AP Classes in High School: Your Thoughts

[janitorC7]

Honestly, College Board and the College Board bureaucracy is the greatest disservice to higher education in the history of this country.

On that same token, I do recommend that you enroll in AP US History. Many college admissions offices, to the contradictory behest of professors, look favoriably upon those who have taken Advanced Placement (TM) courses. Mind you it is not because they have high regards for the class. Rather, admissions offices know that high schools normally require that students get recommended into an A.P. class. That is, they use the enrollment as an indication that their former teachers thought highly enough of their intellect to deem them "advanced".

A.P. classes traditionally teach to the test. This is there main downfall. The course is a one-year instruction on how to score a 5, not on U.S. History.

With that in mind, I was lucky enough to get an APUSH teacher who hated college board as much as I did and refused to teach to the test. She focused on history instead of on AP "tricks". I found that by using this (obvious) method I was easily able to score a 5 on the exam. The point being; take the course to learn the material, not to score a 5. Colleges will not know how you did on the exam until after you are already admitted. Not to mention you will do well if you have a genuine understanding of the material.

Also, in terms of class placement. I found that my SAT scores were used more so than my AP exam scores to place me in my classes once I reached registration.

Colleges are using the scores less and less. I took a good number of AP's in high school, but none of those have given me much credit in college. I am a student at the University of California Berkeley and I only entered having fulfilled my UNIVERSITY graduation requirements (basic) in math and American History.

On that note: GO BEARS!!

and Good Luck

 

[63dot]

sorry, double post

 

[63dot]

Colleges are using the scores less and less. I took a good number of AP's in high school, but none of those have given me much credit in college. I am a student at the University of California Berkeley and I only entered having fulfilled my UNIVERSITY graduation requirements (basic) in math and American History.

On that note: GO BEARS!!

and Good Luck

Congrats on Cal. And of course, beat Stanford!

Most of my relatives went to Cal, as my neighbors. If you like a school that teaches to the subject, not the test or the real world field, Cal is the best school in the state. At the time, Cal had more of the classical education than any public school on the west coast.

Pros:

Sometimes Cal alums are proud of this former "teachers/professors" school teaching high end theory and not a trade/profession. They wax poetic about a professor they had that won the Nobel.

Cons:

Other times, my Cal friends wished they had more of a practical education suited for the work world the way Cal State sets up their classes with some professors actually having world in the field.

Of course I did undergraduate school many, many years ago and the high school counselor pretty much summed up Cal as "the" school to go to which was at the same time affordable and great for training professors and researchers. If you had money, well there is always the Harvards and Amhersts for that top of the line theoretical, classical education.

 

[treyjustice]

yes colleges LOVE AP


don't be a puss take the AP it isn't that hard

 

[fedex1993]

Really depends. I will also be a senior next year at my school. I didn't take any academics AP classes cause there really not worth it i think. They pile more work onto you thats easy work just to get extra points for your gpa. I know you can get college credits but to take the AP tests at our school you half to pay for every single one. I am taking AP 3 Computer Science and have taken AP2 last year and it was fun. One good thing about taking AP classes is we get to miss a day of school AND we don't have any finals which is great.

 

[fireshot91]

What's AP2 and AP3?


And you guys don't have finals if you take APs? Wow...we have to take SOLs (Standardized tests by the state), Finals, and the AP tests..

 

[MonksMac]

What's AP2 and AP3?


And you guys don't have finals if you take APs? Wow...we have to take SOLs (Standardized tests by the state), Finals, and the AP tests..

Being able to skip finals isn't automatic, at least not in Texas and I'd wager it's the same elsewhere...
At my school to be able to skip the final in an AP class you have to have
A) Taken the AP Test
B) Either have an 85+ or Passing grade (depends on the teacher. My english teacher made us have an 85, but the other teacher exempted all who were passing...)
C)During Senior year exemptions are allowed in all classes and not just AP's, but adds attendance to A and B conditions.

 

[nick1516]

Being able to skip finals isn't automatic, at least not in Texas and I'd wager it's the same elsewhere...
At my school to be able to skip the final in an AP class you have to have
A) Taken the AP Test
B) Either have an 85+ or Passing grade (depends on the teacher. My english teacher made us have an 85, but the other teacher exempted all who were passing...)
C)During Senior year exemptions are allowed in all classes and not just AP's, but adds attendance to A and B conditions.

At my school, AP classes aren't required to have a final as we have to take the AP exam, all honors and other classes do have a final but you can exempt out if your grade is high enough.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

Being able to skip finals isn't automatic, at least not in Texas and I'd wager it's the same elsewhere...
At my school to be able to skip the final in an AP class you have to have
A) Taken the AP Test
B) Either have an 85+ or Passing grade (depends on the teacher. My english teacher made us have an 85, but the other teacher exempted all who were passing...)
C)During Senior year exemptions are allowed in all classes and not just AP's, but adds attendance to A and B conditions.

It not a state requirment in Texas. The exceptions are a district by district policy. My HS had different rules than a friend of mine had in a district right next to mine.

Their Jr and Sr could exempt everything. My HS jr had 2 per semester Seniors had unlimited and sophmores had 1 if they passed the TAAS test but that was back when I was there. I know they changed the policy up by the time my sister finished.

