AP classes

Colleges and Universities A-Z California Institute of Technology
1

<p>How many AP classes did you guys take? I transfered to the school I'm going now from Taiwan (hope you guys know where that is) this year (i'm a sophmore right now) and i totally wasted this year, due to my not understanding the system. I'm in adv algebra and trig. right now. Do you think it is okay to skip Intro to Calc and go directly to AP Calc?</p>

2

<p>Yes. An "Intro Calc" course is a waste of time.</p>

<p>If you're curious how many AP courses the average Caltech student takes, here is the rough distribution, just estimating based on my memory:</p>

<p>min: 0
median: ~5-6
max: 18</p>

3

<p>But those who do not take any AP courses usually have IB right?</p>

4

<p>omg...and what about courses taken at colleges? does that do you any good? that's say, like, 4 AP courses + 2 college courses V.S. 8 AP courses?</p>

5

<p>Well it's not like we have a table for converting college courses to equivalent AP units :) We look at the whole picture. College courses are good, but most admits haven't taken them. (And there have been people with no AP and no IB courses who have gotten in -- typically from small schools or ones quite out of the way, far from everything.)</p>

6

<p>

How do people actually pass their AP tests when they do things like this?</p>

7

<p>If I recall correctly the person with 18 got 5's on all of them, maybe a single 4. If you take them starting freshman year, this isn't so hard.</p>

8

<p>wow...it's incredible...is the school full of people like that??</p>

9

<p>ignore me. i think i've just aked a dumb question.</p>

10

<p>I've heard that Caltech does not grant AP credit, only placement exams in math, chemistry, and physics. I'm just curious, are there placement exams for humanities/social sciences like economics or foreign languages like spanish so that we can either place out or take advanced versions of these subjects?</p>

11

<p>You can start at whatever level of a foreign language is appropriate for you (i.e. if you're at the advanced level, you can just start at the advanced class). You can't place out of intro humanities and social sciences, but they are taught at a level assuming the standard high school (typically AP) background in the subject. For instance, almost no high school students (save those who took university ec courses) could pass this Caltech introductory econ [url="<a href="http://www.hss.caltech.edu/%7Emcafee/Classes/Ec11/PDF/2006Wmidterm.pdf%22%5Dmidterm%5B/url"&gt;http://www.hss.caltech.edu/~mcafee/Classes/Ec11/PDF/2006Wmidterm.pdf"]midterm[/url&lt;/a&gt;] or [url="<a href="http://www.hss.caltech.edu/%7Emcafee/Classes/Ec11/PDF/2006Wfinal.pdf%22%5Dfinal%5B/url"&gt;http://www.hss.caltech.edu/~mcafee/Classes/Ec11/PDF/2006Wfinal.pdf"]final[/url&lt;/a&gt;].&lt;/p>

12

<p>lol... giving a test that no one can pass:)</p>

13

<p>Well, not before taking the course ;-)</p>

14

<p>wow....even in social-s's classes there is math at Caltech....
i love this chool :)</p>