AP Classes

Pre-College Topics High School Life
1

<p>How does admission to AP classes work at your school? At my school, AP's are kind of exclusive. You can't take any AP's until 11th grade, and alot of AP's are only open to 12th graders. There's criteria that you have to meet to enroll in an AP class, too.</p>

<p>AP Biology: Open to 11th graders and 12th graders. Must have gotten a "B" or better in Honors Biology or an "A-" or better in regular Biology AND a "B" or better in Honors Chemistry or an "A-" or better in regular Chemistry</p>

<p>AP Chemistry: Open to 11th graders and 12th graders. Must have gotten a "B" or better in Honors Chemistry or an "A-" or better in regular Chemistry</p>

<p>AP US History: Open to 11 graders and 12th graders. Need to fill out an application and write an essay</p>

<p>AP European History: Open to 11 graders and 12th graders. Need to fill out an application and write an essay</p>

<p>AP Literature: Open to 12th graders only</p>

<p>AP Calculus AB: Must have gotten a "B" or better in Honors Pre-Calculus</p>

<p>AP Calculus BC: Must have gotten an "A-" or better in Honors Pre-Calculus. Need a teacher recommendation</p>

<p>AP Statistics: Must have gotten a "B" or better in Honors Algebra II</p>

<p>AP Spanish: Must have gotten a "B+" or better in Honors Spanish 4, departmental recommendation, and an evaluation process which will include an oral proficiency interview</p>

<p>AP French: Must have gotten a "B" or better in Honors French 4, departmental recommendation, and an evaluation process which will include an oral proficiency interview</p>

2

<p>I’m in about the same boat as you, we can only take AP classes as juniors and seniors, and I’m a rising sophomore.</p>

<p>We have:</p>

<p>AP Language and Comp: Open to 11th graders, must have a recommendation from sophomore english teacher and approval of department head, must have consistently scored 11s or 12s on writing samples out of a score of 12</p>

<p>AP Literature and Comp: Open to 12th graders, 80 or better in AP Language or 88 or better in English 11, recommendation from junior english teacher, approval of department head</p>

<p>AP American History: Open to 11th graders
AP Euro History: Open to 12th graders</p>

<p>AP Calculus AB: Open to 12th graders, 85 or better in Pre Calculus and approval of department head</p>

<p>AP Biology: Open to 11th and 12th graders, 90 in Chemistry and Biology, approval of department head as well as approval from Chemistry and Biology Honors teachers</p>

<p>AP Physics: Open to 12th graders, 80 in honors level Physics, concurrent enrollment in AP Calculus, approval of department head as well as approval from Physics and Chemistry teachers</p>

<p>AP French: Open to 12th graders, 80 in French 4 Honors, approval of department head, recommendation from French 4 teacher</p>

<p>AP Spanish: Open to 12th graders</p>

<p>AP Art History: Open to 11th and 12th graders, approval of department chair</p>

<p>AP Music Theory: Open to 11th and 12th graders, Music Theory 1 and 2, and approval of department head and teachers</p>

<p>I really don’t like our system with AP classes :/</p>

3

<p>This looks pretty similar to the AP criteria at my school; APs are only available to juniors and seniors as well.</p>

<p>AP Lang: Juniors and seniors; must have at least a “B” in honors English sophomore year, or teacher recommendation</p>

<p>AP Lit: Seniors only; must have done well in Lang or get a teacher rec.</p>

<p>APUSH: Juniors and seniors; anyone can get in, really. Just be willing to WORK. ;P</p>

<p>AP Enviro: Usually just seniors, but sometimes juniors…no prereqs other than decent grades in Bio/Chem, not necessarily honors-level</p>

<p>AP Physics C: Seniors only; must have done well in Chemistry and preferably be enrolled in some sort of Calculus</p>

<p>AP Calculus AB: Usually just seniors (since BC isn;t offered at my school…) but the occasional junior; must have earned at least a “B” in honors math junior year</p>

<p>AP French: I have no idea…I take Spanish, for which no AP class is offered :(</p>

