<p>AP credits gave my S some wiggle room to double major and/or graduate early. He chose the former, feeling that it was a privilege to attend his Ivy school and why wouldn’t he want to take as many courses as possible?</p>
<p>One negative in his case was that despite having taken AP Calculus BC and scoring a 5, he was still not completely prepared for the math in his very first econ. class and it definitely hurt him (and his GPA). He should have taken calculus again in college, but why would he think he needed to do that for a social science major? So yes, high school classes may not cover all the necessary material and thus can give the student a false sense of mastery. We are having D re-take calculus in college before she starts on her econ. major.</p>
<p>Secondly, the AP credit can bump the student to a higher level than s/he can handle as a freshman. English was my best subject, and my 5 put me in higher level literature class. Whilie I probably didn’t need the freshman writing class, I don’t think I was adequately prepared to read 12 novels for one class and write a bizillion papers my first semester of college. Sometimes the preparation gap is too big.</p>
<p>D’s school barely takes any AP credits, and accepts only 5’s in math and science courses. If it weren’t for what happened to my S and to me, I might have been disappointed at their stinginess.</p>