<p>i'm wondering which ap's actually become useful when the time comes to enroll in courses? is ap lit useful at all? what about the history ap's?</p>
<p>AP Lit & History, no. Language, yes.</p>
<p><a href=“http://apo.fas.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k73580&pageid=icb.page388448[/url]”>http://apo.fas.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k73580&pageid=icb.page388448</a></p>
<p>Using AP Exams for Placement or to Meet Requirements </p>
<p>Credit toward graduation is granted for Advanced Placement examinations only if the student activates Advanced Standing, but advanced placement work is acknowledged in a variety of other ways. For example, a score of 5 on an AP exam often satisfies the prerequisite for middle- or upper-level departmental courses, permitting a student to begin advanced work early in his or her college career. Whether or not a student accepts Advanced Standing, a score of 5 on the German, French (language or literature), Italian, Spanish (language or literature), or Latin (either Latin Literature or Latin: Vergil) Advanced Placement tests may be used to fulfill the language requirement.</p>
<p>@gibby What is Harvard’s policy on AP math and science exams? I understand that they don’t give out actual credit for AP scores without activating Advanced Standing, but is it possible to bypass lower level math and science courses with 5s on AP tests?</p>
<p>See freshman math guide: [Harvard</a> Mathematics Department : 21, 23, 25, or 55?](<a href=“http://www.math.harvard.edu/pamphlets/freshmenguide.html]Harvard”>http://www.math.harvard.edu/pamphlets/freshmenguide.html)</p>
<p>What do you want to major in? (This goes for whatever college, btw.) I actually did think AP US and AP Euro were sort of useful in teaching me how to write exams, but not particularly so. But contra gibby, taking AP Lit saved my life with all the stupid teenage girly inflections those italics entail. Why? The teacher required us to write a 10-page paper in January. In the entire rest of my high school career, I don’t think I had to write anything that was more than 5 pages. Then I got to college and first semester was like “5 page midterm paper, 10 page final paper, 15 page final paper, 20 page final paper oh lol you know what an essay is, right?” (I did not maybe choose courses with avoiding too much writing in mind.) Anyway, that 10 page scaled pretty easily to a 20-page in my major area (not English). Those high school 3/4-pagers? There’s not even a chance I could have scaled them. (The teaching staff of each course were pretty helpful, lest I perpetuate the Harvard-won’t-help-you-if-you-ask thing, but I don’t think they could have given me enough help to magically ameliorated having no practice at writing 5+ page essays before that semester.) </p>
<p>@Penguinito You’ll take placement tests this spring which will tell you at what level course you should enroll. AP scores by themselves don’t do anything, but the knowledge to pass the AP will get you a high score on the placement tests. So yes, you can bypass them. (Also intro economics.)</p>