<p>That’s it for me! A fairly limited list.</p>

4

<p>Nobody takes APs freshman year.
AP Euro is generally the first AP people take as a sophomore, and usually just that one. NM History is a prerequisite. Class is divided into two semesters, the first is Advanced European History and is unweighted and the second is AP Euro history.
AP Biology requires you take bio or honors bio. Taken in 11th or 12th grade, also divided into two semesters, one unweighted, one weighted, advanced/AP
AP Chemistry is the same as AP Bio only with a chem requisite
AP Physics B is in the course catalog but has not been an actual class for the last 3 years due to very little signing up
AP Calculus is a full year class, taken in 11th or 12th grade with precalc or trig as a prerequisite. The first semester it is AP Calculus AB and the second is AP Calculus BC.
AP Language is taken by 11th graders, divided into first semester Honors English III unweighted and second semester AP Language, weighted.
AP Lit is taken by 12th and the same as Lang except Honors English IV is the first semester.
AP US History and AP US Government are taken together, they both cover the same period however the days switch back and forth (so Mondays for 2nd period you’ll be in Gov, Tuesdays in History, Wednesdays in Gov…) taken by 11th and 12th graders, prerequisite is world history or Euro history. Year long and both are weighted.
AP Statistics, prerequisite is Algebra II. First semester is Statistics (not offered honors, not weighted) and if you want to continue then the second semester is the actual AP Statistics class.
AP Studio Art requires teacher approval and is one semester in the fall
AP Spanish requires Spanish I-III and is a whole year, again with the advanced/AP thing going on</p>

<p>So being that my school is on a block schedule and AP classes are year long, if your entire courseload is AP you get the same 4 classes all year and nothing else. Really sucks.</p>

5

<p>World is open to 10th graders everything else opens junior year. That is unless you beg and pleas enough to get into some earlier.</p>

6

<p>Interesting systems, and I thought my school was a pain about AP classes. Except for certain APs (the languages), you get some forms from guidance and get them filled out by the AP teacher. Most ask for grades, and a brief essay (like 2 sentences) on why you want that AP. </p>

<p>The social studies and science APs require the department director’s permission. It’s a pain to get a hold of them too. But nowhere as bad as the OP for instance.</p>

7

<p>The only “exclusive” AP class is AP Bio for freshman. Because it’s a huge transition from middle school (which even at the highest level is considered a step above common sense by most) to high school, and especially to AP, anyone interested in freshman AP Bio has to go through an extensive interview process with the principal and multiple teachers, and then they have to prove they are able to do the work. It’s a long process, but very few people get rejected.</p>

<p>All of the other APs are pretty much open to anyone as long as you are a sophomore or above and you can get your teacher to sign a paper saying (s)he recommends you for the class. You also have to take classes in order, as designated by the school system.</p>

8

<p>At my school, you can take any class you want as long as you sign a waiver that acknowledges the fact that the school administration might have warned against taking the class.</p>

9

<p>WAIT, can someone clarify this for me?</p>

<p>LETS JUST SAY you’re a junior and the requirements to get into AP Euro is “open to 11th and 12th graders blah blah blah…”</p>

<p>But does that mean you can still self-study it or do you have to be in 11 or 12 grade?</p>

10

<p>@warlands719: You can self study any time you want. (: In my case, I can only self study subjects not offered at my school. And if I do that, I need to pay for my own proctor.</p>

11

<p>I’m new to this site…does anybody know how to post a thread? And AP classes aren’t that exclusive in my school you can start in the 10th grade.</p>

12

<p>At my school, you can take AP World as a sophomore and the rest are junior and senior year.</p>

<p>AP Calc AB: Seniors only. Have to have gotten a 94% or above in algebra 2/trig or a decent grade in regular/honors calculus (regular calculus is generally seniors only, but I took it as a junior due to my school having a super weird math program)</p>

