@baktrax <what grade="" is="" your="" daughter="" in?="" keep="" in="" mind="" that="" if="" you="" are="" planning="" to="" make="" her="" re-take="" ap="" tests="" senior="" year,="" she="" will="" likely="" already="" have="" acceptances="" hand="" by="" the="" time="" test="" rolls="" around="" (in="" may),="" so="" year="" really="" not="" matter="" at="" all="" for="" admissions.="">
Ooops. I forgot about it! Thanks.
@ al2simon <in my="" opinion,="" nobody="" is="" very="" impressed="" by="" a="" native="" speaker="" getting="" 5="" on="" the="" ap="" exam="" or="" an="" in="" college="" language="" class.="" to="" me,="" it="" doesn’t="" show="" love="" of="" learning="" solid="" academic="" accomplishment="" …="" it’s="" more="" grade-grubbing="" mindset="" (no="" offense).="">
Certainly, no offense 
I really appreciate all advice! College admission process makes me feel as Alice in Wonderland, anything and everything is possible.
I reasoned that Spanish classes will demonstrate attachment to Hispanic culture and heritage.
<may i="" ask="" why="" she="" is="" taking="" ap="" chem="" and="" a="" college="" level="" chem?="">
She is taking AP chemistry because 1) Her HS requires 3 years of laboratory science for graduation, and 2) everyone tells us that adcoms like “the most rigorous course”. The most rigorous course, in her HS, includes AP Chem.
Second reason - she had a great teacher in Honors Chem last year. Thus, my D. has excellent foundation is chemistry. Chem is easy for her. She is not excited about Chem, she would never be a chemist, but Chem is easy for her.
Why take college Chem on top of AP chem? Again, chem is easy for her. Local college would happily accept her. Transportation and logistics is not an issue. Why not? it looks cool on admission application and it is relatively easy.
You and I have different ideas about what a HS education is for.
Even the most elite colleges accept plenty of kids who just … Took high school courses. And did you know that only about half the high schools in the U.S. even offer AP classes? Please don’t turn this into a race to accumulate as many AP tests as you can. It is not a race.
“reasoned that Spanish classes will demonstrate attachment to Hispanic culture and heritage.”
Nope. If elsewhere on her app they know Spanish is her first language, then they’ll figure out it was just an easy A.
College Chem will be a different animal than AP Chem, not to mention it’s a weeder class for pre-meds and other pre-health majors.
Agreed, which is why I listed pre-med as an exception in my earlier post. 
However, from other posts, it looks like Chem 1 would be a DE course taken while the girl is in HS, which I think is a waste.
Actually, no, it does not look “cool” on an application. Colleges, particularly the uber-selective colleges, expect their applicants to take the most rigorous courseload they can handle. Taking Chem 1 after AP Chem is just GPA padding, and colleges will view it as such, IMO.
If your daughter is Hispanic, she can check of the Hispanic box. If you and/or your spouse were born in a Hispanic country, that is shown on the application. I have no issue with latinos/as taking the AP Spanish exam, but it should be for the right reasons.
Werk!!
“Why take college Chem on top of AP chem? … Why not? it looks cool on admission application and it is relatively easy.”
Why do you think it looks cool?
No. This is wrong. It will look weird.
With this kind of reasoning, why not just repeat all her classes every year so she can get As in classes that she already took?
Also: AP exam scores have NOTHING to do with college admission.
Sorry if this was already stated by someone else…My son took AP Chem exam after the year he took honors chem (freshman or sophomore - don’t remember). Didn’t think he was really ready, but saw it as a practice test if nothing else, so he would understand just how hard the AP tests really are, etc. I think he scored a 2. Junior year he took AP Chem class and took the AP test again and got a 5. He may have reported both, don’t think they would care about the 2 since he later had a 5. So yes, you can take it twice if it works for you to do so. In our case it was right after the class for the subject.
Chem 1 classes vary a lot. Have you looked at the course syllabus to see if it even covers more than AP Chemistry?
My son took a Bio 1 class at the local CC the summer before 9th grade (long story about why…), and it clearly didn’t cover as much as AP Bio is going to cover this year.
When I went to college, there were at least 3 versions of Chem 1: for humanities majors, for non-chem STEM majors, and honors for chem and physics majors. My education major roommate had humanities Chem 1 and I had honors. Her textbook had cartoons and almost no math except for balancing equations. Mine spent a lot of time on deriving equations involving the Planck constant.
