Course selection in KO offers ways for students to choose courses suitable for their level. However, the course selection process needs refinements in how it is organized and the degree to which students’ opinions influence their courses.
The first issue is about when multiple courses take up the same period. To ensure that each student can be placed in all required courses, these courses usually have enough classes opened in each period. However, this is not the case for some courses, especially difficult AP courses and some electives, which occupy only one or two specific periods. Due to this situation, there is a high probability that students will be assigned to some courses that they are not so satisfied with, or they have to choose from two courses that they want to enroll in. Another issue with course selection is that after students choose the courses, they have to wait for the official schedule to appear in August. After a student’s official class schedule appears, or if students try to change classes before October 1, the deadline for change requests, they are left with little periods available for them to choose from. Or, they have to adjust the classes they already have. In my case last year, I could only choose the electives offered in periods three, five, and six, which did not give me many options. Sophomore Alan Xiang is in a similar situation. “I spent a lot of time trying to change my math course to a more difficult one, but it was only available for period three, so I had to adjust my English class, which caused me a lot of trouble,” he said.
In addition, students looking for high-difficulty classes also run into some issues. For example, junior Helen Wang could not take the amount of AP classes she wanted to. “I believe I could have done better by taking more AP classes,” she said, “but I wasn’t allowed to.” She took four AP courses this school year, making it impossible for her to take any more due to school policy. She is trying to take more AP courses in school or enroll in some AP exams that are not on her class list, but she has not been able to. In my opinion, for students with strong abilities, the school may provide them with ways to prove their intelligence, so that they are able to choose more challenging course combinations while ensuring that they can still get good grades.
All in all, there are still some minor issues with KO’s course selection that need improvement. Perhaps a system that promotes more communication between teachers and students about course selection; distributes course lists earlier; and makes it easier for students to contrast the periods that each course is in could help.
