Aspies in or were in advanced classes

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While we were talking about being mainstreamed and/or being placed in special education. How many of you had or are taking advanced courses in middle or HS? Is it your full curriculum or only a few courses here and there.

I do realize that for most of us these classes do offer a more aggressive learning curve and are more challenging academically, allow some of us to fall back on something more useful.
But for others it may be too fast or complexing, requiring more conceptual feedback and research and of course interacting.

I did take a couple advanced courses in Spanish and Calculus, and that alone let me see how aggressive it seemed.

The one thing I really had problems with besides communicating, was doing research. I couldn't do research worth a nickel. I was more of a rote-memory kind of person, which in fact is a major symptom of Aspergers in the first place. I wasn't much of a reader, so that was a big cause of the problem too.
The most I did was look up a few pages in encyclopedias and then read the basic stuff and then record the infomation which was usually vague and general...

So what were your strengths and challenges taking advanced courses in school?

I've been in a few advanced classes...

But not many...

Not very many...

The last two years of HS were pretty much straight advanced classes for me. Lots of fun, as I could pretty much screw around (very open class structure) and learn whatever I wanted. I did have problems in calculus but I still got away with a B. If the class had a lot of reading I always did very well in it. Oddly enough, I pretty much failed Middle school.

I could insert a cut-and-paste copy of Prometheus' comment.

I took only 'advanced' classes in high school and did very well. Partly because I have a good memory for lecture material and books, so I only needed to study a little bit to do well on tests. The courses I took did require a lot of reading, though, so I can see how not being much of a reader would be a problem.

Even if I didn't do well in them, I still think I would have preferred advanced courses. Supposedly college admissions people think a 'C+' in an advanced course at my school is worth as much as an 'A' in a normal course, if my school's administration is to be believed. Even more importantly, the students (and teachers) in advanced classes were more like my type of person. I made some friends there, and most people were respectful, at least a little mature, tolerated intellectual conversation, were actually interested in learning, etc. Also, I was very comfortable interacting and speaking about classroom/intellectual topics, but not about anything else. So in advanced classes I could choose to interact only in intellectual ways, paying little attention to social matters. Whereas people in 'normal' classes fooled around and gossiped all the time, and the 'lowest common denominator' was much lower; 'normal' class interactions and social situations were a lot more stressful. So for me, the good classroom environment and peer group were worth the hard work and stressfulness of advanced classes.

Advanced courses also forced me to be able organize myself somewhat and actually complete homework assignments. Now that I have undergone that 'stress test', I have a better idea of my ability to organize and complete things by deadlines.

i was boosted a year, twice, so i was younger than everyone else in my year (after secondary school age).

In elementary school I was in the Gifted and Talented program. In middle school as well as freshman/sophomore years in high school there is also a Gifted and Talented program, which combines the english and history classes into one. I'm in the Gifted and Talented program as well as Advanced Placement math, science, and foreign language.

The only advanced classes I was in were band classes. I was in the midde school and then high school Wind Enseble and played Tuba in a Brass Ensemble. The ammount of time I dedicated to band classes killed my grades and prevented me from being in any AP classes. In my senior year, I was offered placement in the Honors Economics and Government classes, but it was more work and wasn't going to make my transcript look any better.

Even though I did struggle in 9th grade english and history but for some reason I was recommended to enter my sophomore year taking the pre-IB courses (my school used and still uses the worldwide International Baccalaureate progan which I believe is based out of Switzerland, or I think it is).

But when I found out about the required reading and the amount of essays and reports that had to be completed. I said forget it then. I think that some other crossover students had to drop out after finding out about the requirements.

Just like Prometheus said, I too had troubled in middle school. I mean I failed a few classes myself. 6th grade was probably the worst as I received warning notices everytime they came out and I was also place on academic probation. I took accelerated math in 6th grade which was mainly 7th grade math but I was worn out to keep going. I started good but I don't know what happened though. I wish I had completed the course.

Last year, in year 12 (Higher School Certificate), I decided to join the Mathematics Extension 2 Class (4-unit maths). For those who don't know what the HSC is, it is the Eastern Australian (NSW) version of a leaving certificate. "Extension 2" maths represents the highest level of maths in the HSC.

