AP Courses
George School offers Advanced Placement courses for students in their junior and senior years. Over 90 percent of U.S. colleges and universities give incoming students college credit for successfully completing AP exams.
Portfolio Preparation and AP Studio Art: Portfolio
An ability to work independently on art projects is essential in this intensive class, in which each student's goal is to prepare a portfolio of painting and drawing work for college application and for an independent showing at George School. Prior experience with a wide range of art materials is expected so that the focus is on producing work of high quality for an effective portfolio of finished work. In the first term, specific assignments are given. In the second and third terms, students are responsible for developing the remainder of their portfolios by creating works that reflect their own individual voices in art. In the AP version of this course, students must complete and extensive body of work as prescribed by the AP Studio Art guidelines.
Students may prepare for an IB visual arts exam by taking painting and drawing courses for at least two years. To take an SL exam, only one of the two years must be in 11th or 12th grade. To take an HL exam, the student must enroll in painting and drawing courses in both 11th and 12th grades. Juniors and seniors preparing for an IB exam in the visual arts must participate in the IB visual arts seminar, which meets for 30 minutes weekly and includes occasional field trips on Saturday or Sunday.
Prerequisite: Permission of instructor and, in most cases, Advanced Painting and Drawing
AP Studio Art—Alternative Photographic Processes or Digital Imaging
This course provides an opportunity for students to refine technical skills while incorporating experimental techniques ranging from historic and antique processes to cutting-edge digital imaging. In the early part of the year, students experiment with studio lighting, digital imaging, nonsilver processes, and bookbinding. As the year progresses, students develop and focus on a single project to produce a cohesive portfolio as required by the AP exam. Students are required to participate in class critiques as they address aesthetic, conceptual, and theoretical concerns relating to the images they create. Since technical difficulties could arise that require students to spend free periods in the photo lab, students taking an overload are advised against taking this course.
Prerequisite: Photography (must be taken at George School)
Advanced Sophomore Literature and Composition
The Advanced Sophomore Literature and Composition course covers much of the same content as Sophomore Literature and Composition. Additional works read in this course are typically from earlier time periods and employ complex syntax and challenging vocabulary, such as the poetry of William Blake and John Donne or the prose of William Faulkner. Students in this course develop an understanding of rhetoric and how writers and speakers make use of rhetorical strategies in their work. The course examines how writers and speakers manipulate the relationship between form and content. Students are required to write in a variety of forms, including the personal essay, persuasive essay and synthesis essay. In addition, students write their own poetry and deliver a formal speech. Many students take the AP Language and Composition test in May.
Prerequisites: A- or better in the third term of Freshman Literature and Composition, teacher recommendation, and a placement test
IB English HL 2—World Literature
Two versions of this course are offered. The titles are "IB English HL 2: World Literature" and "IB English HL 2: World Literature – Writer’s Focus." Both courses fulfill the expectations of the IB curriculum and prepare students for both the IB and AP exams. In both versions of the course, students are expected to formulate complex and nuanced interpretations of literature independently and to question and challenge the interpretations of others. Excellent reading comprehension and attention to detail are assumed, as is the ability to move quickly to abstractions. Among the authors recently studied are Achebe, Allende, Chaucer, Conrad, Dostoyevsky, Kafka, Marquez, the Romantic poets, Shakespeare, Sophocles, and Voltaire.
The Writer’s Focus version of the course considers literature with a view towards developing a more fully articulated understanding of the art and the craft of writing poetry, drama, and prose fiction. In addition to literary discussion, Writer's Focus classes features workshop-style critiquing sessions. Participants in the Writer's Focus class should be committed creative writers who are comfortable having their work read aloud and critiqued by peers.
Prerequisite: IB HL 1: Advanced American Literature, or IB HL 1: American Literature (B), or American Literature (B+) along with teacher recommendation and a placement test
IB/AP French 5
Students enter this class experienced in reading, writing, speaking, and understanding French. This class is conducted entirely in French and active oral participation is key. Each year, the literary, grammatical, and cultural foci of this class may vary. Students read, interpret and discuss formal and informal prose and literature, listen to authentic audio and video recordings, develop speaking skills in a variety of settings, and write both formal essays and informal communications. It is expected that students in this course will take the AP French Language exam or the Higher Level IB French exam in May.
This course has a summer assignment.
