<p>LesleyCordero, does your school offer APs and students just choose not to take them, or does your school just not offer APs?</p>
<p>I do agree with cgstatechamps, but at my school, I’d say it also depends on who’s teaching the course. Psych and Euro are actually some of the toughest APs my school offers, when you’re actually just supposed to be average. And the same at my school - students tend to only take APs during their Junior and Senior year. I’d say, from all the other info I’ve gathered, my school can be compared to yours the most (only around 10 students are probably in the 6-8 range).</p>
<p>It completely depends on the school. I think the reason many people don’t score as well as they should on APs is because they take them too early on. This prevents the courses from being taught to the level they should be. At my school students very rarely took APs before junior year and even then most strong students only took 2. I took 3 which was very rare, and I only heard of a few students who took 4. APs were not considered separate from honors, people who started in the top level during freshman year would progress into APs junior year if they stayed on the track, although there was a non AP honors option for English and History junior year because those classes were especially rigorous. During senior year, the most people really took was 5, and again not too many students did this.
I think this method helped us get more out of the APs and also contributed to higher scores. The overall pass rate was ~95 and in many classes (Physics C mechanics the E&M test had slightly lower scores, Calc BC, English Language for example) 80-90% or (more) of the students got 5s. The languages usually brought the averages down since those are harder for non native speakers but in my Spanish class most people I know got 4s or 5s.</p>
<p>@Brown2010Hopeful My school offers 4 AP’s in total, and most people don’t take them. I’ll be taking probably 3 of those, and that’s rarely done…</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure that most students take 0, or this was the case a few years ago anyway. So… -1 would be below average? 0 would be average… Above average is anywhere from 1 to… how many AP exams are there? At my school, the average student takes 5.85. Below average would be anything below 5. Above average really varies. My school has about fifteen APs, plus the full IB program, and some kids take all the APs offered.</p>
<p>At my school it’s
0 average
1-3 above average
4-5 nerd
6+ *** is wrong with you…</p>
<p>I fall into the last category we only offer 11 total and after senior year I will have taken a total of 9, only missing the AP course that’s not for my language and a second math that I couldn’t fit in my schedule. My school is really lazy, people who know my schedule think I’m insane. Who knows what they would say about you guys who take 12+ haha</p>
<p>I consider 6 APs average. 4 is about the threshold for “below average” AKA unimpressive. To really impress me you should be taking 10-11 per year (self studies or community college course included of course).</p>
<p>0: Below Average
1-2: Average
3-6: Above Average
6-10: Incredible
11+: Impossible.</p>
<p>This is really only applies to my grade, because the grade below us was allowed to take 2 APs sophomore year, while my grade could not take any until junior year. My school only offers 14 AP classes, and one of them is Studio Art. I’m taking 8 by the end of senior year. The ones I didn’t take are Physics, Chemistry, Biology (the 3 sciences offered), Calculus (schedule wouldn’t fit it), Macroeconomics (taking Micro but it alternates every year and I missed it last year), and Studio Art.</p>
<p>Going on what admissions really care about, and scaling this for a “good” student applying to “good schools”:
Below average: <50% of what your school offers
Average: 50-75%
Above Average: 75%+</p>
<p>Well…what if a certain AP course just doesn’t pertain to you? For example, my school offers over 20 APs, but, I wouldn’t go and take AP French Literature/Italian/Japanese/German/Latin, AP Art Studio, AP Econ, AP Music Theory, etc if it just doesn’t go with my passions/intended career. </p>
<p>The information you gave makes it sounds like you should take an AP course just for the sake of taking it and for the chance it may benefit my transcript, which worries me since I’ve only taken APs either because I heavily enjoy the subjects or because it’s just the next level of difficulty. </p>
<p>Are you saying it would benefit someone to take an AP just for the sake of helping their transcript?</p>
<p>Yes, it does benefit someone. In high school you are still exposing yourself to a wide variety of material. College is more of the time to narrow down and focus. At good schools, it DOES hurt your chances if you don’t take a high proportion of difficult classes. I’d say it’s more important at high school to take classes for the purposes of getting into college, than simply follow your passion. Personally I think it’s beneficial in high school to take things you might not be interested in, because you are still exploring. I think it’s better to have taken AP Econ and hated, than not to have taken it at all. Although I will grant for your example above, if you only take one of the AP languages, you are fine.</p>
<p>Do the following APs sound like a good mix for a high school transcript: US, Spanish Lang., English Comp, English Lit, Bio, Stats, and Human Geo?</p>
<p>Yes, that’s a good mix. If your school offers 20 APs, you’ll actually probably want to talk to your guidance counselor about an appropriate workload. 20 is indeed quite a lot so my percentages probably a bit high for your school.</p>
<p>No college expects you to or cares if you take all 20 of your school’s APs (probably not possible anyway). Things like art or language APs don’t need to be loaded up on cuz their for a niche group.</p>
<p>I figure you can study stuff you’re interested in when you get to college. Most high school classes, even APs, just generally scratch the surface of a subject. You can learn more soft skills in an AP you don’t care about than a joke elective (at most schools, in most cases).</p>
<p>And you could find something you’re interested in, or at least mildly enjoy. I thought I hated and was really bad at history even after taking AP World, but I enjoyed AP US for the most part, and the heavy reading experience will probably be helpful. If my school had AP Econ I’d like to take it, since that’s something you usually can’t get exposed to until college.</p>
<p>0 would be average, seeing as they are ADVANCED placement.
anything above 0 is above average ;P</p>
<p>At my school 0 is average
1-3 is above average
4+ is really great (a good chunk of the APs offered are after you complete a sequence of 2 or 3 other courses, so it’s hard to just take AP courses)
I’ll probably have 7 classes (maybe more or less, my school has broad AP’s and I’m not sure if enough information is covered to take multiple tests) I probably won’t take the tests for all of them. I have no desire to self-study, I’ve seen a lot of people do fine in admissions without it, and I have a lot better things to do during that time.</p>
<p>I self studied a bunch since my school is lame :P</p>
<p>It’s tough. I took 2 self study sophomore year and I practically stayed home on any social events to try to understand the “atom” (I missed homecoming…)</p>
<p>My Junior year is filled with APs (AP Bio, AP English Lit, AP Calc AB, AP U.S. History, and I also studied AP Euro History in my spare time)</p>
<p>Senior year, I plan to take AP Calc BC, AP English (the other one… Forgot what it is called), AP Chem, AP Physics, and AP Government. Totally NOT self studying any more. ;)</p>
<p>^teddy, it doesn’t exactly make sense to take AP Lit your Junior Year and then take AP Comp your Senior Year, when Lit is the tougher one and Comp is the easier one (you usually take Comp first, then Lit - which is what I’m doing). But everything else is pretty crazy - I cannot imagine taking that many APs - and I cannot even imagine how stressed out I would be during the AP exams. I’m not sure when I’d even find time to study for so many…</p>
<p>I think that one should take into account the AVAILABILITY of AP’s at one’s school. It is unfair to say that someone’s # of AP’s is “below average” or “average” when that is the limit for that school. For instance, I will be <em>taking</em> a total of 8 AP’s by the time I graduate only because that is the maximum I can take. However, I plan to take 10-11 exams in total. Strictly, the number of exams should be compared, not the number of classes taken.</p>
we only offer 11 total and after senior year I will have taken a total of 9, only missing the AP course that’s not for my language and a second math that I couldn’t fit in my schedule. My school is really lazy, people who know my schedule think I’m insane. Who knows what they would say about you guys who take 12+ haha</p>
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