<p>Our HS just called to say its time to sign up for this years AP exams. I was wondering if it really "pays" to take them. I keep hearing that you don't truly place out of the class because colleges make you take the next level up. Thus making it harder especially in classes like calc. that now can place you into a high level multivariate level type math class.</p>
<p>Hi Dungareedoll:</p>
<p>I’m not sure about other colleges. I don’t believe that Tulane forces students into a higher level class (after a successful AP experience). It’s still up to the student. In most subjects, and depending on the major, these AP courses could allow the student to bypass any further college coursework in the subject. The exception would be foreign language, of which at least one semester at Tulane is always required. (Two semesters are required if it’s in a new foreign language.) When a student has passed the AP exam, it may be more interesting for that student to take the next level course in the sequence rather than to repeat the same course. It’s basically up to the student to decide, though.</p>
<p>Thank you Capandgown good to know.</p>
<p>It definitely pays to take them. You are given the opportunity to use them to take upper level courses or not. Since I’m pre-med I opted to take lower level science classes, but used all my others. Another benefit to having the credits is that you get priority scheduling over others with less credits.</p>
<p>However, be aware that if you take a course for which you earned AP credit, you won’t get credit for both. For example, if you got a 4 or 5 on the Calc BC AP exam, you would get 8 hours of credit from Tulane, and place out of Calc 121 and 122 (hence the 8 hours of credit). If you decided to take those 2 courses anyway, you would not get another 8 hours of credit. For most students this might not matter, but it can give a student less flexibility down the road for study abroad, or easing up on courses senior year while doing research, etc. It would be like you never took the test. Of course, in that example if you decided to skip 121 and start in 122, you would get the 4 hours of AP credit. At least I think I got that right.</p>
<p>I know the pre-meds still have to take General Chem, even if they got 5’s on the AP exam. Those of you in that situation, let us know if I am right that you essentially lost the credit from the AP exam because you had to take it anyway.</p>
<p>My D’s AP chem teacher from last year told me that he usually encourages the students with 4’s and 5’s on the chem test to go ahead and take the lower level class over again. It will be an easier class for the first semester/year and give the student a chance to ease into college life a little easier without such a hard class. He also said that it gives the “smarter” students a chance to shine a bit with an easier class/A, the professor will notice them more and it might open up more research possibilities with a professor in the future.</p>
<p>Bajamm: I’m still confused. Then if what you say is correct will they still get credit for the lower level class or is FC correct that you can retake the Chem class but will receive no credit for it.</p>
<p>FC is correct. If you retake the course, you will not receive credit. I decided to retake bio and chem and am so glad that I did. I wanted to take them as refresher courses (bio was in my junior year) and, hopefully, get an easy A. My AP chem and bio classes focused only on what is covered on the AP exams, not so in Chem 117, Cell and Ebio. I feel that if I were to skip them and go into a higher level, I would have been at a great disadvantage. Also, as Bajamm’s daughter was told, I was able to form a relationship with my professor and , through that relationship, was able to get involved in a long-term research project with another professor. </p>
<p>I am, however, using my english, psychology, physics, stats and calc credits.</p>
<p>Actually Dungaree, bajamm didn’t say in her scenario that they still got (double) credit. He/she was simply saying that the teacher felt the pragmatism of having the review plus having the easier class would set the stage for making quite a bit of college life easier and/or more fulfilling all 4 years, very similar to what gabby is saying. I think there is a ton of merit in this. I took Calc in high school but took it again at Tulane and I understood it so much better, at a much more “physical” level as to what the math really meant, not just manipulating equations. That was a huge advantage in physics, and would be a huge advantage for any would be engineers. For non-science people like my D, it is better to take the credits and run, lol.</p>
<p>That’s right, I did not mean to imply in any way that double credit would be or could be earned. I doubt that double credit can be earned, though that is between the student and school.</p>
<p>It just sometimes makes life easier to use the AP class as a stage for doing better in college rather than to get credit.</p>
<p>Ok so let me get this straight when you say that you took the course again and received an easy A, you mean that you get the grade, it boost your GPA but no credit is received. So in other words, you still need your 122 credits (give or take a few for engineers etc.) to graduate. So if Tulane gives you 30 credits from AP’s you can’t graduate early but you can use them so that now you can graduate with a second major or a minor because you were able to apply the 30 credits. Where before this you wouldn’t have time to take those extra 30 credits to secure the second major/minor. Do I get it? And if you retake the class, well then it doesn’t help you other than the fact that you are more solid on the subject area.</p>
<p>gabby1116: Since you are premed and thats possibly a route my S is going I have a question. You said you used your AP Calc credit. So since you did that, did you fulfill your calc requirement? You didn’t have to still take some higher level course? I beleive for most science/premed majors you need 1 year of calc, so then you were done with that? Also, how do you think that will effect you when it comes time to take the MCAT? I heard that you need calc for that test. </p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Dungareedoll, I am of the understanding that if you score high enough on the AP test to get credit and then choose to take the class, you get credit for the class but NO credit for the test. The only advantage then of taking the AP class was to prepare you for the college class. There almost always is no double dipping, only credit for one or the other, not both. On college transcripts and such, if you take the college class the AP will not show up, it is just information in your brain to help you out.</p>
