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Homeschoolers use lots of different resources, and one of the ones I’ve recommended in the past are The Great Courses.  With choices in science, mathematics, business and economics (just to name a few), many homeschoolers are utilizing these classes.  Parents have asked me whether the Great Courses should be considered AP Honor’s classes or high school level, but it really depends on how you utilize them.

Obviously, the high school courses they offer are high school level. There are two ways to think about how to put one of those courses on the transcript: one method is to count the number of hours that you spend listening to lectures.  For instance, if you combine a bunch of different classes on a history topic and you end up having 120-180 hours, then that would be your history class and you’d give your student one high school credit for history.

A second method is to determine how much your student actually learned from the course, measured by whether they can pass an AP or CLEP test. If they pass one of those tests, then you could call it an honor’s class. Indicating an AP course on a transcript is kind of frowned upon, because the letters “AP” have been copyrighted by the College Board and they do not like it when you put “AP Course” on a transcript.

The easiest way to reflect college-knowledge is to label a course an honor’s course, such as ‘Honor’s History’. If they’ve taken an AP test, then you can put that test score on the transcript, which would show their college-level learning.

 

What's your favorite homeschool curriculum resource?