<p>After being on this forum for a while, I have learned that one of the most important things to a college is challenging oneself with a rigorous courseload, usually full of AP or IB courses. However, how stringent are your schools with letting you into them? On CC, I have seen people who may have gotten a C in Biology or a D in Math, but who end up taking the AP Level course right after that. At my school that would never be allowed. Usually, to get into a class like AP Literature, you must have around a 90+ in regular English or somewhere near that in AP English Language. I am taking a summer course in precalculus, and in order to get into AP Calculus AB, I must get a 95+. I have always applied for the most rigorous courseload possible, but I don't have that many APs because of some of my school's requirements. For example, I had a B+ in English 10 Honors and was not allowed to advance to AP English Language the following year. Now, instead of having 2 English APs, I will have only one AP English course and one regular course, all because of probably 1 or 2 points in an Honors class. It is even less opportunistic for me for there isn't an Honors English 11 course, only regular and AP. This has also kept me back in other more important areas. When I was a freshman, Math wasn't really my thing. However, after I did kind of meh in it freshman year, it became one of my passions. Now, I am trying as hard as I can to get out of the regular track.</p>
<p>Is this a really tough system that I am going through, or is this just the norm for most schools?</p>
<p>Yeah I don’t get it. My school doesn’t even have a limit on the number of APs you can get into, it’s just that they think it is such a high privilege to be able to take one that kids with 89s and 90s in a class get rejected. Next year I’ll be in 5 as well as one honors, thankfully, but realize that I am probably the only one or maybe one of a few out of 235 that are taking that many. Due to this system I only have one AP completed by the end of my Junior year, APUSH. I wonder if colleges will even recognize this system as holding kids back even if they have some potential for a course.</p>
<p>Depends on the class. Anyone can take the AP history/social sciences and English classes - and these classes tend to have the most people struggling because they shouldn’t be in there - but it’s a little harder for math and science. Our teachers give recommendations for the level they think we should take, but if your parent signs off, you can take any class you want against your teachers or counselors recommendations.</p>
<p>It really depends on your high school. Some high schools let anyone take them. At my high school you not only have to take the Honors level first, meaning you can’t jump into an AP just taking a college prep class – you must go from Honors to AP AND have something like a 90 in the Honors class. Needless to say, there are very few kids in our high school that graduate with more than 7 AP classes and that is about the limit. There is only 1 AP class that sophomores can even take. </p>
<p>What is up with your school o_o Anyone at my school can take an AP class. The only requirement is that you’ve taken the appropriate classes. Like you can’t take Physics C unless you’ve either already taken Calculus or are taking Calculus as well as the class which is reasonable because physics C is Calculus based.The only thing with AP classes being a free for all at my school is that the work is just more challenging than standard so if you fail it’s on you. </p>
<p>In my school freshmen can only take APHumGeo and Sophomores can only take AP world/Geo. For Geo it’s based on the reading score of a test you need to take in order to get into the school and for world its based off the reading score of the Explore test(Official Practice ACT). When you become a junior/senior you can take the classes whenever.</p>
<p>There are no pre-req for getting into an AP English class(there’s a test but you don’t have to pass it) nor for econs/gov/art-his/APUSH(for this class the teacher kind of designs the first week to be hell in order to weed people out).</p>
<p>For sciences there are none,but generally only people who got a B/A in the honors class take the AP version(save AP environmental).</p>
<p>For the AP calc/stats you need to take a test(it’s pretty easy tho) + teacher recommendation.</p>
<p>For AP comp-sci you need take two class(Intro to CS, VD1).</p>
<p>Due to the low grades/scores teachers are starting to impose stricter requirements in order to enter the classes though I feel the requirements for HumGeo are a little much, and the only requirement for World should just be a summer assignment to weed out the lazy students.</p>
<p>There are no requirements in mine. We have so few AP’s and so few people taking them, we have teachers recruiting people to meet the 6 person requirement to even have the class! And even with that, we had to drop 3 AP classes. My school is down to 5 now</p>
<p>Anyone can take a class as long as they have taken pre-req classes. The only exception was my AP Chem teacher, who had to recommend people in her chem honors class to take her AP Chem class. Most of the advanced people at my school take >15 AP’s by the time they graduate.</p>
<p>You have to apply for AP classes at my school. We usually only have one class period of each AP class we offer, so that’s only about 25 kids or so. Typically maybe around anywhere from 30-50 apply. It usually isn’t too hard to get into, depending on how popular the class is. Good grades, generally previous rigorous courses for that subject, and just a check mark from your previous teacher recommending you. I don’t see anything wrong with doing it like this, to be honest. Keeps the kids who don’t actually care from taking the class, which keeps the classes fun and interesting. Not that APs are hugely popular at my school, though. </p>
<p>My school has open enrollment as long as you fill out the application. However, you get dropped out of any honors or AP class if you get below a C- for the first marking period. </p>
<p>Just hand in a sheet and get it signed and you’re in. As long as you meet the pre-reqs of course. But they barely enforce those. And grades dont matter. Aka my friends who got 60-something averages in Pre-Calc are moving onto Calc AB. And there are literally never people who want to test out of classes/take classes at levels too high lol.</p>
<p>Yup, just circle the class and make sure there are no time conflicts.
The only problem is if too many or too little people sign up for a certain AP class.
If there are too many which never happened to my graduating class, the highest GPAs get in.
If there are too little such as Spanish Literature or Physics C, students had to convince the teacher to merge them with another class taught at the same time or self-study periods were made in pursuit of these APs.</p>
<p>My school has no pre-requisites, but the AP teachers have a reputation for giving soul-crushing amounts of work(which is true for all, but one), so no one really tries to take any AP classes except APUSH.</p>