My daughter has been accepted to ND during Early Action. She took AP English Language last year (as a Junior) and received a 5 on the exam. I understand this will allow her to not take one semester of Writing and Rhetoric during her freshman year. This year she is taking AP English Composition. Is there any good reason why she should take the exam this year? ND won’t give credit for both AP English courses and since she has already placed out of what she is able to, why pay the $91 to take the other exam. OR is AP English Composition used at all for class placement? Also, she is in AP Calc. AB this year. No one in our school has received a 5 on the exam in the past (our Calc teacher isn’t efficient at teaching the class and rarely makes it through the year in time to review). In any case, she feels it is very likely that she won’t receive a 5 on the exam, and even if she did, she thinks she would take Calc at ND regardless so that she has a good mathmatics background. So is there any reason she should take the Calc exam? Does ND use AP exams for any placement purposes in Math? Thanks for any advice here.
I’m a freshman now, and was in a similar situation last year: I would not bother with AP Comp. I got credit for comp, so I didn’t need to take the AP Lit test my senior year. That was great for me, because I’ve heard from classmates that the writing and rhetoric class is dreadful. I also got a 5 on the AP calc exam and placed out of that, which I regret. I had a lot of trouble in Calc 2, barely skating by with a B-. I would recommend she not bother with the Calc exam and take Calc 1, because it’ll give her an easier first semester and a better background for Calc 2. It may be worth an email to her Advisor asking for a more experienced recommendation.
If she has decided on ND, verify what she will get credit for, and don’t make her take any unnecessary exams. AP exams are a cheap way to buy college credit. If she won’t get credit or wants to take the college class for other reasons, there’s no point in paying the exam fee. Our D decided on her school before she had to decide which exams to take, and only took half the tests she could have senior year. Not taking tests she wouldn’t get credit for allowed her to focus her study time on the tests that she did need for credit, and made the end of senior year less stressful.
Thank you! I did call and talked to admissions who said the same thing regarding English. I didn’t ask about Calc. What you said really helps regarding Calc 1. Thanks so much.
I would second the idea of taking Calc 1 over in college.
I’m also thinking there’s no benefit to taking to AP English classes. Took AP Lang last year and AP Lit this year. I think I’ll pass on the AP lit exam if I can’t really get credit for both.