<p>So today I heard my friend say he wasn't going to take any AP tests senior year since he wants to essentially "retake" the classes again at college for an easy A in order to boost GPA. He wants to go to medical school and says there's no point in receiving AP credit if it means moving up to higher-level and more advanced courses with the possibility of struggling to get an A. It also saves having to pay 200-300 bucks (most of our kids have 4-6 AP classes)</p>
<p>And honestly, I thought to myself, what a good point. But, I am just a senior in high school after all and I have no idea how the reality of college + grad school is like. Can someone give me some advice as to whether I should take the AP tests for my classes? I'd also like to hear others' opinions on my friend's statement. Here is some tentative info about my situation:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>I am planning on majoring in Electrical Engineering and then going to grad school (get maybe MBA masters or keep on studying for Masters/PhD EE).</p></li>
<li><p>I can take AP Economics Macro, Gov't, Statistics, English Literature, Physics C Mech + E/M, and Biology. (My classes this year; I am confident I can get 5's on all and maybe 4 on English Lit)</p></li>
<li><p>I will most likely go to UC Berkeley, or a school such as Stanford, MIT, Princeton, which do accept credit for most of the ones I'm taking.</p></li>
<li><p>And obviously, my parents do not like the idea of having to pay $588 for my AP tests (I've already taken 7 AP tests as well).</p></li>
</ul>
<p>I have one more question also, is there a point in moving up classes in college? I know in high school, the harder and more advanced your classes are, the better it looks on your college application. But for grad school, isn't it HEAVILY emphasized on GPA as well as standardized tests if required? I guess my point is, is it truly advantageous in the long run to get AP credits and be able to take higher level classes in college (Specifically, for a EE major like me)?</p>
And obviously, my parents do not like the idea of having to pay $588 for my AP tests (I've already taken 7 AP tests as well).
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<p>Ask them if they'd rather pay for an extra semester at college.</p>
<p>And the reason why you'd want so many AP credits as an EE major is so you can get the stupid core classes out of the way so you can take higher level classes you're actually interested in. I came into undergrad with about a year's worth of credit, and by the time I graduated, I had taken four more classes within my major than any of my friends in addition to picking up a physics minor and still graduated a semester early.</p>
<p>Also, freshman level classes are often used to weed-out students. Freshman bio and calculus are notorious at many schools for being very difficult. Most upper level classes are graded on a softer curve since the professor will know all of the students (assuming a smaller class size) and everyone's in the class because they really want to be there. It's pretty rare to see someone get anything below a B in a class that's cross-listed for graduate students.</p>
<p>I would take the AP tests. They will probably accept high scores as credit towards your gen ed requirement. For example, a 5 on AP Bio might fulfill your Biological Science requirement or a 5 on Macro will get you Social Science credit. This is important especially if you are engineering because you will have more time to focus on your engineering classes. Premed students often retake classes because med schools like to see that applicants have taken those classes at the college level.</p>
<p>My son took several AP's in high school and is now a First Year Chemical Engineering major in college. I think in retrospect he is glad he took the exams because it gave him more options when he decided what courses to take in college this year. His AP results translated to 20 credits at the school he attends, more than one semester. However, while he is going to take his two semesters of Chemistry credit (and his AP Psych credit fulfills a social science elective at this school), he decided to repeat Calculus II despite doing well enough on the Calculus BC exam to place out of it. While he did end up with an A in Calculus II, it was not an easy A. I suspect this was one of those weeder courses people talk about. He had to work hard to bring his grade up to an A by the end of the semester and said that there was a lot of material towards the end of the semester that was never covered in AP Calculus in high school. He is glad he chose to take the course rather than the credit because he gained a good experience from it and now has a stronger math background to help him with future studies. He also will have some flexibility in his course choices in a very crowded engineering curriculum as he moves forward and should have time to take a semester work co-op if he chooses.</p>
<p>My d will be going with some sort of a science or math degree (pharmacy, engineering, not sure yet). And she's taking all these AP courses as well. We are definitely encouraging her to take the exams -- besides the fact it's not an option to skip out at her school. My S went into his freshman year with 29 credit hours. For him it was perfect as he was an economics major, and these credits fulfilled a great deal of his gen eds, especially social sciences and science. My d will be taking the AP exams, but we've encouraged her that no matter how she scores on calc BC, etc ... to retake the science and math in college in order to make sure that she's got what she needs for that particular university. One of my S's friends tested into Calc III at Rose Hulman because of his Calc BC score. He decided to do that. He had an extremely rough time ... and struggled because he skipped over, minimally, the calc II. If he had to do it over again, he wouldn't have done that. </p>
<p>But ... taking the AP exams leaves options open. Use them or not ... but you get the choice where folks who don't take them have already sealed their fate. </p>
<p>I planned to retake physics my first year in college since I'd placed out of most of my core courses. I'd already taken AP Physics C and had made 4s on both exams, so I figured I was golden.</p>
<p>Yeah, I got a B. I decided to take my AP credit to get out of the second half of the course.</p>
<p>If you're in it for the grade bump, don't bother. Also, AP credit is cheaper than college. Might as well spend the time (and money) learning things you actually want to learn.</p>
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I planned to retake physics my first year in college since I'd placed out of most of my core courses. I'd already taken AP Physics C and had made 4s on both exams, so I figured I was golden.</p>
<p>Yeah, I got a B. I decided to take my AP credit to get out of the second half of the course.
