algebra I again, but I sometimes help friends in geometry. The classes were full, and I got placed back in Algebra I again. I'm going to take some sort of test that will let me pass up Geometry and go straight to Algebra II. I hope all goes well there.

I got Spanish I, but that class is a joke, and I already knew a little spanish. I should have been put in Spanish II, but I wanted an easy A. Stupid me.
English is far too easy for me, and I think I should have taken the advanced class I was offered. They got to read The Odyssey and Romeo and Juliet, while I got average kid stuff.

Obviously, next year I am going to try and get the harder classes. This year left me bored. Here is the classes I want next year that I will be trying to get.

Drafting II (Designing on computers with programs like Autodesk VIZ, Mech. Desktop, etc)
Algebra II
Karate (you can get a karate class in place of your normal gym class)

It's like an AP class, but is slightly easier (just slightly) and you can't get college credit for it. They don't start offering AP courses until 10th grade.

Ok, at our school there is ONE Spanish class per grade. Well, there is only one option per grade. If our Spanish teacher had taught us more in 4th grade, maybe we wouldn't still be in Spanish I! Seriously, I don't study at all, barely take notes, zone a lot, and I still get high A's because our old Spanish teacher taught me this when I was in 1-3 grade. Schools need to get a grip and start the advanced programs at an earlier age.

English, however, is very good at my school. Most of the books are high school/college level.

The History program is also very good, and we have a great teacher. Great, but makes us work nonstop and gives us twice as much homework than any other teacher.

In my county they have a magnet program for 4th graders, if you pass a test they transfer you into another school (currently Pine Crest). Then they have them for middle, and high schools too.

I got my course list for next year (going into 8th grade) today, so here are my classes.

Required:
English: GT
Mathematics: Mag Geometry
Magnet Computer Science 8
World Studies: GT
Science: Mag Science 8
Physical Education 8

Electives
Band (intermediate or advanced, don't know yet)
Spanish 1B (hoping to change that to II)

I was placed in spanish 1A this year, but was going to change until I figured that I should just take an easy class.

EDIT: spelling

Oh yeah, I should have posted my courses, eh? ;)

English/History: English/American Studies 2 (History) integrated
Math: Geometry
Science: Science... no name.
P.E.
Spanish IB (that's "One Bee". The second half of Spanish I.)
Band (w00t)
Percussion Ensemble (I think)

Let me explain the Geometry. I SHOULD be in Algebra II next year, however, I did Algebra II this year so that next year I could go back and do it with two other advanced math students (advanced, but still a year behind me).

The history teacher I was talking about earlier is teaching the integrated course.

The choice really wasn't mine, in fact the scheduling was essentially strategic. Few specific or advanced courses are offered here. If I wanted something even close to impressive, I'd have to take loads of AP classes and hope that they offer them here. Many students request a class and then switct out of the class after helping get it. That is why our school's AP Calc II class has 6 students - everyone took the class to get it, and then most switched out. Lots of kids do this hoping that they will offer a certain class or something, but historically the only new classes they will offer will be AP classes. I probably will only get four of the AP classes optimistically.

The problem with this strategy is that many classes will become very small and others very large. For example, a few AP classes were during third period this semester, and lots of people switched out into Strength Training, a class which now has 40 or more kids. Luckily, I take Strength Training second period, which has 15 kids.

If the schools offered a varied of classes, none of these problems would occur. <_<

Here if you select an AP course, you are stuck with it. They banned switching out because so many people were doing it and clogging up Honors classes. [My English Honors class has about 30 students, and last year had at least 35].

People would scream if they did that here. That's the only way we can get advanced classes. They do ask you to write a paragraph if you are switching out of an Honors or AP class here, but I don't think they actually read them, so the paragraph system is ineffective.

