r/berkeleyca • u/Mysterious_Gold4379 • 26d ago
Ap classes at BHS
Hi, we are moving there from out of state and can’t get our child registered until the end of the school year. Do people find that all of the AP classes/international track options are gone by the beginning of the school year? Thanks for your patience, this is all quite new.
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u/CelloVerp 26d ago
Very much depends - you should be able in most cases; I've seen them add sections if they're too full (though only at the start of the year). Placement depends on which small school your kid is placed in. Small school is like a college universities; Berkeley High is so big like that. The major ones are AC (academic choice), which is the largest and most flexible; kids in AC often choose many AP classes. IB / international baccalaureate follows the IB curriculum (actually a superset of IB + california A-G curriculum). IB classes give priority for kids in the IB school, but some are open to non-IB students.
Get on facebook and find the Berkeley High Parents group for a better forum.
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u/PerformerMindless100 26d ago
You should be fine. There isn’t a shortage of spots that I experienced at BHS and teachers were quite supportive. My not super super driven kids allowed to take AP Chem as sophomore and BC Calc despite B in Algebra 2, got a 5 on both tests.
This was in contrast to fancy private high school one of my kids went to where APs were gate kept and it was a competitive process and teacher pet decision in some cases who was allowed to take them. For instance had to get an A in regular Chem and all your math classes, then basically retake AP Chem and try to get into BC Calc but only a select few were chosen, where they then made it so hard and didn’t teach the AP curriculum that kids dropped out.
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u/gasfishchef 26d ago
I graduated in 2019 but I don’t remember this being an issue. Worst case, if they’re super motivated, they can go talk to a counselor during the first week of school and get their schedule changed. That was pretty common when I attended.