Finals are also a school by school thing.

Really depends. I will also be a senior next year at my school. I didn't take any academics AP classes cause there really not worth it i think. They pile more work onto you thats easy work just to get extra points for your gpa. I know you can get college credits but to take the AP tests at our school you half to pay for every single one. I am taking AP 3 Computer Science and have taken AP2 last year and it was fun. One good thing about taking AP classes is we get to miss a day of school AND we don't have any finals which is great.

Something some university are started to demand is unadjusted grade point averages and they can only be used for class rank and even then they are started to requested class rank unajusted. The reason for this is every school does it differently in how they add extra points and the grade inflation is getting out hand.

 

[iOrlando]

i think my favorite was AP Gov and Politics.

Least favorite were the English ones and AP European.

AP Bio was pretty fun

AP Physics and AP Calculus were awful. (many HS's offer Calc junior year and then AP Calc senior year). My HS didnt really set up the class to pass the exam. (They rarely had students get 3 or higher...so they just sort of made it a regular calc class that was hard). We had 6 kids in the class. Our total combined score for the test was a 4. You do the math.

 

[gordian]

Well I took more AP classes than everyone who responded to this thread combined, so I know they are a complete waste of time. You should drop out of high school and join the Coast Guard.

 

[it5five]

I took AP US History, and it was a complete waste of time.

Like someone else mentioned, most AP classes teach you to get a 4 or 5 on the AP test (you had to get a 4 or 5 to get the college credit in Arizona). It didn't prepare me for upper division history courses in college at all.

My senior year of HS I took what was called "dual enrollment" courses. My HS had a deal with the local community college where I would get HS and college credits for taking the course. Those served me better than the AP courses I took. My credits were guaranteed to transfer to one of the in-state universities as long as I got a C (meaning my entire year wouldn't be wasted like it would be if I got a 3 on an AP test), and the classes were taught by faculty employed by both the community college and the high school (all of my dual enrollment teachers had at least a masters degree in their subject).

Thanks to the dual enrollment program, I went into college with almost an entire semester out of the way. AP did nothing for me.

 

[63dot]

I took AP US History, and it was a complete waste of time.

Like someone else mentioned, most AP classes teach you to get a 4 or 5 on the AP test (you had to get a 4 or 5 to get the college credit in Arizona). It didn't prepare me for upper division history courses in college at all.

My senior year of HS I took what was called "dual enrollment" courses. My HS had a deal with the local community college where I would get HS and college credits for taking the course. Those served me better than the AP courses I took. My credits were guaranteed to transfer to one of the in-state universities as long as I got a C (meaning my entire year wouldn't be wasted like it would be if I got a 3 on an AP test), and the classes were taught by faculty employed by both the community college and the high school (all of my dual enrollment teachers had at least a masters degree in their subject).

Thanks to the dual enrollment program, I went into college with almost an entire semester out of the way. AP did nothing for me.

I am glad you took the sensible path. I did the same, but not in just a year, but a class or two in sophomore, junior, and senior years of high school and it did knock off 12.5 units of college semester credits. And this was back in the late-70s when the idea of dual credit first came about.

And this was a legitimate way to do two things. Start college early, which didn't mean that much to me then (I wanted to be a rock musician), and legitimately play hooky from hs and check out college girls. Plus, imagine a place with ten times the population of any hs and no cliques.

 

[doug in albq]

i don't agree with this at all. college admissions must have changed in the past 10-20 years.

1) colleges do look at what classes you take in HS. you can easily get a 4.0 just taking woodshop and art class. Many colleges will look down upon you if you dont have any AP classes. Colleges know HS grades are meaningless (any teacher can just give you an A). Instead colleges want to see AP courses and your AP test scores that way they can compare your knowledge to everyone else.

2) if you aren't extremely smart, you probably wouldnt even be in a position to take them AP classes or you wouldnt even want to take them. Many AP teachers will kick you out during the first week if you are not up to it anyways. AP is not a requirement to graduate so it is not a mandatory class and teachers can choose not to accept you (but again this rarely happens since who would enroll in AP just to goof around and not do anything).

there really is no downside to taking APs and anyone with the opportunity should jump at it.


and for the people with 2 random semesters that is the weirdest thing I have ever heard. Since you say you lived through it, I will believe it. Where did you go to HS? Rocky Mountains? I have never run into anyone who had AP in that format.

+1

also, taking AP classes will make you smarter...duh!...and it may help you score higher on the SAT, which is more important than any other single criteria for college entry.

 

[dukebound85]

and for the people with 2 random semesters that is the weirdest thing I have ever heard. Since you say you lived through it, I will believe it. Where did you go to HS? Rocky Mountains? I have never run into anyone who had AP in that format.

Not really as it is the format most universities use.

Quite nice in regards to prereqs as you could say take calc AB in the fall and calc BC in the spring. You could not do that with traditional scheduling

Block scheduling is also why I was able to have Calc 3 and Differential Equations done in HS (actually taken at CSU on my HS's dime) due to this double stacking of classes in a subject. That was nice....I mean I had all my engineering math requirements DONE before I even entered college

Was awesome and made my first few years in college less intense course wise lol