<p>I hear Ivies don't really care about AP credit.</p>
<p>So why do people spend hundreds of dollars on AP tests and end up going to a place like Harvard where AP credit does not matter?</p>
<p>Is it worth it to take AP tests?</p>
<p>No it is not worth it. That is the short and correct answer. People that do this either want to boast of their capabilities of “high achievement” or use the credits at a school where they may have to go because of rejections from their top choices.</p>
<p>it IS worth it as AP tests are rigorous and passing them with a high score proves that you have mastered the course material. They are a standardized way to confirm the rigor of your classes and a way to check how you were graded. They do help admission at lesser colleges as well .</p>
<p>Do you want to spend $80-90 to PROVE that you have mastered the course material? You can easily do so if you do well on tests in class. Or you can just take a practice test and see if you can get a 5. There. It would be for FREE. Taking one stupid AP test or 7 is NOT worth it in the long run. Spend your time on something better.</p>
<p>And AP tests are RIGOROUS? Puh-leese. Have you seen the curves on those tests? </p>
<p>If they’re SO rigorous, then why don’t Ivies accept them? Take the class but don’t take the exam.</p>
<p>They are used by colleges to see that you are capable of mastering a college course, and scoring well on the final exam. Classes and their difficulties vary from school to school but AP tests are the same. If you want to get into Ivies, showing that you were capable of getting 5s on all your AP exams is a good start. Taking 10 AP classes and 0 exams may reflect negatively (especially because if you struggle financially, you can get aid to pay for them).</p>
<p>OP if your school is a strong school to begin with, colleges will not doubt the validity of your grades.</p>
<p>With all things said and done, here is the order in which tests are of value: SAT’s/ACT’s, SAT II’s, AP’s. Yes, AP’s come DEAD LAST. EVEN AFTER SAT II’s!!! OP, it ain’t worth it.</p>
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<p>You’re not proving it to yourself but rather to colleges who will use it as a criterion in your admissions. </p>
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Yes, yet those curves ensure that only a certain percentage of students score a certain mark. To get a 5, in some courses, you need to score in the top 26%, and even better in others. </p>
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<p>Ivy league institutions, as many private colleges, do not accept AP credits because they want you to PAY MONEY to take their classes and some people would have a year’s (or more) worth of courses under their belt by the time they step foot on campus. That would create problems. You can get advanced standing at Harvard though, so it’s not like they deem the exams worthless.</p>
<p>If your school district pays for them, then you should take them. If not…</p>
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<p>Please read this:
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<p>Besides, once you get to college, you’re going to realize that these classes serve as GPA boosters.</p>
<p>And to my knowledge, AP EXAMS ARE NOT A CRITERION IN ANYTHING. Taking the classes, sure-not the exams.</p>
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OP said nothing about the strength of his/her high school. Truth is, unless you go to an exception school, colleges don’t really know the “validity of your grades”. In fact, it’s not something I would risk in the first place. </p>
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<p>Well first the most obvious disproval of that statement is the AP awards. Being an AP National Scholar is a national (obviously) award, which is helpful in admissions and demonstrates ability.
If AP Exams were not a criterion for anything, then colleges wouldn’t ask for your scores.
