<p>This situation is a little unique, and I need some help with it.</p>
<p>My school offers no AP or honors courses; it's just college prep and non college prep. But recently, my school's English department has started pushing students to take the AP Lit & Comp test. It's something about they "feel they teach at an AP level." Whatever.</p>
<p>Anyway, they need a decision by tomorrow on who is going to take the test. I am one of the top students in my class, and many other students who are... not at the top... have chosen to take the test. Should I take the test? I initially thought I would just save my time by not taking it, since my school really doesn't have an AP class. It's also much cheaper to take a college placement test for placement into courses. It's also my opinion that placing out of introductory courses (especially English) is way overrated.</p>
<p>But now I feel like I should take it just for a little more academic competitiveness. Currently my class has three valedictorians, all at 4.0 GPAs. To my knowledge, this is something the school hasn't seen before, and I'm not sure how they will determine the final rank. I could end up at #3 out of just 57 if I mess up on something. Is there really that much value in taking a random AP test? As far as I know, no one from the other two classes above me got a 5 on the test.</p>
<p>I am taking lit this year, so I don't know what it's like. But I can speak for lang, and it was ridiculously easy and my teacher did not teach nor seriously grade any paper (we only had 3 the entire year lol). If you have a large vocabulary and get a AP Lit prep book and memorize all the different literary terms for describing things like figurative language and read a number of the classics. you should definitely pass at least.</p>
<p>How could the school use your AP test score to determine your class rank if the scores aren't released until July? Anyway, I'm not taking the AP English test because I don't want to place out of intro level courses (I'm not the biggest fan of English), so if you don't see a point in placing out of classes, don't take it.</p>
<p>Lit was exactly like every other standardized English test I had ever taken. I got a 5 with no preparation whatsoever.</p>
<p>I am now taking an AP Lit class (most people took Lang last year; I made a minor clerical error and thus took Lit), and it really isn't teaching to the test at all. In fact, all we do is talk about Dante and bras.</p>
<p>I guess I have more motivation for not taking the test than I thought.</p>
<p>A friend of mine (ranked #2 in the class of '07) went to a small LAC to be an English Education major. Somehow he got into a bunch of advanced classes without laying eyes on an AP test. He also tested out of the math requirement with only his knowledge from my school's non-AP Calculus class.</p>
<p>Just for clarification, I'm only a junior. Yeah, I realize class ranks can change, but it's easy to get a 4.0 at my school. I'm pretty sure that the other two vals aren't going anywhere with their GPAs. I, however, might slip and get an A-...</p>
<p>I'm not sure if Lit will even place you out of any intro courses in college because it's usually only the AP Science, Math, and Language scores that help with that. The only value in it is that you might get credit and as you stated, you'll look more competitive to colleges if you have another AP. I don't understand how taking the test will affect your ranking though?</p>
<p>^It probably won't affect my ranking. That was more of a rant about how they're going to pick one person as "Top Scholar." At schools where they do have APs, the val is usually the person with the highest weighted rank, so a student with more APs would have a higher rank. At least, I think that's how it works.</p>
<p>So, the final consensus. Any last ideas? I'm still not sure what I should do.</p>