Palo Alto High School Reviews
50 Embarcadero Road, Palo Alto, California 94301, United States
Ask questions when you get confused. it might seem like everybody knows what they are doing but it will benefit you so much more to ask and receive clarification than it will to struggle. Avadhani will always try to explain things to you if you ask for help, but if you dont listen and ignore her instructions youll do badly and end up shooting yourself in the foot.
(AP Spanish) Unless you're a native speaker, you're going to want to drop this class for at least the first month. The challenge with an AP language course is that you have to be LOCKED IN the entire class or else you won't understand what's going on, whereas in other classes you can kind of go on autopilot and be fine. Badillo takes off the training wheels right from the start, and the entire class is done in Spanish (which is a contrast from lower Spanish classes). The first month or so was rough because it was so easy to get lost. However, the sheer amount of Spanish that end up practicing within the class will allow you to quickly acclimate to the expectations of the class, albeit it can get really repetitive. Badillo expects a lot out of her students, but she is very fair, eager to help, and a really kind person. She gives you as many tools as possible in order to do well on the graded assessments (which are just fragments of the AP test) to the point where it's possible to consistently score 8/9 or 9/9s on the tests for a large majority of people. The homework is really annoying though (just really repetitive. ) She is also from Spain so her accent can be difficult to adjust to (especially since I had Duffy before who was very easy to understand). I scored a 5 on the AP test and can credit my success to the class which prepared me extremely well. However, the nature of the class is very repetitive while also demanding your entire attention. I don't blame this on Badillo, more on the structure of the course due to the "units" just being different themes without a ton of differentiation. If you really like Spanish, you may benefit a LOT from this class because as painful as it can be, you will come out of it as a really solid Spanish speaker. If not, however, I might steer clear. Badillo is a goat tho either way. If you made it this far God bless you
Talk to the teacher if you have special needs. He's the most reasonable in the entire school.
The class is awesome because of the enthusiasm of the teacher, who doesn't want us to stress because he understands the pressure of college applications. He is not strict on deadlines. But he does teach writing skills and is a great teacher! I loved his class because of him. Too bad the district moved him to middle school, but they did that because he is such a great teacher and could prepare the students for high school. He was a BMX world champion! From Paly's Viking Magazine: "In 1983, Bark traveled to Australia at the age of 13 and became the world champion for his age group. Two years after this, Bark decided to quit motocrossing. 'I stopped because I didn’t love what I did and I didn’t want to ride my bike every day, ' Bark said. 'After becoming an English major I realized I wanted to be an English teacher and I wanted to work for the best school possible. That is why I came to Paly. ”
The only memorization is the formulas, nothing else. He would handwrite notes for you to copy along in class and would upload them later on. The study guides are just like the test so no surprises. Very accessible and would make himself available if you needed more help. Engages students well and approachable.
I took Ms. Bartlett's AP Lit. Class. I knew going into it that it would be a difficult class which it also proved to be. However, if you do all the reading and spend time trying to really understand the material as well as participating in discussions, you will most likely find yourself enjoying and looking forward to her class.