<p>D is a junior. At her public high school, AP Lang & Comp is offered but it is treated as an elective. So all the honors students take English III Honors junior year, and take AP Lit as a senior. The only way to take AP Lang is as an extra elective. Starting with next year's class, AP Lang will count as the required 3rd year of English, but that doesn't help D. Her counselor has suggested that she self study for the AP Lang exam. She is already taking 4 AP classes this year (AP Calc BC, AP Stat, AP Chem, APUSH). As far as I can tell, most highly selective schools don't give credit for AP Lang, so the only reason I can see to self study is if it helps with admissions. So does it help if D self studies and gets a 4 or 5 on the AP Lang exam?</p>
<p>Seeing as she’s already taking like a bajillion APs I don’t think Lang/Comp is going to significantly raise her chances at any school. She’s already taking Honors English (whatever that means…) It just looks like more work and pressure on her that could be diverted to doing/studying for something else. However, Lang/Comp is really easy, so it wouldn’t be hard to get a 4/5 if you just know the essay format.</p>
<p>TLDR - do it if it’s not too much work and you can ensure a 5</p>
<p>If your daughter is a good writer, she’ll hardly need to study for the AP Lang test. It’s super easy for any good writer. You just need to know certain literary devices for the multiple choice, so I would get the Barron’s book or whatever to look over once or twice. I’d say it would slightly help her admissions chances, since colleges do consider the sheer number of AP tests students have passed. I choked on the AP Lang test and wrote the three essays each with two body paragraphs and no conclusion, and I still got a 5.</p>