Prerequisite: IB French 4: Media or Literature (B) or placement test
AP Human Geography
This course prepares students for the AP examination in Human Geography through systematic study of patterns and processes that have shaped human understanding, use, and alteration of Earth’s surface. Students employ spatial concepts and landscape analysis to examine human social organization and its environmental consequences.They also learn about the methods and tools geographers use in their science and practice, including the analysis of spatial data, the identification of regions, and the characterization and interpretation of interconnections among places, The topics covered are the nature and perspectives of geography as a discipline, population, cultural patterns and processes, political organization of space, agricultural and rural land use, and cities and urban land use,
Students are expected to enter the course with good geographic literacy and well-developed note-taking, reading, writing, research and organizational skills. In order to cover the AP curriculum, the pace is very fast.
A summer assignment is required in preparation for this course.
Prerequisite: Global Interdependence (A-)
AP U.S. History
This course prepares students for the AP examination in U.S. History. It is a college-level introduction to the development of the United States institutions and society from the settlements of the First Nations peoples to the era of the Vietnam War and Watergate. Students explore the concept of historical study as a specific discipline and study historiography—the different histories that have been written about events—as well as the events themselves. Independent use of a college level textbook is necessary, along with reading primary source materials and writing about them. The reading load is heavy and there are frequent writing assignments. Most of the evaluations prepare students for the AP examination by emphasizing multiple-choice questions and expository essays.
There is a summer reading and writing assignment, homework during each school vacation, and additional class meetings on weekends and in the evenings.
This course serves as the first year in the two-year IB History SL or HL sequence.
Prerequisite: Permission of the department and either Accelerated World History (B+) or AP Human Geography (B)
IB/AP Latin 4
Students in IB/AP Latin 4 may pursue either the Advanced Placement or IB Standard Level curriculum with the expectation that they will take one of those tests. The AP course for 2011-2012 is Vergil's Aeneid. The IB standard-level readings include selections from Ovid's Metamorphoses, Vergil's Aeneid, Book 6, and selected poems of Catullus and Horace. Each IB student chooses and completes an individual study, a research dossier, recitation, or Latin composition.
This course requires summer work.
Prerequisite: Latin 3 (B) or Intensive Latin 3 (C+) or placement test
IB/AP Latin 5
This course allows students to prepare for the AP exam or for the higher-level IB exam. Higher-level IB students read extensively from Ovid’s Metamorphoses; Vergil's Aeneid, Book 6, and the poetry of Catullus and Horace. Higher-level IB students read much more extensively than standard-level students do. Each IB student chooses and completes an individual study, a research dossier, recitation, or Latin composition.
This course requires summer work.
Prerequisite: IB/AP Latin 4 (B) or placement test
AP Calculus AB
This course covers all topics included in the College Board syllabus. Throughout the course, problems are considered from graphical, numerical, and analytical perspectives with an aim toward developing students' ability to shift easily from one perspective to another. There is an emphasis on learning to understand, use, and appreciate the value of the precise technical language (definitions, theorems, etc.) of mathematics. An awareness of the historical context of the development of calculus and an appreciation of its importance as a human achievement are cultivated. Students learn to discern situations in which technology can be a helpful tool in the solution of a problem. Graphing calculators are used extensively. The pace is fast. Students are expected to work as mathematicians do in that they are asked frequently to try problems without having been explicitly taught how to find the solutions. Excellent algebraic, graphing, and organizational skills are assumed, as is a very good understanding of trigonometric functions. Students are required to take the AP exam. (IB diploma candidates should take one of the calculus courses with IB in the title rather than this one unless they have taken Precalculus for IB Math Studies.)
Prerequisites: IB Math HL 1 (C) or an SL precalculus course (A)
IB Math HL 2—Calculus
This course covers all calculus topics included in the IB Mathematics HL core syllabus plus the topics from the HL Calculus option. Throughout the course, problems are considered from graphical, numerical, and analytical perspectives with an aim toward developing students' ability to shift easily from one perspective to another. There is an emphasis on learning to understand, use, and appreciate the value of the precise technical language (definitions, theorems, etc.) of mathematics. Students learn to discern situations in which technology can be a helpful tool in the solution of a problem. Graphing calculators are used extensively. Students are required to complete an IB portfolio. The pace is intense. Students are expected to work as mathematicians do in that they are asked frequently to try problems without having been explicitly taught how to find the solutions. Excellent algebraic, graphing, and organizational skills are assumed, as is a very good understanding of trigonometric functions and a working knowledge of the statistics covered in IB Math HL 1. All students are required to take either the IB Math HL exam or the IB Math SL exam. (Students are also able to take the AP Calculus (AB) exam if they so choose as the course covers substantially more calculus than the AP Calculus (AB) course.)
Students are required to complete a summer assignment in preparation for class.
