在 St. Mark's Advanced 课程难度更大。Advanced 其实是重新包装了以前的 AP 课程，是大学程度的课程，换个名字而已。这也是顶级美高最近几年的一个趋势：去 AP 化，但还是提供大学程度的课程，上完这些课程，学生还是可以考 AP 的。这样做，学校在课程设计方面有更多的灵活性。Honors 是高中程度的高级课程。
St. Mark的Advanced课程是14-15学年开始推出的，学校难度最大的课程。鉴于St. Mark的学术实力，这个课程的难度肯定会达到，甚至可能是大大超过同类AP课程的难度。
With the start of the 2014–2015 school year, St. Mark’s began offering teacher-generated, school-specific“Advanced” classes in all core academic
disciplines except for English, where departmental philosophy drives continued
heterogeneous grouping. Courses such as our STEM and History Research Fellowships,
along with Advanced Topics classes in Math, Language and Religion and our
Independent Study Program (ISP), form the core of our most rigorous options.
您好，St. Mark‘s advanced难度比honor课程难度更大，具体可以参照St. Mark‘s PDF版本的School Profile： https://resources.finalsite.net/images/v1574353729/stmarksschool/thvgfbiygigiscgegvym/CollegeCounseling_FINAL_profile_2019-2020.pdf
上面关于advanced courses的说明为：”Starting in the fall of 2014, our most rigorous courses are designated Advanced (Adv.) rather than AP. These courses meet or exceed the challenge of the relevant Advanced Placement curriculum and allow for greater flexibility in curriculum design.” 从该段文字便可以了解到，St. Mark‘s最严格的课程为advanced 课程，而非AP课程，学校的advanced课程达到甚至超过了AP课程的难度，但advanced课程在课程设计上更具灵活性。
