Courses with Weighted Grades
Advanced Placement Courses (AP)
The Advanced Placement (AP) Program is a nationwide program of college level courses and exams for secondary school students. AP courses are taught on the college level. Colleges and universities can receive the AP examination grades and use them as a basis for granting credit and/or placement to entering students whose scores meet their requirements. Students will be required to sign up for an AP exam in November to avoid a late fee. AP exam scores are highly recognized and honored by most colleges and universities in the United States. Before taking an AP course, the student is advised to contact the college or university she/he plans to attend concerning the status of credit by examination at that particular school. Students in AP courses who earn a C- or above will receive an additional weight of .50 added to their GPA. Kirkwood High School encourages ALL students to take the National Advanced Placement tests offered by the Educational Testing Service.
Honors Courses
Honors Courses
An honors level course is, in general, a more challenging level of a course. Students can expect to spend more time on completing the necessary work in an honors course. In an honors level course, complete mastery of previous courses is assumed so there is very little review of previous courses at the beginning of the year. The ability to read and interpret textual material is expected. The honors level course also proceeds at an accelerated pace, so additional topics are usually covered. The topics are taught with a greater level of rigor—more “abstract” applications of concepts is the general rule. Students in honors level courses who earn a C- or above will receive an additional weight of .33 added to their GPA.
Kirkwood High School offers the following:
Advanced Placement courses:
- AP Language and Composition
- AP Literature and Composition
- AP Computer Science Principles
- AP Drawing AP 2-D Art and Design
- AP 3-D Art and Design
- AP Art History
- AP Calculus AB
- AP Calculus BC
- AP Statistics
- AP Biology
- AP Chemistry
- AP Physics 1
- AP United States Government & Politics
- AP United States History
- AP World History: Modern
- AP Psychology
- AP Human Geography
- AP French Language & Culture
- AP Spanish Language & Culture
- AP German Language & Culture
Honors courses
- Freshman Literature & Composition Honors
- Sophomore Literature & Composition Honors
- Magazine Journalistic Writing II Honors
- Newspaper Journalistic Writing II Honors
- Geometry Honors
- Algebra II Honors
- Precalculus Honors
- Chemistry Honors
- Biology Honors
- Chinese III Honors
- Chinese IV Honors
- French III Honors
- French IV Honors
- German III Honors
- German IV Honors
- Spanish III Honors
- Spanish IV Honors