Prerequisite: IB Math HL 1 (A)
AP Statistics
This course follows the College Board syllabus, which includes all of the topics covered in Statistics plus concepts of variation, especially as related to statistical inference, sampling distributions, estimation and confidence intervals, and hypothesis testing at least through two-sample t-tests. Students learn how to perform analyses using paper and pencil, a statistical calculator, and the computer, with an emphasis on the interpretation of results. Class activities consist of lecture, problem solving, and group discussion, with a heavy emphasis on analytical discussion. The pace is rapid and the topics are complex. Students are expected to be inquisitive about data, analyses, and interpretation and to contribute their thoughts actively to class discussions. Readings and homework are assigned daily. Students are expected to spend at least an hour on homework for each class meeting; many students find that it takes more than an hour to do a thorough job. Students are expected to take the AP exam. Students complete an independent research project at the end of the year. Students are required to complete a summer assignment in preparation for class.
Prerequisite: An IB SL math course (B) or IB Math HL 1 (C-)
IB HL/AP Biology
This course prepares students for the higher level IB Biology exam or the AP Biology exam. Lecture-format classes are combined with frequent experiments to investigate all major topics in the IB and AP curricula. Evolution, energy transfer, genetic continuity, interdependence, system equilibrium, and structure and function are the underlying themes. An in-class dissection of a mammal provides hands-on experience with anatomy. Information is covered in detail and at a fast pace. Nightly homework typically includes reading a chapter in a college-level text, writing a lab report, or writing an essay. The course includes a lengthy independent lab project. Tests are relatively infrequent and can cover as many as five chapters from the text.
Students are required to take either the IB exam or the AP exam. Students taking the IB exam must attend a weekend-long IB science retreat, during which they complete an IB project. Students are required to complete a summer assignment in preparation for the class.
Prerequisite: Chemistry (B-) and one of the following: Biology (B), ESL Biology (B), IB Biology SL (C)
Note that Chemistry in the Community and Essential Principles of Biology may NOT be substituted for the Chemistry and Biology prerequisites.
AP Chemistry
This course prepares students for the AP chemistry exam and for the SAT subject test in chemistry. Topics in inorganic chemistry include stoichiometry, oxidation-reduction reactions, equilibrium, covalent bonding, atomic theory, nuclear reactions, solutions, electrochemistry, thermodynamics, and atomic structure. Topics in organic chemistry include nomenclature, structure and naming of functional groups and basic organic reactions. The fast-paced lecture format of the class is supplemented with regular lab activities. Students are expected to read and practice problems from their textbooks daily. Formal lab reports are expected weekly.
Students are required to complete a summer assignment in prepartion for this course.
This course fulfills the physical science requirement.
Prerequisite: Chemistry (B)
Satisfactory performance on a placement test is required for those students whose prerequisite chemistry class was taken somewhere other than George School.
Note that because of content overlap, students may not take both IB Chemistry and AP Chemistry.
AP Physics C—Mechanics
This calculus-based course follows the syllabus of the AP Physics C - Mechanics exam, preparing students for calculus-based physics at the college level. The course also includes a unit in which students design and build electronic circuits. The course helps students to develop a deep understanding of the laws of physics through the application of rigorous mathematical techniques and detailed analytical approach to experimental data. Students must be able to recognize mathematical patterns quickly and to apply their understanding of specific experiments to more general phenomena. Substantial time is spent in the laboratory. Students must have mastered multi-variable algebra, trigonometry, logarithms, exponents, and operations using a graphing calculator. Additionally, students should be familiar with vectors and mathematical modeling of data. Weekly or biweekly lab experiments are performed during class and the results are analyzed in lab reports. Students should be unafraid to use computer technology in the acquisition, analysis, and reporting of data. Students are assigned approximately six to eight hours of homework per week, which might include reading a chapter from a college-level text, solving several multi-step problems, writing lab reports, and conducting independent research.
Students are required to complete a summer assignment in preparation for this course.
This course fulfills the physical science requirement.
Prerequisites: One of Chemistry (B), Biology (B) or Physics (B); and either an SL precalculus course (A) or IB Math HL 1 (C )
Corequisite: A calculus course
IB/AP Spanish 5
Students enter this class experienced in reading, writing, speaking, and understanding Spanish. This class is conducted entirely in Spanish and active oral participation is key. Each year, the literary, grammatical, and cultural foci of this class may vary. Students read, interpret and discuss formal and informal prose and literature, listen to authentic audio and video recordings, develop speaking skills in a variety of settings, and write both formal essays and informal communications. It is expected that students in this course will take the AP Spanish Language exam or the Higher Level IB Spanish exam in May.
This course has a summer assignment.
Prerequisite: IB Spanish 4 – Media or Literature (B ) or placement test