European History AP w/Mrs. Harrison (PA AP)

[HollyinNNV]

OK-so I had my dd sit down and look at the AP classes on the PA site. She said that she might be the most interested in the subject matter of European History. I went back and looked at several reviews of this class on this website (WTM). A couple questions:

What is a typical work-week like?
I've noticed Mrs. Harrison described as strict. In what ways?
Are the essays graded with just a letter grade or is there feedback as well?
Is this class truly harder than World History?
TIA!!!!!
Holly

[HollyinNNV]

And btw-students classify me as strict, too. But, I think I just have high expectations. So-for me strict does not equal bad.

Again-TIA-
Holly

[Ailaena]

I'm not helping much, sorry, but I was under the impression that AP world history was more difficult than AP Euro based on the fact that many sophmores here take Euro history, but few schools even offer world history. There are even a couple of schools here that do AP Euro in one (spring) semester.

Plus, the world history teacher at PA Homeschoolers says that, "Depending on the student's qualifications, I may recommend taking AP European History instead." I only know this because I was knocking around the idea of making dd take an actual outside class for AP world history and, of course, they were my first stop!

[Sandra in FL]

most high schools offer AP World History in 9th grade and AP Euro History in 10th.

HTH,
Sandra

[HollyinNNV]

most high schools offer AP World History in 9th grade and AP Euro History in 10th.

HTH,
Sandra

AP World in 9th grade? Wow!

[Ria]

My son will be taking AP Euro next year at the ps as a 10th grader.

Ria

[Hilary]

My daughter took European History with Mrs. Harrison as a sophomore, and my son took World History with Mrs. Harrison as a junior. They both had good experiences with the class. I think that the classes are fairly comparable in terms of difficulty. IMO, European History is probably a little easier because the volume of material to memorize is smaller.

Mrs. Harrison IS strict, in the sense of having a seemingly more formal and reserved personality. Mrs. Richman, who teaches US History, is very chatty and encouraging and relaxed with her students. Mrs. Harrison is more like an "old school" professor. For example, I have had many email conversations with her in the past three years and I have always addressed her as "Mrs. Harrison" and she addresses me as "Mrs. Miller."

I think she is a wonderful teacher, though. My daughter definitely struggled with this class. She wasn't at all used to the type of essay-writing that the AP test required. Mrs. Harrison gave her a lot of feedback and even contacted me to let me know about what was going on. My daughter had a B average in the class at the end, but because she got a 4 on the exam, Mrs. Harrison raised it to an A. My son had less difficulty and got a 5 in World History. I'm not giving the test scores as a brag, but just to show that this is an effective class :001_smile: One thing I especially liked about both these classes is that the enrollment is relatively small. Your student is likely to get very individual attention (unlike the English Lang class my son's in this year, which has over 30 students ... too many IMO).

As far as the workload goes, my daughter is in Vienna right now, so I can't ask her. But my son says that World History required about 1 1/2 to 2 hours per day. He says there is a lot of reading. I imagine that Euro History is fairly similar.

[HollyinNNV]

My daughter took European History with Mrs. Harrison as a sophomore, and my son took World History with Mrs. Harrison as a junior. They both had good experiences with the class. I think that the classes are fairly comparable in terms of difficulty. IMO, European History is probably a little easier because the volume of material to memorize is smaller.

I'm glad to hear that your dd did it as a sophomore. That will be my dd's age.

Mrs. Harrison IS strict, in the sense of having a seemingly more formal and reserved personality. Mrs. Richman, who teaches US History, is very chatty and encouraging and relaxed with her students. Mrs. Harrison is more like an "old school" professor. For example, I have had many email conversations with her in the past three years and I have always addressed her as "Mrs. Harrison" and she addresses me as "Mrs. Miller."

I see. That makes sense. Even though she's strict, she seems to have a very loyal group of students. The reviews are glowing.

I think she is a wonderful teacher, though. My daughter definitely struggled with this class. She wasn't at all used to the type of essay-writing that the AP test required.

My dd writes a lot. Even though she is a good writer, I don't think that she's great at timed essays. I'm hoping that this class will correct that deficiency.

Mrs. Harrison gave her a lot of feedback and even contacted me to let me know about what was going on. My daughter had a B average in the class at the end, but because she got a 4 on the exam, Mrs. Harrison raised it to an A. My son had less difficulty and got a 5 in World History. I'm not giving the test scores as a brag, but just to show that this is an effective class

The proof is in the puddin'! Those are great scores. I'm glad to hear about the feedback. I was really unimpressed with an online school we tried last year. We ended up dropping the class. But, the teacher never dropped us from the email list. He was still correcting papers in JULY!

:001_smile: One thing I especially liked about both these classes is that the enrollment is relatively small. Your student is likely to get very individual attention (unlike the English Lang class my son's in this year, which has over 30 students ... too many IMO).

I hadn't even thought about that aspect! Thanks for pointing that out.

As far as the workload goes, my daughter is in Vienna right now, so I can't ask her. But my son says that World History required about 1 1/2 to 2 hours per day. He says there is a lot of reading. I imagine that Euro History is fairly similar.

Well, that's doable. She spends that much time on Biology this year.

I would like to trust our AP experience to a professional! I am paying for someone who has BTDT and can see the entire arc of the class.

Thanks so much for your helpful feedback!
Holly