I still have the flyer from a few years ago when the county cut our funding. School consequently started an hour earlier to fire some bus drivers, and lots of classes were eliminated. There also was even scarier talk like charging students to do sports and band, as well as firing over half the janitorial staff. Talk about a nightmare! Small schools have no luck, at least here. :(

We've also taken huge budget cuts, but I guess large schools can cope more easily. There are bakes sales like every day, since clubs and sports use that as a primary means of raising money for buses. The school used to pay for transportation. They have also been able to add a few classes to a course catalogue already with every subject under the sun. We do have a once annual activity fee of $75, but nobody complains since this is Ridgewood and the stereotype is that everyone is wealthy. :rolleyes: It would suck to have to pay for sports, though. Some things like the FIT Program are $120, but Track is free. :P

Did Dart Wars make it as a club, or are they still working on it? I learned today that as long as it's reasonable, anyone can start a club and ask a teacher to sponsor it at our school. I'm not sure how many clubs there are, maybe around 30-35. We probably have around 50-60 electives.

And I also found out that my high school has a Pokemon club. <_<

We have like a 100 or so clubs already, and Dart Wars hasn't made it yet. My team missed the registering deadline! We didn't get in for the Spring round! :angry: :(

My school is fairly odd when it comes to stuff like proposing new clubs. I mean, if you wanted to get a petition to change the name of the school to "Johnny Reb High School" you could do it. Two of my friends have made petitions to change the name of the school to something else. While they won't work, it's still funny to see.

Strange...it seems like all our high schools are so different. Mine has general classes with no suffix, advanced (doesn't mean a thing) with -A, honors (still some undedicated kids) with -H, and advanced placement (actually challenging) with -AP. By the way, pre-AP is the same thing as honors, for those of you who didn't know.

I'm in tenth grade, so for next year: Precalculus-H, French III-A, Chemistry-H, English 10-H, World History II-H, Marching Band (probably best in state), Concert Band (probably best in state), and Computer Science-AP.

I'm pretty sure the school (say, 1400 students) recieves plenty of funding...and we have a lot of clubs and electives, though there is no one list of all the clubs. I'd say there are easily 50 electives, and probably way more. Of course, I'm not sure...

New Jersey has something like a $4-6 billion deficit, so they cut funding that we had taken for granted. There are bake sales every day for various clubs trying to raise money. Courses don't cost much to add, so we still have a huge selection, probably one of the largest in NJ. And since Ridgewood High is one of the top 50 public high schools in the country, we get large donations from certain individuals once in a while. So despite the drop in funds, we are still doing pretty well.

Before this topic, I thought that "AP" and "IB" were standard for college level courses. Evidently, there are no national standards for anything related to courses, each state does something completely different. :blink:

My high school is also quite a powerful one, and it has its share of high achievers--it's just that it has its own share of undedicated people. I don't think any alumni would want to donate to a high school that has graffiti, smoke, and fights everywhere... There just isn't much a school administration can do to stop such things.

Although many course designations might be different, there must be at least some standardization. General classes have standard GPA weights, advanced ones have +0.25, honors classes have +0.5, and AP courses involve +1--and this applies to all base grades except failing, which is always 0. Although it might be preferable to drop down a level and get better grades (ie 4.25 > 2.5), the education and atmosphere in the higher classes is much better. Also, pre-AP might actually be +0.75--there are only one or two of those level courses, and they're new, so I wouldn't know. I don't think my school offers International Baccaleureat (I don't think that's the right spelling) courses, so I don't know much about them. However, AP courses are strictly regulated, and their exams are the same throughout the United States.

Here we only have Developmental=3.5, regular=4.0, Honors=4.5, and AP=5.0 and that is the value of an A. Failing is not 0 in Honors or AP classes. It's better to be in advanced classes [advanced as in the adjective, since we have no such category] since a B in an AP course has the same weight as an A in a regular course.

AP courses also are not standard. Some states do AP US History in 1 year, others in 2. Some offer an AP World History I think. And not every AP class is the same as the next. It depends on the quality of the teachers in your school. Schools that offer AP in not so great districts probably have not so great classes.

The AP tests are the same, though. Hopefully the costs aren't. Who else has to pay $90 per exam?

Well, this year, quite a few people have been transferred from private schools because they either want to be here or because their private schools stop at grade 8. Those kids are always dumped into the Honors classes, and while some do well, many of them simply flunk or get very poor grades. So either their schools didn't have such level selection and they thought Honors would be easy, or they were just left there because people assume that private school kids must be smart all the time.

I believe the cost for AP exams is high everywhere.