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Student Voice in myBLA

With electives at BLA often being an area of unknown for prospective AP students, student voice and transparency has become a pillar of the development of myBLA. In fact, this very website is open-source. The solution to this very confusion and speculation about the experience of taking AP courses is the Student Voice section, sharing to underclassmen the climate of electives offered at BLA.

Here's a crash course to how the section works:

  1. High school students at BLA submit recommendations and "reviews" (more like polls) relating to courses that they can choose to report on.
  2. These responses are showcased as stats of multiple factors:

Important Academic and Personal Skills (referred to as the Skills Summary)

The Skills Summary asks students to determine: What skills would a student need to succeed in this course?

These are separated into three subject areas: Humanities (English or History class skills), STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math skills), and Personal skills (like patience or resourcefulness). The number shown after a skill in the summary is stating how many respondents have agreed to saying that "This skill is important for a student to succeed in this class."

Example Humanities Skills

  • General reading skills
  • General writing skills
  • Researching
  • Synthesizing text content
  • Essay writing
  • Narrative writing

Example STEM Skills

  • Basic arithmetic (such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division)
  • General understanding of Algebra 1 and 2 (like exponentiation and roots)
  • Strong trigonometry skills
  • General technology skills (like being able to operate a computer)
  • Strong biology skills (with proof such as a high-performing score in Biology 1 or equivalent)
  • Strong chemistry skills (with proof such as a high-performing grade in Chemistry 1 or equivalent)

Example Personal Skills

  • Communication and cooperation (such as frequent group work)
  • Oral presentation and public speaking
  • Work ethic
  • Time management
  • Resourcefulness (being able to use resources such as the internet efficiently to acquire information)
  • Patience