Do CP/Honors classes prepare you just as well for the AP exam as AP classes do?

Pre-College Topics High School Life
1

<p>I have quite a few friends that took Biology honors their freshman year, signed up for the Biology AP test, and passed it with 4s or 5s. Are AP classes really all that great? I have a feeling that if I took CP English and skimmed over an AP English test booklet I'd do just fine on the AP test. You aren't required to have taken an AP course to take the AP test, so what's the point of piling on all that extra work when you could just take the CP class and do just as well?</p>

<p>Thoughts?</p>

2

<p>I took 4 AP classes, 10 AP tests. AP classes teach you to the test. Honors classes actually give you KNOWLEDGE. I found that I did much better with honors classes and they prepared me much more for college than any of the AP classes.</p>

3

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<p>I totally agree. I feel like I’m actually learning and engaging in the material in CP/Honors classes, while in AP classes I feel like I’m being rushed along and stifled by the narrow focus of having to be taught to a test.</p>

4

<p>At my school, honors classes are just dumbed down versions of their AP counterparts. It depends on the school.</p>

<p>Do you really need classes for the AP exams? No; in fact, I’d probably be better off studying for them on my own instead of doing the busy work teachers assign. Be that as it may, you still need to consider the fact that colleges look at the rigor of your course load. AP exams aside, if you’re only taking honors when there are higher level classes available, colleges will wonder.</p>

5

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<p>This totally doesn’t apply to me as I’m planning on going to community college and transferring to a four year university. So I suppose in my case AP classes are a total waste of effort.</p>

6

<p>In that case, yeah AP classes would be a waste as long as you’re sure you’ll be adequately prepared for the exam. You don’t want to waste $86 and find out you didn’t cover all of the material.</p>

7

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This. And AP classes were pretty dumbed down to begin with. I got the impression people in Honors didn’t learn much at all a lot of the time.</p>

8

<p>At my school…</p>

<p>Honors classes are just accelerated versions of regular classes. They’re a joke. If I tried that, I’d be SOL. Then again, I live in Florida. Where you live, it may be possible.</p>