At the start of year, there were 12 people who attended it. But as the year progressed, numbers were dwindling down to around 6.

Eventually, I became the last of the class (the sixth) in rank. Before the preliminary exams, my then maths teacher said that I should drop the unit, for I was struggling, and because I was doing 12 units in the HSC, while the others in the class were doing just 10 (he thought I was crazy). So I complied and dropped to "extension 1".

I was quite dissapointed to see my efforts quashed in the last months, however, they were not wasted. I have an obsession in maths, and the Maths Extension 2 class has enriched my knowledge and appreciation of numbers. It also gave me a lesson in humility: you don't have to be the best in a topic to enjoy it, and there is always a next time (uni maybe?).

I had then also studied 2 units of Chemistry, Physics and Software Design.

The course that I didn't go as well in was English. I was in the "standard" class. Unfortunately for some (like me), 2 units of English are compulsary in the HSC; in fact, it is the only graduate certificate in the world that makes English compulsary.

bah, not that many

honors math, math (another one), biology, chemistry
ap us history, government, english, psychology

hated math through and through. bio and chem were not much better. history (aside from the bastard teacher), government were great. english was the best (teacher was awesome) and psych was fun but too early in the morning

Yeah, IB English/History have a large amount of reading and essay writing, and they have pretty high standards for them also.

At my high school they offered some IB courses as a choice of Higher Level (HL) or Standard Level (SL), which was a little bit less work. If you wanted an IB diploma, you had to take a certain number of HL courses. But if you just wanted to take a few specific IB courses then you were allowed to take them SL, even if everyone else in the classroom was taking them HL. Maybe you would find that some courses might be best as SL IB rather than 'normal' or HL IB.

I found that a huge factor in how much I get out of a course is how good the teacher is. If a teacher gives well thought-out explanations, is enthusiastic, understands student needs, and handles classes so that they don't become out of control or overly structured, then the class will be good and interesting even if it has a lot of work. But if the teacher explains things poorly, is boring, is disorganized, doesn't get along with you personally, lets classes become unruly, etc. then the course could be bad even if it had a low workload and the topic was interesting. For example, I took Physics instead of Chemistry (even though I liked Chemistry more) because the Chemistry teacher was notoriously bad and the Physics teacher was very good. In your situation, the teacher quality factor might help you decide if an 'advanced' course is worth the extra effort. In high school it might be hard to figure out someone's teaching style ahead of time, but I guess you could ask other students about it.

Some random advice:

If you are into sciences and have rote memorization as a strength, maybe you would like Biology. I found that (high school level) Physics has a medium number of things to memorize (mostly equations). But you have to understand each equation in depth and be able to connect the equations together to correctly describe situations in the world. On the other hand, (high school level) biology had a lot of things like 'memorize the organelles in a cell', 'memorize the parts of a leaf', 'memorize the parts of the heart', 'memorize the steps in getting ATP from glucose', etc. For each memorized thing, there was usually only one or two system interactions to know, and usually then could also be learned by memorizing (e.g. 'what is the difference between C3, C4 and CAM plant metabolisms'). I liked both Physics and Biology, but Physics took more effort because I had to do practice problems to get a feel for how to work the equations, whereas I could just memorize the Biology stuff.

I wonder what truly seperated HL (which I thought meant Honors) from the SL (which I thought meant Subsidiary) and why they would be in the same class at once. Is it the depth or the special curriculum?

Wasn't there some other requirement course known as Theroy of Knowledge or something like that? I wonder what that was meant for or what it focused on.

Regarding IB Math, funny that they called IB Calculus Math Methods, must be an international term, and that there was another course called Math Studies, which I heard of but don't know what really goes on there nor if it was lower or higher than the calculus class.

Another strange thing was that, in my school, if a student was taking first-year Algebra in a one year course, it was considered pre-IB, while the mainstream students took 2 years to finish Algebra I. Geometry, Alg. II were automatically considered pre-IB even though they were main requirements. But I don't know what Trig and Math Analysis was called and what level it was, since I took those in the summer.

