AP Classes: What are some of the reasons why you're taking it?

<p>I’m taking AP gov, macroecon, comp sci, bio, lit, statistics, and spanish this year for the main purpose of looking good on college applications ^^’ I’m also really used to overburdening myself though… so far it surprisingly hasn’t been bad at all. Granted, I did get 3 B’s last semester, but my weighted GPA was still higher than before xD</p>

<p>Basically every reason to take an AP…
To take more APs than anybody else in my graduating year
Turns out I was able to abuse the heck out of AP credit. I was a senior in high school last year, and now I’m a senior in college.</p>

<p>@tangentline Holy cow!</p>

<p>AP classes are full of crap. They’re slow, teach you a bunch of things irrelevant to the topic, and create unnecessary burden to learning. In public education, most teachers don’t care at all about teaching quality. This makes AP classes an excellent demonstration of willingness to undergo tribulation and therefore good for college apps. Also, you get to skip a bunch of undergraduate coursework that doesn’t contribute much to the rest of your life.</p>

<p>Anyone who does it “because it’s interesting/challenging” is lying because the challenge of AP courses are nowhere near the level of actually helping students perform publishable research. Such students would benefit more from self-studying and pursuing undergraduate level topics, performing research, and winning national competitions. Realistically, a yearlong AP course is equivalent to a quarter/semester of undergraduate level work, which have lower priority than resume-building activities such as UROPS, volunteering, etc.</p>

<p>If you couldn’t tell already, I take AP courses for college apps but spend most of my time dissipating.</p>

<p>@tangentline what major are you doing and at which uni? Collegeboard doesn’t offer math/science classes beyond freshman topics so this seems difficult to believe.</p>

<p>@Jwen556 It seems like you are aware of what you are talking about! I have been reading all of your comments! Do you know the differences between AP classes and CLEP classes?</p>

<p>never heard of CLEP until now but some quick research leads me to conclude that they are less difficult and do not receive the same recognition from colleges as AP tests do.</p>

<p>I thought CLEP was just tests…there are CLEP classes?</p>

<p>@Jwen556
I hope this link works on this site, if not you can google ap credit under transfer policies and find it:
<a href=“http://catalog.csus.edu/current/first%20100%20pages/transferadmission.html#AP”>http://catalog.csus.edu/current/first%20100%20pages/transferadmission.html#AP&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>I am an electrical/electronics engineering major at Sacramento State University.
It isn’t very prestigious, so they are very generous with AP credit (this is class standing, not the level of courses I’m taking)
An AP will get you anywhere from 6 to 8 semester units, 90 being the requirement to be senior standing (120 to graduate), I took 15 AP tests + 8 units of additional transfer. --AP tests are somehow exempt from the test credit limit of 30 units (<a href=“http://catalog.csus.edu/current/first%20100%20pages/academicpolicies.html#CredExam”>http://catalog.csus.edu/current/first%20100%20pages/academicpolicies.html#CredExam&lt;/a&gt;)
It is possible to graduate in 2 years in a smaller major, however I’m going for 3 in engineering.</p>

<p>–The APs got rid of most of my GEs and gave me the head start in mathematics I need to graduate fast (physics C would’ve been nice, but oh well)</p>

<p>At a California State University, class standing is very important. If you’re a freshman or sophomore, you will be struggling to get all of your classes. If you have senior standing in a non-impacted major, then you get all of your classes. ~Perks of not going for the more prestigious universities like most people with ridiculous AP credit do.</p>

<p>@halcyonheather My school offers CLEP Sociology! </p>

<p>cgents, no high school or college can offer a CLEP class/course. These are exams only - hence the name (College Level Examination Program). Maybe they are offering a study prep course for the exam, though I have never heard of such a thing.</p>

<p>I take them because for one, I’m interested in the subject areas, and I don’t like sitting in a normal class taking notes on stuff I already know. The other reason I take them is because it gets me out of class with all the deadbeat kids, to be blunt.</p>

<p>I don’t see any reason why someone shouldn’t take an AP class for the GPA boost. If they do well, then great, they’ve obviously learned something. If they don’t do well, then obviously it’s not helping their GPA</p>

<p>I take them because for some, like chemistry, I am genuinely interested. But mostly, I take them because the atmosphere is so much more positive- people seem more interested in discussions.</p>

<p>I like going into more detail, and prep classes at my school are extremely slow; as my English teacher says, they’re full of “finger painting and crossword puzzles”, but I can’t vouch for that. The kids in each type of class are totally different, too. The kids in the honors/AP classes kind of care, whereas in the prep classes, they don’t care at all.</p>

<p>APUSH: I like history
APES: It’s either APES or Honors Environmental Science and almost everyone takes APES we have 1 section of Honors and 5 of APES
AP English: One of my favorite teachers teaches it and I enjoy the class
AP German: I want to study German</p>

<p>AP Euro: I like history and one of my favorite teachers teaches it
AP English IV: Honors IV is just as much work at AP 4 but you don’t get AP credit</p>

<p>I’ll be taking AP Euro next year (senior year) because I love Europe and am genuinely interested in learning more about its history.</p>

<p>AP Euro: I had the teacher for USH and he’s awesome. Also took it so I wouldn’t have to take Senior Social Studies, which is a total joke.
AP Lit: I figured it was probably a good idea to get used to writing giant papers now rather than later.
AP Calc AB: I genuinely wanted to challenge myself.
AP Lang: last year, same reason as Lit
AP Bio: I really liked the teacher and I really like biology.</p>

<p>@CheerOutLoud How’s AP Bio? I will be taking it next year, along with Honors Chem! I heard for the first three chapters you will need chem! </p>

<p>This year:
AP Physics: I like physics, possibly want to go into engineering, and I’m pretty good at it
AP BC Calc: I love math, am really good at it (best subject), interesting to me
AP Stat: Same reasons as above, though Stat is less mathy than I thought</p>

<p>IB English: I wanted a specific teacher and I’m decent at English
IB History: Sounded interesting (boy I was so wrong)
IB French: I was already planning on continuing French through level 6 so why not IB?</p>

<p>Last Year:
AP Chem: Love chem, good at it, might want to major in it
AP Microecon: I dropped IB Film and needed a semester class to fill the spot.</p>

<p>I love challenging myself and I’m not happy in easy classes. But overall, I do take AP and IB to look good for colleges.</p>

<p>@superstarlala Wow! That’s a really nice schedule! Do you know what are the prerequisites for AP Physics? </p>

<p>Freshman:
AP Human Geography: I just wanted to have a advanced schedule and challenge myself. it was either this or regular Geography. I didn’t pass the AP exam though. </p>