<p>AP Calc BC: Have to have taken honors calc junior year. To get into honors calc, you MUST have taken honors algebra 2/trig/geometry as a sophomore, and as a freshman you MUST have taken honors algebra 1/geometry to get into sophomore honors math. Hard to stay on this path.</p>

<p>AP Biology: B+ or A- or above in biology and B+ or above in chemistry</p>

<p>AP Chem: Not sure, but similar to AP Bio with most likely an A- or above in chemistry</p>

<p>APES: seniors only, B or above science average</p>

<p>AP Literature (seniors only): recommendation from junior English teacher. No specific grade needed.</p>

<p>AP Euro/US/World: similar to AP English. If the teacher thinks you can do well, you can take it.</p>

<p>AP languages: Just be placed (by language teacher the year before) into the honors level 4 of your language. At the end of the year, you’ll take the AP test.</p>

<p>AP Econ- junior year history teacher + Econ teacher need to recommend you. They want you to be in at least calculus senior year to do it.</p>

<p>AP Physics B- high grade in chem and bio previously (I think A- or above), or go into with a B from regular physics</p>

<p>AP Physics C- Have to have some sort of good grade in regular physics (no one ever does that though) or go in from Physics B with a B or above.</p>

<p>AP arts are just recommended by teachers.</p>

<p>It’s pretty easy to get into all the classes except for AP Physics C and AP Calculus BC (just because you need to have been on that track since freshman year. The reason you can’t go into it from regular calc/algebra 2/trig like other schools is because in honors calc they cover a lot of the material most schools cover in AB. Our school prides itself on getting only 5’s on the AP Calc exams).</p>

13

<p>There’s one you can take freshman year (AP world), two sophomore (AP world and AP gov) sometimes more, and then 15+ junior and senior year. You have to be recommended by your teacher the previous year, but most teachers want you to take AP courses so there aren’t really any cases where you are rejected. </p>

<p>In all the AP classes that I’ve been in, it’s a mix of students from the top 50% (although we do not rank so just a guess). </p>

<p>It’s not really a “oh my god! You’re in an AP class, you must be a genius!” sort of mind set at all, because it just fits with the type of student at my school.</p>

14

<p>AP US is the token history class for Sophomores at my high school. During my Freshmen year, I was spart of the first AP World History class, which is currently the only AP class one can take as a Freshman. AP Bio can also technically be taken by Freshmen, but most rarely take due to either not knowing about the opportunity or the massive amounts of paperwork that needs to be signed by one’s 8th grade science teacher, Middle School principal and parents.</p>

<p>Overall, as long as a student is a Sophomore, he or she can take any AP class that their heart desired, they would just have to get their current teacher’s trust (as in, your Bio or Chem teacher if you want to take AP Chem the following year, etc.) to sign off on the motion.</p>

15

<p>My school doesn’t offer AP Chemistry, and everyone says it’s too difficult to self study for the exam…
So is it better for me to not take the exam at all or is it better to self study and get a less than satisfactory grade?
I want to major in biology/biochemistry, so I might need it…</p>

16

<p>these are the grades they start to be offered: </p>

<p>10th:
apush, ap macro, ap psych, ap bio, ap statistics
11th:
ap bio, ap euro, ap enviro, ap comp sci
12th:
ap lit, ap lang, ap studio art</p>

<p>non-grade based offerings (basically you can do them when you when the prior coursework):
ap french, ap spanish, ap calculus ab, ap calculus bc, ap chem, ap physics</p>

<p>Also, you need to have done well in the prerequiste honors courses & based on your grades, your guidance conselour will give you those classees</p>

17

<p>No APs for freshmen.</p>

<p>World History is open to sophomores.</p>

<p>US History, Chem, and Lang are open to juniors.</p>

<p>A bunch are open to seniors, although you can only take 4 or 5 I think. Bio, Lit, Calc, Modern Euro, Comp Gov, ES, Physics.</p>

<p>They are by application, based on your (P)SAT scores, grades in those classes, and GPA. Social studies APs also take into consideration your English grades and require an application essay (generally a DBQ).</p>