Reflections on My Junior Year Classes Part 1

This year, I took Computer Science III, AP Chem, AP Stats, AP Eng Lang, AP Physics C, AP Psyc, AP Calc BC, and APUSH (in period order). This is basically going to be a review of my classes and advice as I'm basically done now, so I'm just going to leak my school; I go to Cedar Ridge High School. This is going to be two parts because I didn't realize how much I had to say on my classes.

CSIII with Mr. Prado - This class was pretty chill. The projects were relatively simple and directly accessed the data structure we learned about. Since the teacher was very chill, there were a lot of people who didn't do their work. This combination lead to a lot of time for these projects, and since they weren't extremely large projects, we had a lot of free time. I also had some friends in the class. Thus I had a lot of fun in this class. I do want to note the number of the top 10 in this class; 1, 2, 5, and 10 were in my class, 3 and 9 are in the other period, and there could be more. The funny part is, only one of them wants to major in CS. So about half the top 10 are in CS, but only 1 wants to actually major in it. I don't think this review will be very helpful to any future CRHS students since Mr. Prado is going to be leaving next year. I thought he was a good teacher just in a bad context. Whenever he taught, he tried to guide people through the problem-solving process and try to explain how we got from nothing to the solution, which is clearly good. He also was very empathetic and more relatable in terms of school advice since he was relatively young. The bad context is the kids in his class. I'd say over 90% of his kids don't pay attention to his lectures. Seeing as the problem-solving process requires the learner to participate, this good quality is counteracted by this. My advice to Mr. Prado would be to try and keep stricter reins on your class: it's good to have empathy but there is a certain point in which there's just being taken advantage of.

Chemistry with Mrs. White - This class was pretty fun. However, I think that the people in my class played a big part in this. They were attentive and participated in class, yet also funny. This doesn't really seem to be the case for the other AP Chem period, so if you're a sophomore/junior looking to take AP Chem next year, try to get some friends/good people and hope to have the same period. Mrs. White is a teacher who is cognizant of her position, and so she likes to make comments in lectures that contribute to the fun atmosphere. There are a few things she is very serious about though, and test security/integrity is one of them. She also tried to teach problem-solving skills, but this focus only began in the second semester, so maybe she'll try to begin teaching the heuristics earlier in the year. She is also very understanding as she had sympathy for the decreased learning from the online year we had sophomore year for us juniors and the cut year for the seniors. Thus we went slower, which led to us being behind and having to self-study some units. I don't think this will be a problem for the future kids though. Mrs. White is also very focused on us learning the content. She is very lenient on due dates, grading of most things, and unconcerned (sometimes for the worse) about people's grades. These are very good things are the point of grades is to access learning, and thus learning should be the focus. In terms of grades, each marking period is mostly just practice worksheets as competition (dailies), lab reports and quizzes (formatives), and tests (summatives). The tests are curved based on max(sqrt(raw)*10, raw/.85). The lab reports are graded quite attentively, so make sure to review the rubric carefully. In terms of the difficulty, I think that Collegeboard's philosophy towards AP Chem is much more oriented towards problem-solving. I think that the majority of the test relies on a few overarching concepts that we have to apply very cleverly. For instance, the balanced equation's usefulness permeates almost every unit and is, to be frank, quite overpowered. Thus I think that this class is the least meritocratic. Even if you work hard and put in the hours, it is still possible that you don't figure our the problems. My advice is to grind a lot of mcq problems to try and learn heuristics.

Statistics with Mrs. Overman - This class and subject were quite different from the usual math class and just class in general. To start, this class was flipped, i.e. we watch the lecture online (given by the teacher) and then takes notes (fill in the blanks, also given). Then we answer questions online as homework. Instead of notes in class, we do an assignment. Sometimes it's an activity, other times is a practice problem over the topic. It's also quite different in how stats is very self-contained. Most other math classes, the next unit has some degree of independence of the units prior, instead there is a heavy reliance on past math classes. Instead, AP Stats had content from the beginning of the year laying the foundations for the latter year's content. For instance, understanding data types explains which test for inference to choose, probability is needed for a conceptual understanding of how we infer things, etc. There is also a massive use of context. In other math classes, context doesn't matter at all. In stats, context is basically need to get any points. Thus the applications are much more clearly shown. In terms of the teacher, I think that Mrs. Overman really tries to get people to understand why the content is the way it is. Unfortunately, this might be confusing for people who don't remember the very basics like the vocabulary she is using to justify why it is the way it is. Also, AP stats is more application oriented in the greater context of statistics, so trying to explain statistical theory is going to be hard to understand. This is more of a flaw in Collegeboard then in her teaching (or maybe it shows her inability to adapt to her kids). I don't want to comment much on her character as she really liked me, but she is fairly uncensored. Sometimes she asks us political questions (taken from a statistical viewpoint) and says some out-of-pocket stuff. It is funny though. Also, she is quite organized as she has the entire year planned out from the first day. In terms of grading, she isn't the most generous, but she gives a decent amount of extra credit/leeway. I think it is enough to allow for a few bad days, but not enough to allow no studying. She also allows a notecard to take in and use during the test, which is quite generous. She also gives reviews before tests/quizzes that are very, very, very helpful. In terms of AP questions, I think that AP stats is generally more oriented towards knowing/memorizing the content. Interpretation and procedure for analysis is especially important on the frq. There is some problem-solving ability needed for the 6th question on the frq, the investigative task. Each year Collegeboard tries to throw something approachable, yet never seen before on the AP test in. I think this is probably one of the more meritocratic classes. My advice is to make sure to really understand early year stuff.

English Lang with Shultz/Maschka - The class varied a bunch depending on teacher, so I'll comment separated by teacher.
Shultz - Mr. Shultz was a very funny, relatable, empathetic, and liberal teacher. He had a very, and I mean very, casual relationship with his students. Our class had people who would actually engage in learning, which made class just so much better and provided many hilarious moments, such as once when a kid roasted Shultz in front of a teacher evaluator. He was pretty lax on deadlines, willing to give thoughtful feedback, and understanding of people's situation. From the get-go, his humor was very appropriate for our generation. He hated on capitalism, complained about power dynamics, sought egalitarianism, etc. This also permeated when we actually had serious conversations. I do have something I didn't like about him, and that is how sometimes he just made assertions with no evidence or reasoning assuming it evident for our generation. Sometimes I disagreed with him, so I would've been curious as to what his reasoning was. I also found his motivation to teach very inspiring: he wanted to make a lasting impact on the world and improve critical thinking to reverse the degenerating situation "mankind" is in. IN terms of grading, basically everything that wasn't an essay was completion. He had the grading scale of 0-6 for essays (like the AP rubric), but he also gave n+, which is basically n.5 (i.e. 5+ = 5.5 = midway between 5 and 6 grade). The grade was 6 was 100, 5 was 90, etc.
Moschka - I think that Moschka more embodies the college professor than high school teacher. From the number of degrees she has, it really seems like she has a passion and expertise in the liberal arts/humanities. Yet she really seems to be bad at communication. Her lessons are very different from the other teachers, directions unclear, seemed to be unable to explain answers when I asked her about them, etc. Her class was very unstructured; basically every class was just her meeting with people to discuss things and us working on stuff. In terms of her grading, she was quite strict at the start. She seems to be taking more of a lax approach to grades recently, so maybe that will be the case for you future kids.
In terms of the AP test, I think that you've just got to hope for something you'll able to write about on frq. The mcq can be pretty though as well. Overall, this class is very unmeritocratic as there really is no key to doing well other than luck and skill at English, something acquired after many years of use. My advice is to just be a well-informed, educated individual.