It’s not out of the ordinary for counselors and AP teachers to experience an influx of transfer students from AP to regular classes at the end of the first quarter.
The golden rule for AP transfers has remained the same year after year: students can’t get out until the first quarter grades are already in. Teachers are constantly encouraging student only to take AP classes if they’re prepared for the work, and counselors try to enforce how much tougher AP’s can be over the regular and honors classes students have previously been introduced to.
Teachers even give recommendations to students who they believe have the ability to take on an AP class in the subject, but unprepared students still end up in the class despite the fact that some AP’s aren’t for everyone.
“I think switching out [of AP Lang] was the right choice,” said junior Maddie Lother. “Regular English class is less complicated than the AP class.”
The reason most people choose to attempt AP classes is because they look good when applying for college. It’s not just taking the class that counts though; anyone can sign up for an AP, the hard part is passing the class.
When applying to colleges, the university can see what classes you took on your transcript. While they see your weighted GPA with the AP point added on, they also see the final grade without the point. Therefore, that D you got in an AP class may be added into your weighted GPA as a C, but colleges still see it was a D.
Still, many teachers are passing students to reinforce the message that they should keep striving for success and not give up after a rough start because usually it does get better.
“I felt like writing wasn’t my strong point,” said junior David. “However I didn’t switch out because my writing was improving and I want colleges to see I can handle an AP course.”
In the end, there’s no shame in taking a less challenging course. Being an A student at grade level is better than failing on the AP level.
Then again, if so many students (69, to be exact) switched out of AP classes after first quarter, many people wonder why the school still makes students finish the quarter.
“It was very hard and time consuming on top of AP Lang,” said junior Makeze Javid on switching from AP Psychology into Art 1. “My first quarter wouldn’t have been so stressful if I’d been able to switch out earlier.”
If students were allowed or encouraged to drop difficult classes, it could lead to staffing problems and a drop in class size. Besides, it’s not the faculty’s fault; this is a state mandated regulation.
“The purpose is to keep them in the class,” said Director of Student Services Jennifer Ferrara. “The number of students we get in the spring of who’s taking which classes tells us how to staff our classes.”