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<p>A similar thing happened to me. I got a 4 on the Newtonian Mechanics portion of the test and a 5 on the E&M portion. So I had to retake Physics 1 but placed out of 2.</p>
<p>I wound up sleeping in class every day during physics 1 because I knew the material really well (should have gotten a 5, just didn't study at all), managed to do all of the homeworks and in-class quizzes perfectly, but I was sleeping during the times the professor would do a HINT*HINT type of thing in class about how a particular topic would be on an exam. So I wound up getting Bs on both of the tests and in the class as well.</p>
<p>him - GPA is all that matters so he's gotta do what he's gotta do</p>
<p>you - take all the AP's you can because your GPA doesn't matter nearly as much as his. Also your major alone will account for over 110 credits. Plus your gen-eds. Also, your easiest class will be harder than his hardest class.</p>
<p>If you're thinking of going for MS/PhD, then no GPA is not all the only thing, or even most important after a certain point. Yes, getting a 4.0 would help, but really anything above a 3.5-3.7 makes you fairly competitive for the top 4 grad programs. More important than GPA at this point will be potential measured through other means, such as undergrad research/recommendations and yes your coursework. If you can skip past lower level reqs and take 2-3 grad courses as an undergrad, that would look much more favorable than a .1 or .2 GPA increase. </p>
<p>Another thing to note is that upper div courses in engineering tend to be easier to do well in than the lower level prereqs. Hell, it's easier to do well in graduate course assuming you are of that caliber. The material is harder, but the competition/grading scale is usually less fierce. What you have in lower level Calc 1/Chem 1 courses are tons of premeds like your friend clawing over each other to get one of the 15 or 20% of the As awarded in the class. In some schools, low level courses are specifically designed to weed out poor students from the major. Most engineering students generally find their GPA improving moving from lower to higher level courses, so it's in your interest to move up ASAP.</p>
<p>Take the AP credits! So many of these classes are "weeders" (chemistry, physics, calculus, etc) and even if you think you're pretty good, an A is far from guaranteed. It's a BIG mistake to take the class if you passed the AP.</p>
<p>I am a senior and I'm taking several AP exams (the one I am focusing on is physics!) and I'm also going into ECE. I am trying to enter UI as a sophomore in order to avoid any potential weed-out classes. I am also trying to minor in a foreign language, which will add a lot of class time, so I will need as many APs as I can get in order to still graduate in four years.</p>
<p>Son took the AP credits for his distribution courses and re-took the courses related to his major, which did make for easy A's and assured him that he was prepared for higher level classes.</p>
<p>Does anyone know if there are weed-out classes at Univ. of Pitt? Son received a 5 on the Calc. BC, Chemistry and Physics B exam -- should he retake all of them at college? He is taking Physics C exam this May.</p>
<p>There's no logic to retaking lower div classes. Even if they aren't real weed-outs, they will undoubtedly be more challenging to get an A in than upper divisions, except at very small teaching oriented schools. And the professors know this. They're not going to teach many fundamentals beyond what the AP material covers. They might a few other topics, but nothing major. Even if you are confident in intelligence and know you can come out of with an A, it's a waste of a time slot, except in rare cases. For example, if you're premed and you need to take a math course regardless of APs, then waiving out of Calc 1 to Multivar Calc(which is still a weeder in many programs, but for engineering majors), would be foolish. But otherwise there's no point.</p>
<p>I think ALL of the basic courses are "weed out courses" simply because Pitt is a big state university that has students from many backgrounds and in various states of preparedness. It's not that the classes are all that much more rigorous, but some students are just not prepared for the work (both academically and for the volume of study needed).</p>
<p>S is a junior engineering major at Pitt who chose to retake the math and science classes, while using the AP credits for the humanities and social sciences. Calc, chem and physics were easy A's for him. I don't think multivariable calc or linear algebra were any easier or any harder...just different. Some of his friends who exempted the calc I and II did well in the upper level courses, some didn't. I would only comment that honors calculus was not a good choice for anybody I know, as the frantic pace of calc I and calc II in the same semester was mind-boggling.</p>
<p>Oh, and the Pitt math department has a rule that you cannot get a final grade more than one grade different than what you get on the final. So although there are other exams, the final is vitally important. The freshman and sophomore math classes for engineers are taken in the math department (sequence of calc I, calc II, multivariable calc, linear algegra).</p>
<p>The honors physics course (five days per week) is worth taking just because Alec Stewart ("Doc Stewart") is awesome.</p>
<p>With engineering, you really can't graduate early because you just can't get the engineering classes any other way than sitting in class. The advantage of using your AP credits would be that you have some extra slots for other general or engineering electives. PM me if you want more Pitt info.</p>