<p>I know that this is somewhat obvious, but I just want to know what some other people think.
I took 8 APs by my junior year - (calculus BC, Chemistry, Physics C mech, world history, US history, environmental science, statistics, and Latin).
I got 5's on every single one of them - Latin was THE pain in the ass lol. Not like getting 5's in these exams are really hard or anything, since calculus BC is a piece of cake (go curve lol), so is chem, environmental, and stats.
In comparison, some of my friends took 13 AP exams by their junior year and got average of about 3.5 in them - failed some of them.
What would look better?</p>
<p>I'd definitely say quality over quantity. Anyone can take an AP course. The challenge is doing well. If AP exams are supposed to demonstrate your ability to complete college-level coursework, and you fail the exam, then what have you demonstrated?</p>
<p>lol after a certain point it doesnt really matter how many more you take...especially if your grades are stelar and your friends' grades suck</p>
<p>I second quality over quantity.</p>
<p>Without a doubt, it would be quality. I would not take an AP if I knew I would not get over a 4. </p>
<p>Congrats. You're an AP National Scholar!!! :)</p>
<p>Quality over quantity. Just don't take APs for the sake of saying "I took all APs."</p>
<p>I mean, if you're smart enough to do that and can handle the stress, then go for it. But if not... why bother? Take the APs that you're good at, and take honors in the subjects that you might not be as strong in.</p>
<p>But, if you got all 5's, then you're obviously pretty talented in a lot of things. 8 fives is absolutely amazing- probably a lot better than 14 threes, since it looks like that person is just taking APs for the sake of taking them and spreading themselves too thin.</p>
<p>APs are super hard i don't know what you are talking about.
at my school only one person in AP chem got a 2, the rest got 1's.
seriously, ***. i work my butt off and smart people are starting to annoy me.
it's like... i'm sorry i don't go to a school where the teachers are amazing, that APs are jokes here. blah. it's so stupid to even have APs.</p>
<p>lol...its pretty said if everone got ones and twos i mean thats not even respectable no matter how hard the test might be</p>
<p>How can you take 13 AP exams by your junior year? That's just not right... even taking 8 exams by junior year is considered stellar in many schools.</p>
<p>I don't know - in terms of what looks better on paper, I think we'd need an adcom to comment. B/c really - what looks better having the list filled to the brim w/ APs, but have an average of ~3. Or just taking a few and doing very well. I mean its the ancient educational policy question: breadth or depth?</p>
<p>This person I'm talking about took 2 APs in his freshman year, 4 on sophomore year, and 7 on his junior year. Of course, these include those pseudo(sorry if you are taking these) APs like psych, human geography, environmental, etc.</p>
<p>didn't you take environmental? lol</p>
<p>yes, but it depends. at our school, 1/2 the class gets 5 on most of the AP tests, 1/3 get 4s, and then the rest gets 3s and lowers. AP at our school is very "AP-ish". but colleges should know the caliber of your school therefore knowing the difficulty of AP therefore knowing the difficulty of your schedule in relation to everyone else's</p>
<p>Take the courses that relate to your interests. If you can handle tons of AP classes & want to do that, more power to you. If you think AP chem was easy, then you need all the challenges you can give yourself!!</p>
<p>I notice that a lot of kids avoid the AP sciences (other than environmental). I think that admissions officers probably take note of that --- it's no problem for say, a journalism person --- but it could be a factor in the admission of someone who plans to go into a science-related area. No big deal if you CAN'T take them --- but possibly a big deal if you CHOOSE NOT TO take them (too hard, ruins GPA, etc).</p>
<p>Definitely quality over quanity.</p>
<p>i would agree, but to an extent. I took a total of 8 over three years, which was 1-3 shy of being the most possible. However, i'm horrible at multiple choice. I would destroy the essays, but I always lost points on multiple choices. Yet I still did very well grade wise. So if someone gets an A in the class, yet only a 3 on the exam, doesn't mean that they didn't learn anything, and it's unfair to say that. Also, my senior year, I took AP Physics, but the teacher was brand new to it. We were still covering material a week before the test, and only 13% of the 48 students who took the test got a 3 or better. That goes to show that its hard to avoid bad scores, but if you do well grade-wise and recieve a passing grade, then I would say quanitity over quality.</p>
<p>well then come to my school where the teachers don't teach. seriously our ap pass rate is low, all the teachers do is give us work to do, they don't teach.</p>
<p>and for chem, well our teacher left in the middle of the year and we had some college kid teach.</p>
<p>not everyone can go to a great school.</p>
<p>Considering that my school only offers one AP in science (Biology), 5's on two science APs (self-studying, I guess) is considered amazing.</p>
<p>My school doesn't even offer AP's until junior year. I will have taken 6 when I graduate. I could have taken eight I believe, but I didn't take Psychology and AP Spanish because I didn't take spanish in 8th grade.</p>
<h2>Taken (When offered)</h2>
<p>Calc BC (senior year only)
USH (junior year only)
Physics C (senior year only)
Eng Lang (junior year only)
Eng Lit (senior year only)
Government (junior or senior year only)</p>
<h2>Not Taken (when offered)</h2>
<p>Calc AB (senior year only, I took a Calc A semester course, you can't take both AB and BC at my school)
Psychology (junior or senior year only)
Spanish (senior year only)
French (senior year only)
German (senior year only)</p>
<p>So, since realistically you can only study one language at my school, there are about 8 AP's you could take in your junior and senior years. I actually believe that I took the most with 6.</p>
<p>Not all schools allow for 10-15 AP's, and not all schools (like my public hs) are AP driven.</p>
<p>Fortunately, colleges get info from each school that tells about what is offered AP-wise at your school. They also realize that not all schools schedule APs so that kids can actually take them. If you are ever in doubt that they might not understand your particular situation, you can always send a letter of explanation.</p>
<p>BTW, we attended quite a few info sessions for selective schools. Every one of the schools made it clear that they did NOT care what score students get on the AP test. They only care that they took the course. The merits of that way of thinking can be debated, but the bottom line is ... that's what they say at Georgetown, Harvard, Duke, Tufts, etc.</p>