In the world where Harvard accepts 6% of their applicants, where many people have 2200+ SATs, 750+ SAT IIs, ECs, amazing essays & letters, 4.0 GPAs and still get rejected - everything becomes relevant on an application. I don’t know about you, but I would take someone who aced all of his/her AP exams over someone who just aced the class.</p>
<p>Does this mean self studying is pointless?</p>
<p>No, and it’s just another example of why AP EXAMS are useful. Even if you don’t take the course you can take the exam and show your independent learning abilities, in addition to compensating for the lack of courses at your school.</p>
<p>what elite colleges ARE trying to do re: AP tests is dampen down the excess hysteria that too many students are placing on taking as many AP classes/ tests as possible. More AP classes does not equal greater chances of acceptance at highly selective universities.</p>
<p>You’re talking about a quarter-million dollar education here and you’re concerned about spending a few hundred bucks? Maybe you’re also planning on only applying to one college to save on application fees?</p>
<p>You may not get into an Ivy. If you do get into one, you may also get a free ride merit scholarship elsewhere that you prefer – and that school WILL take the AP credits.</p>
<p>Harvard, Princeton and Brown at least will take AP credits under certain circumstances: if you take enough of them and get enough 5s, you can qualify for “advanced standing,” which shaves one-half year or a full year off your graduation requirement. At any school, you can use AP credits to get out of taking most of the basic intro classes, often taught in huge lecture halls, and move directly to the interesting stuff.</p>
<p>The most important reason, however, is to validate your knowledge by a national standard. When 9 out of 10 applications end up in the rejection pile, it doesn’t take much to disqualify you from final consideration: when your competing peers have A’s on their transcripts for AP classes paired with 5’s on the tests and you… have no record of test results, it could readily be assumed you did poorly on those tests and chose not to report your results. Even if they believed you were being “frugal,” why would they want to admit someone who is so into pinching pennies that he will obviously never contribute a dime to their future alumni fundraising efforts?</p>
<p>Of course, there is no point taking the AP tests senior year, AFTER you’ve been accepted, unless you know you’re going to use them for advanced standing or a merit scholarship.</p>
<p>Wanting to go to the ivies doesn’t mean you’re going to go to the ivies. Why not take the exams just because they MIGHT turn out to be useless.</p>
<p>@Metrical, you don’t have to report any/all of your scores, and the score report is totally unofficial. The scores just aren’t given much weight. State AP Scholar is a heck of an award. National AP Scholar… meh. I mean, most students with a ivy-qualified courseload and intelligence would be capable of that award whether or not they actually decided to take the tests. I don’t see why an ivy would be impressed by the award. Taking 8APs prior to senior year is the impressive thing; getting an average score of 4 is, well, expected.</p>
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It’s interesting you feel this way, but I can 100% assure you this is NOT how colleges feel. Getting good grades in class predicts how well you perform. Getting good AP scores just shows how well you know AP material, which ivies could care less about, because they’re going to reteach it all to you and with FAR greater depth/rigor anyway. Obviously, all other things being exactly equal, the guy with better AP scores wins. But that’s a meaningless point. The class grade is far more important than the exam grade.</p>
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This is incredibly untrue. You really think the ivy league has financial issues? They don’t want you to skip a class because the knowledge you gain in Chem101 class with a world renowned professors will be far more beneficial and informative and create a better understanding than AP Chem did. </p>
<p>And at the end of the day, my school pays for the exams, so why not just waste a few hours and get a free lunch from my AP teachers… during a school day.</p>
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<p>In a world like this, it takes more than amazing AP scores to get in even after objective and subjective variables are held constant.</p>
<p>I highly doubt an AP award will help you considering it’s lack of prestige. Anyone that is qualified for an Ivy league would be able to achieve an AP award, even one on the magnitude of AP National Scholar if given enough of the resources.</p>
<p>I know OP said nothing of his school’s strength. That’s why i said “IF…”. </p>
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<p>You can show your independent learning abilities through your EC’s, which probably would be more productive working on than locking yourself in your room to study for eight exams, which, to be honest, any ivy league qualified applicant has the caliber to do so.</p>
<p>Harvard does give placement for some AP tests: [Advanced</a> Standing: Course Equivalencies](<a href=“http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~advising/advanced/equivs.html]Advanced”>http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~advising/advanced/equivs.html)</p>
<p>Granted, many AP tests do not count for anything (and Harvard only accepts a score of 5), but certain AP tests (particularly the calculus and language ones) are useful.</p>
<p>You have to check each school you are interested in to see which AP tests are actually useful for placement.</p>
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<p>Okay, you go ahead on and do that while i save my money, save my time, actually have a life, and use those AP classes to serve as facilitators in terms of GPA when college rolls around. I’ll save the interesting stuff to junior/senior year of college AND i’ll be able to boost my GPA by taking the basic classes again. It’s not like i’m never going to be able to have those classes. What’s the rush?</p>