<p>Do you take the AP Credits earned, or would you just re-learn the material again?</p>
<p>If it were me, since I love learning about things I didn't know before, I would definitely take the AP Credits earned and take something else; however, I understand that college, like high school, is a game. In order to move up in the hierarchy of society, you have to play the game the right way. </p>
<p>Most of my friends are going to re-take classes that they already took in high school even though they received AP Credits in order to have a high GPA. </p>
<p>I'm really torn on what I should do. I really want to make myself competitive (which means getting a high GPA), but I also want genuinely want to learn more and take classes that I haven't already taken. </p>
<p>For example, I know I already have a great understanding of US History, US Government, Calculus, Statistics, English, and Psychology, among other subjects -- so I'm really inclined to skip it in college and take something new, but one side of me knows that if I were to re-take I would easily pass the class.</p>
<p>What should I do?</p>
<p>It depends. What do you want to study? What school are you going to, and what kind of curriculum does it have? If you’re required to take certain classes but can AP out of them, it might be handy to do so in order to take more advanced classes sooner. However, if you feel you want a stronger base, or if you decide you want to boost your GPA, you can take those classes again.</p>
<p>Personally, as an engineering/math student, I took credits for US and world history to take care of distribution requirements, and chemistry and calculus to take care of major requirements that I felt I had a solid understanding of. A lot of my pre-med friends either had to retake chemistry for med school requirements or just wanted the GPA boost. Like I said, it depends on what you want to study and how comfortable you feel with your grades and your knowledge.</p>
<p>Unless you are going to be a history or government major, or need a very specific version of these courses for teacher certification, you should take whatever placement or credit you can get for those two APs. This will give you room in your schedule for other things that are more interesting to you. English seems to be an AP that you are pretty safe using for placement/credit as well. I haven’t heard any scoop on Psychology.</p>
<p>If you are going on in an STEM field, you want to make very certain that you really did cover the Calculus and Statistics that your major requires in your AP courses. Especially with the Calculus. And, as mentioned above, if you are pre-med, you will need to make very certain that you have enough credits in biology and chemistry in order to apply to med school. As soon as you hit campus, meet with the pre-med advisor about this one.</p>
<p>Like others have said, using APs to cover distribution requirements is smart, but personally, I’d retake requirements in my major for a better understanding.</p>