Homeschooling through high school: AP Courses

Free AP courses for homeschoolers. Copyright PhotoXpress

Teaching high school AP courses at home is challenging. It can also become very expensive. Many parents resort to accredited schools to teach AP courses. This is an expensive option. Accredited online and distant learning programs may be far too costly for many homeschooling families.

Let’s talk about AP courses. AP stands for Advance Placement. These courses are geared toward students who are capable of college level work. It assumes prior subject knowledge and successful completion of lower coursework. For example, a student would not take AP Biology if they have not completed a standard high school biology course usually taken in the 9th or 10th grade. AP courses are college level. In order to get full AP credit a proctored exam must be taken at the end of the course.

There are several ways to take an AP course. The first is through an accredited online or distance learning school. Schools such as Keystone National High School and K12 offer AP courses. These schools will provide you with the coursework for a fee. Usually you enroll in the school and pay tuition. Another option is to take free AP course. This can be done online through a service called Hippocampus.org.

Hippocampus.org offers many AP courses for free. These are complete courses. They include reading material as well as media viewing. A high speed cable or broadband internet connection is highly recommended in order to take these courses. There are ten different subject areas available: Algebra, American Government, Biology, Calculus, Environmental Science, Physics, Psychology, Religion, Statistics, and US History. Algebra and Calculus are available in Spanish as well as English. When the student completes the course, an AP exam must be taken for AP credit. Parents should contact the College Board website for information about how, where and when to take an AP exam in their location.

AP coursework is one way to help a homeschooled high school student stand out from their peers. Colleges know how rigorous AP courses are. The AP exam is a standardized exam. A student that has successfully completed an AP course and received a good grade on the exam demonstrates to colleges that the homeschooled high school student is capable of successfully completing college level work. This information is actually more important to colleges than a diploma from an accredited school.

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