When I took IB Spanish, to me it was just fourth-year Spanish, while third-year was pre-IB. I took the fourth-year to learn the language structures like the subjunctive moods, imperative moods and the pluperfect tense. I was pretty stable in understanding the mechanics of the modern-day spanish language and was probably ahead of the others in the arena. But when it came to oral reports, presentations and so forth, I couldn't keep up with the rest.

Even though I was failing both the math and spanish courses, I was allowed to stay and be given elective credit.

I never took any of the IB exams, expensive, and I was struggling anyways. And I never even took the AP Calc Exam neither which my school provided even though we were an IB school.

I was in advanced maths when I was younger, and I sat School C Science a year early and did very well.

I've never ever been told I should be in special education. I wa streated like a smart NT with a few concerntration problems.

You may be right about the names...probably the people at my school called them 'higher' and 'standard' because they sound less European.

I that that SL covered the same main topics, but in less depth. But the curriculum was a little different: HL had 2-3 detailed extra topics chosen by the teacher (e.g. advanced Anatomy), but SL had fewer extra topics and they were in less depth (e.g. 'Genetics in general'). Also, some SL courses had less demanding 'internal assessment' assignments. At my school they taught some courses mostly HL, but you could choose to take them SL if you wanted; you did the same classwork HL people, but did the easier 'internal assessments' and took an easier test at the end.

Argh, I guess I still remember that wacky IB jargon! Does your school also call the test proctors "Invigilators"? I think one of ours had an Invigilator outfit with a cape...



I found that course very fun - it was like a Philosophy course, sort of. People debate about 'ways to knowledge', how we know what we know, bioethics, a little psychology, etc. I guess it depends on how philosophically inclined you are or how much you enjoy discussions about high-falutin intellectual topics. I think that the course style and content can vary a lot depending on the teacher, so I can't say much more...



At my school, Math Studies is supposedly easier and I think it has more statistics stuff instead of calculus (I don't know for sure, I didn't take it).



For a while I took foreign-language courses by doing the reading/written work and not speaking in class much. I usually did okay, but didn't do very well in class participation and oral reports. Then I lowered my inhibitions about talking in Spanish in class and started participating. In my classes it was easy to do; most people were very nervous about speaking in Spanish, so the teacher would give eager attention to anyone who would actually try to converse. Then my Spanish suddenly improved a lot, and soon I was doing much better on oral tests. I think it is because:

1. speaking a language is an extra way to learn it; otherwise I would only be listening in class, not generating Spanish of my own.

2. Interactive communication means that you can't stick to your most familiar words/phrases, so you learn more of them (and say 'como se dice XYZ en espanol?' a lot).

3. You get immediate feedback for each phrase you make, rather than waiting for written grades and comments.

4. you can learn from the other person's speech as you talk, e.g. re-use phrases and styles of speech that you hear.

5. speech is faster than writing, so it gets you used to communicating in Spanish while thinking at normal speed, instead of thinking at the speed at which you can write and check grammar.

But I guess it depends on your particular brain processing style. e.g. I found that my natural inclination was to be quiet, but if I lowered my inhibitions and spoke then I learned more and it was more fun. I imagine that it isn't this way for all people...



Odd...at mine it was the other way. The school paid for the IB exams, but you had to pay for AP exams yourself if you wanted to take them.

I wouldn't know since I never took the exams. I wasn't even really a full student in the program other than the two mentioned courses above.




My unoffical guess would be that Math Studies IS statistics and Math Methods IS calculus.




I think we had to pay, we did have discounts though for those who couldn't afford the full price as long as we told the IB directors at the school. I wonder if my school was a rare IB school that was public and urban based. These kind of programs would be assumably found in upscale public and/or private schools.


Yeah if I was doing well in my courses I would've taken the exams, maybe get at least a 4 or 5 out of 7.

I took advanced classes for English and History in high school. I enjoyed the research and reading. I later went on to earn my degree in English Language and Literature, with a concentration in Writing.

I was younger than all my classmates. I had advanced a year in elementary school and had also planned with my guidance counselor to graduate high school in 3 years, but my father received a promotion at his job and we had to move to another school district. I was unable to graduate early in that district. But they did have those honors courses, which I found interesting and challenging, and it was at that high school that I developed my passion for literature and writing.

I barely passed Math.