The start of this school year has changed how AP Seminar and AP Human Geography are offered at Oakton. These classes are now available to freshmen and sophomores as alternatives to the standard honors and regular classes. This mirrors the addition of BC Precalculus at the start of the 2024-25 school year. Previously, AP Human Geography and AP Seminar were electives mainly taken by juniors and seniors, but now all students get a chance to take these as main course credits.
AP Human Geography is an elective that is now available for freshmen and sophomores to take in place of World 1 or World 2. The class focuses on patterns and how boundaries and maps depict information. According to Ms. Modugno, AP Human Geography typically had a very limited class size. “Actually, the past few years, it’s just been one section,” she said. This year’s change has increased that number to seven sections, changing the class composition from upperclassmen to mostly freshmen. “When we only had one section, it was pretty much almost exclusively juniors and seniors,” Ms. Modugno said.
AP Seminar is a class that is part of the AP Capstone program. This class centers on multiple research projects that occur during the school year, two of which are part of the AP exam. This year’s change has increased the number of students taking this class from fluctuating between one or two sections to six sections. This has decreased enrollment in English 10 Honors, causing it to lose five sections. This change has made it easier for students who want to take this class, as it can be taken as an English credit rather than an elective.
BC Precalculus was a new AP class that was introduced at the start of the 2024-25 school year. The previous jump to BC Calculus was hard, as BC Calculus covers two semesters of college-level calculus. BC Precalculus was created to better prepare students for this faster-paced, accelerated course. Before the introduction of BC Precalculus, AP Precalculus was a singular class.
This year’s changes have increased enrollment for both AP Human Geography and AP Seminar. AP Human Geography has become extremely popular among freshmen. AP Seminar has also grown significantly after these changes. However, the long-term impact on the Capstone program has not been documented, as course selection for next year has not yet occurred. These changes will help create more variety for students and free up space for students to try different classes in their junior and senior years.