I believe AP Chemistry is supposed to be about the same as Chem 1 and Chem 2 for life science majors (except that pre-med majors can use it for their required chem). The next class after my Chem 2 class would have been OChem 1.
The Asian kids on here get told not to just take the AP test for their heritage language. I believe colleges want to see them learn a language in HS.
If your student is trying demonstrate some type of mastery or high-scoring ability in the subject matter of AP Chem (or any of the other AP sciences for that matter), she can take the SAT Chemistry subject test. From everything I have experienced with my D (and from reading CC on some of those subforums), a “5” on the AP test does not easily translate into an 800 on the subject test. There are different prep books; the questions are different. So, if your student really wants to go all out, colleges do like those 800s on the SAT subject tests.
Perhaps you have read elsewhere on CC that there is a hierarchy for the weight generally given to standardized tests:
SAT M+CR
SAT II or subject test scores
AP test scores
Is your student trying to qualify for the AP National Scholar award or something?
I know quite a few people who took the AP Spanish test as native speakers without prep. With few exceptions, they did not do well. Why? Because they knew colloquial Spanish, not academic Spanish. Yes, it makes a difference. It’s especially bad when they only speak the language. I legitimately knew a Spanish speaker in high school who had always thought that “que” was “k.” We don’t live in a bilingual area though (which is, of course, much different than many parts of southern California).
Don’t make your child repeat an AP test. It’s not worth it. Also remember that most schools cap the number of AP credits you can bring in.
I did cherry pick the scores I sent because I only had enough room to put a few (5 or 6 I think?) and I took 10 tests (only 4 classes). The only one I didn’t get a 4 or 5 on was AP Chem because I didn’t take the class and didn’t study (it was a stupid decision but no one told me not to).
Lots of kids don’t take AP tests for a variety of reasons. Not everyone can afford the and not everyone can get fee waivers. Even when I was in high school, AP tests were already $100 a pop because they were taken at a local CC. Even if we could get fee waivers for the tests (which no one told me about so I didn’t know, despite being on free/reduced lunch), we still had to pay the fee for the CC.
If this is true, then PLEASE do not make her take chemistry again. Why “make” her take a class that she doesn’t particularly like in a subject that she has no desire to study? If she was excited about chemistry I’d recommend that she skip the college chem class and go straight to organic chemistry, especially if it’s your desire to impress college admission officers.
I’m assuming that she is taking (or has already taken) physics? Because that’s obviously more important than yet another chemistry class.
No, they get told not to take the SAT Subject Test in their heritage language unless it is over and above the college’s requirements. Nobody, and certainly not colleges, will begrudge a kid with a heritage language for gaining college credit. And, as another poster stated, just because a kid speaks Chinese/Spanish/etc. at home does not mean that s/he can read or write it, or for that matter, even speak it correctly.
Thank you very much for all comments.
Few points about my D. She is not a scientist, not a pre-med, never was, never would be. It just not her piece of cake. She is OK , but she doesn’t like it. However, she still has to take 3 years of laboratory science for HS graduation (and college admission to Univ of California, for example).
First, she had to take Honors Biology (school requirement), and she got A.
Second, she took Honors Chemistry. The teacher was very demanding, it was a brutal experience, but she got A and (in the meantime) learned chemistry really well.
Third, she is taking AP Chemistry. Why? Because it the “the most rigorous course in her HS”, and she was told that adcoms like it.
Other possible options: AP Biology (she is not excited about Bio), Physics (it would be more difficult for her to learn physics than to take AP Chem) and AP Environmental Science (doesn’t fit into schedule).
College class (in 12th grade) in chemistry seems to be the easiest possible option. Not much work. Extra point in GPA. College experience.
What is my D’s passion? Shopping and gossiping. However, she doesn’t need any additional classes in these subjects, she is already a pro.
She passed already the SAT Chemistry subject test.
Personally I think an educated person should know physics. She doesn’t need more chemistry. Frankly if she’s good at chem, she’s likely to be good at physics too. If you don’t make her take it now, she will probably never take it in college. I think a student who is selective college bound should have Bio, physics, chem and 1 AP science (more if they are interested in STEM and their high school makes it easy - in our system for example, honors students take high school bio in 8th grade making it easy to take two AP science courses if you want to.)
She SHOULD take physics. Not only is it an important subject, educated-citizen-wise, but I know for a fact that college adcoms look for it on a transcript. (How do I know? A member of my extended family has been working in college admissions for 30 years.) Biology/chemistry/physics is like the holy triumvirate of high school science.
The absence of physics on your D’s transcript would speak louder than the presence of multiple chemistry classes.