<p>I have to make a decision today on which AP exams to take so this is a little urgent.</p>
<p>I’ve been going through a checklist of what courses I can get credits for if I take AP exams. Does anyone know whether I can get credits for electives too? Nowhere in my course description does it say what electives I can choose from. </p>
<p>Let's see if my examples give you an answer. This works pretty much the same at all colleges. </p>
<p>This spring, my daughter is taking the AP tests for AP Macro and AP Micro. If she scores a 4 or 5 on both tests (which everyone from her school generally does - we have a really good HS Econ teacher), the AP Macro score will give her 3 credits for Economics 304 L at UT and the AP Micro score will give her 3 credits for Economics 304 K at UT. She'll be in the College of Liberal Arts at UT. For the College of Liberal Arts, you need six core credits in Social Science from two different departments (Anthro, Economics, Geography, Linguistics, Psychology, Sociology). So, she can use the Econ 304 K for core credit (3 credits) and she can use the Econ 304 L as an extra elective (3 credits). It's as if she took the Econ 304 L class as an elective at UT. </p>
<p>Same sort of thing for her AP World History test score from last year. It will give her 3 credits for History 306 N at UT. It doesn't count toward the core, but it is an extra elective.</p>
<p>The students at my daughter's high school generally take as many AP classes as possible, so I suppose you can say they are trying to get as many AP credits as possible. If you end up going to an Ivy League or other very highly ranked school, you probably won't be able to use many credits, but if you go to a state school like Texas or Ohio State - or to a generous private school - your HS AP credits can put you at sophomore status or more early on. This can help with things like when you get to register for class, and it can let you register for a lighter load or drop a class when you have a particularly tough semester. When I say they take as many AP classes as possible, I mean say 1 or 2 sophomore year, 2 to 4 junior year, 3 to 5 senior year. Something like that. </p>
<p>There is a rebate that Texas residents can get from Texas, something to do with having just enough credits when you graduate, so check with your advisor at registration before you do the paperwork to "claim" your AP credits at UT if you are a Texas resident. If you won't need them to graduate, you might consider not claiming them.</p>
<p>It is not trivially easy to get the 4's and 5's you need on AP tests in order to get college credit for most classes at most schools. Your high school should be able to help you if most of the kids who take a given AP class get a 4 or 5 on the AP test in May. </p>
<p>People also try to get the awards like "AP Scholar with honors" AP:</a> Scholar Awards </p>
<p>Our guidance consellors advise that you generally should not take an AP class if you don't think you will at least a B in it though. A report card with a bunch of C's on it will not look good on the college applications.</p>