By Marianna Cooper
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Last Monday night, as I struggled through my AP Calculus homework, I asked my parents, both engineers, for help with a problem. After spending a futile hour trying to work it out, I told them that I would just ask my teacher. Then, it occurred to me that my classes must be advanced if my two college-educated parents had difficulty helping me. Granted, they use a limited selection of high-level math in their jobs on a daily basis; there are some problems that they just have not seen in a while. At the same time, how much more difficult is my high school education than it was for my parents?

I decided to dig out my parents’ old transcripts and found that neither of them had taken any AP classes in high school. According to the collegeboard.com, the College Board established the AP program only 54 years ago, in 1955. Today, the College Board offers more than 30 tests in subjects ranging from Spanish Literature to Chemistry. As listed in the Program of Studies, 28 of these subject areas will be offered as AP courses at Carmel High School during the 2010-2011 school year. However, the first AP class was not even offered at this school until the late 1990s.

Although they have only been part of Carmel’s curriculum for about 10 years, AP classes have become a standard on most students’ transcripts. One of the options to earn an Academic Honors Diploma is to earn four credits of an AP course and take the corresponding exams. In 1970, only 72,000 AP exams were administered. However, in 2002, approximately 900,000 students took more than 1.5 million AP exams.

Therefore, classes at the high school level have become more advanced for the current generation of high school students. The coursework and pressure students face with AP classes is the same as that experienced by college students. However in high school, students are younger, spending more than seven hours of their day in classes, while still trying to keep up with athletics and extra-curricular activities and completing homework to prepare for their advanced classes. With AP curriculum, we participate in the same activities as our parents once did, while facing the added pressure of higher level classes. While it would not be accurate to say that our parents did not work hard in high school or learn anything of importance, it is true that the college level courses add a rigorous dimension to our high school experience.

Although it is slightly frustrating to know that AP coursework expectations are higher today than they were for most of our parents, it is possible to stay optimistic. AP classes and higher standards will better prepare us for college. Once we enter into professional careers, our increasingly difficult education will hopefully bring about change.