<p>If a student chooses to use the AP credits, then they would not take the easier class. They would go on to a harder class and free up time to do other things.</p>
<p>Calculus is NOT covered on the MCAT, at all. Some medical schools don’t even require any math. Most want one semester of calculus and one semester of statistics.</p>
<p>I would have used my AP Calc credit if I had gotten it, but I got a 3 on calculus 
Our teacher didn’t cover all the material that was on the AP and I was too lazy to self study the rest LOL.</p>
<p>I would STRONGLY suggest passing out on consolidated calculus, however, and either retaking Calculus I or going into Calculus III. Calculus II (consolidated is a brief review of Calc I and then covers the entirety of Calc II), consolidated, or just regular, is apparently much harder than I or III. Most of my friends taking Calc II are currently dying in that class.</p>
<p>I second Gabby on mostly everything, except that you may find yourself bored in the lower level classes. I am still very glad I retook/am retaking chemistry, physics, & bio, but I do feel bored in class a lot of the time.</p>
<p>Oh good to know, then I noticed that Gabby also opted out of Physics. Again isn’t that on the MCAT? IF not what the heck is on the MCAT? </p>
<p>Thanks Tulane 14</p>
<p>My D is also pre-med. She was advised to retake cell bio and gen. chem instead of using AP credit. She also went back to Calc 1 instead of moving ahead 2 classes which she was a good move on her part. She did use AP credit for history, english and psychology. D is taking one semester of English. Her advisor said the AP credit plus one semester at Tulane will satisfy medical schools that have a 1yr of English requirement. </p>
<p>We found that Medical schools all have the Gen. chem, Orgo. chem, Physics, and Biology requirements. They want you to take these at your college OR use Ap credit and move on to harder classes. That is fine if you are certain you can maintain a good GPA taking these more difficult classes. This is why many kids who are qualified to move ahead do repeat the basic class. It is a numbers game. The GPA is so important to gaining admission to Medical School.</p>
<p>Only some Medical schools require the 1 yr of English or 1 year of Calculus. It is up to you to decide what Medical school you may go to and make sure you have those requirements. This is a daunting thought when you are only a freshman!</p>
<p>I can’t say exactly what is on the MCAT, but med schools do have requirements beyond what is on the test. As tulane14 says, most require some calc, even if it is not on the test. Same with taking an English course that has expository writing. Med schools have these core courses, some because you really need to understand them, like chem and bio, and others so that they can compare people on a nominally equal basis in those courses I suppose. Whatever the reason, the vast majority of med schools require 4 semesters of chem with labs (just to be clear again, since spring’s post might be a bit ambiguous on this, you CANNOT place out of General Chem even if you get a 5 on the AP if you want to go to med school. Med school’s will NOT accept AP scores here. Most will let you place out of basic bio, but then you have to take a higher level bio. You still need a year with lab. I don’t know about physics, from what gabby says it sounds like you can place out of it), 2 semesters of bio with labs, 2 semesters of physics, 2 semesters of Calc or 1 calc and 1 stats, and the English semester/year. And that’s really about it. That’s why it is kind of funny when people ask about majoring in “pre-med”. Obviously there is no such thing, and the requirements for being pre-med are really rather minimal, course wise.</p>
<p>Getting back to the credits, they don’t show up on your transcript like a course, but they do show up in your record and count towards graduation. In other words, if my D went in with 24 credits, lets say, she would only need 96 at Tulane to graduate. 120 hours is the usual minimum, although some majors do end up slightly higher sometimes. So she could take 12 per semester, which still counts as a full time student, and graduate in 4 years. Or take a higher load and graduate in 3 or 3.5. Or take 126 hours at Tulane and get both a BA and a BS, or two BA’s (not the same as a double major, but actually two full degrees). And/or just go right into the higher level courses because you really don’t want to take the intro level stuff, which is what she did. That and still taking an average of 18 hours per semester, so she can pretty much take what she wants in China and it really doesn’t matter if they translate into Tulane credit or not, although I am sure most of them will. That is the kind of flexibility having a lot of AP credits gives you. If, because one is premed or for other reasons one doesn’t use the credits, then everything said above applies. It just represents better preparation.</p>
<p>OK I really get it now. FC I can’t believe you have all the answers. I was trying not to bother you again. But as always you’re awesome. Thank you.</p>
<p>Also thank you to everyone else who posted. You’re information is invaluable. I really appreciate it.</p>
<p>Oh, I don’t, but this one gets asked a lot every year, or some variation on it. And Tulane starts out with a lot of premeds. Notice the “starts out”, lol. Not sure of the exact stat, but something like 50-70% end up not premed, and that’s at pretty much all schools. And actually, that’s a good thing on lots of levels. Some of course, just find out they cannot make the grades, but others decide they get passionate about the biochemistry, or the biomed engineering, or something totally different like Anthropology or Music or whatever. In the end, that’s what it’s all about for at least that aspect of the college experience.</p>
<p>At orientation last year, one of the academic advisers said something about not being allowed to take lower level calculus if you score a 4 or 5 on your AP Calc test. He said something along the lines of “if you’re another student in that class, do you want you in the course, busting the curve?” I’m not sure if that’s a hard and fast rule, but he seemed pretty sure about it.</p>
<p>Anyway. It is totally worth taking AP tests. My son started Tulane with a year’s worth of credits, all of his core requirements out of the way except for one, and the ability to jump right into higher level classes in his majors. If he wanted to graduate in 3 years, he could, largely because of AP courses (But where’s the fun in that? :)</p>