Novi Ranks as State's Ninth Most Challenging High School

The Washington Post recently released a list of the most challenging high schools in the nation. The state-by-state breakdown ranked Novi High School as the ninth most challenging high school in Michigan.

"We have a solid AP (Advanced Placement) program that’s been around for many years and an IB (International Baccalaureate) program that's in it's third year," said Robert Baker, assistant principal at Novi High School.

America's Most Challenging High Schools index ranks schools by the ratio of the number of AP, IB and Advanced International Certificate of Education tests given at a school each year to the number of seniors who graduated that year, according to the Washington Post. So a ratio of 1 means the school had as many tests as graduates. Novi High School's ratio this year was 2.3. 

Novi High School ranked eighth in 2011 and seventh in 2012. See more data here.

Yusuf Qadeer, 17, senior at Novi High School, is no stranger to challenging classes. He took an AP class as a freshman, three as a sophomore, five as a junior and is now in two plus an IB course.

"I maxed out all the AP math I could take, so I dual-enrolled at Schoolcraft," he said. 

He said his most challenging classes have been AP Physics and Calculus BC, or level two. It has to do with the class's design, he said. For example, his calculus teacher designed the tests to take 60 minutes but students have only 55 minutes of class, he said. Students have to learn test strategy and are expected to remember all course material.

"Let's say we learned something in the first week of class; he would throw that back on a test in the seventh week of class," he said.

Another reason classes are challenging is learning to balance them with extracurriculars, said Qadeer, who is on the track, football and lacrosse teams. He'll spend five hours after school and around 10 to 12 hours on the weekend doing homework, he said.

"The main reason I wanted to take them was that I wanted to push myself," he said. "Another big reason was that my parents wanted me to take harder classes."

Assistant Principal Nicole Carter said students know and expect any AP or IB courses to be the most challenging. Students often take the exams after completing a class to obtain college credit.

"We don’t talk kids in or out of testing," Carter said. "Realistically, we try to prepare students for being ready for the exams."

Qadeer said he plans on taking all of the exams for his AP and IB classes. He was accepted to the University of Michigan and knows that scoring a four or higher on AP tests will give him several college credits. 

Novi High School is adding another benefit for students taking AP or IB classes starting in the 2013-2014 school year. All AP and IB classes will have weighted grades, meaning they get increased by one GPA point. Read more about it here.