My teachers always claim their AP courses provide similar material and course load to a college class. Is this true?
I have heard many rumors of college students studying 8 or more hours a day studying, but this doesn’t make complete sense to me. I take all AP classes and receive very high grades without spending near that amount of time. In fact, I feel like I spend much more time than necessary to succeed.
Is it possible for such a wide gap in the level between AP and college to exist?
HOw did you do on the AP exams? There are studies that state kids that take AP classes, and succeed on the AP exams do well in college.
3, 4, 5 (APUSH, CalcAB, and Chemistry, respectively)
Admittedly, I didn’t study at all for APUSH, a mistake I learned not to repeat.
So, you did well on the exams, and based on the studies, you should do well in college level courses. Now, depending on the college you go to, your classes may be more or less difficult than the AP courses you are in.
Thank You! I’m still a little confused though. How does anyone study for such a long period of time? Specifically, what kind of course work would require 10 hours to complete? I could read an entire texbook, with time to spare!
I’m not sure if AP material would be similar to what is taught in college, I would have thought college calculus would be significantly harder, I know it is for us (not from US btw). I do agree completely with the Do well on AP exams -> Do well in college statement though.
However I don’t think this is based on the actual content of the course, rather it tests the student’s ability to learn, as well as giving them the solid mathematical foundation they need for college. So basically, doing well in AP means you’re either good at maths, study hard, or a good mixture of both, and that’s what colleges want to see I think.
I don’t know from personal experience as an undergrad if AP is like college, but the reason a college student studies for 8 hours is they aren’t in class. In high school, classes are everyday and there might be an hour of homework. There are limited hours in a day to study because so much time is spent in class. In college classes meet 2-3 times a week and one is expected to study outside of class at least twice as much time as spent in class. Obviously that is not feasible in HS but the difference is made up for by meeting everyday.
I would guess AP prepares one for college much better than a regular class.
Just remember that they’re preparation and teachers vary as much from high school to university as they do within your high school. Some require much more than others.
Just to throw my experience out there–I’ve never been a “studier” and have done just fine in college without 8 hours of work outside of class a day. Usually, it’s closer to 3, but I know that it varies from person to person. In high school I usually did somewhere around the same, but it was really only for one or two classes, rather than the five that all require some work.
Just as a break down:
Language–.5-1.5 hours daily
Physics–.5 hours every other day
Religion–almost nothing, sometimes I have a paper or response
Film–2-3 hours weekly (a film screening and paper on it)
Civilization–2 hours every few days
Also realize that most AP classes stretch out over the course of an academic year, so the pace is much slower than in college, where the material is covered in a quarter or a semester instead. And in college, the professors often do not so much teach the information in the text (you are in college, you can read it for yourself), but instead use the text as a starting point for a more rigorous and wide ranging analysis applying the book information in different contexts. The material may be the same, but the emphasis may be different. That being said, an AP class is good preparation for college.
If your AP teacher assigned you long readings and papers or gave you problem sets that required creative thinking and not just “plug and chug” formulas, you’ll be ahead of most. If they just reviewed the material in class over and over until you learned it, probably not.
It’s hard to answer because 1) not all HS AP classes are taught the same way; and 2) colleges are different, too.
My D is a junior at a very selective school and she does spend many hours a day studying. This includes writing papers, reading, and doing assignments. Most of her HS classmates attend in-state public schools and from her communications with them, her work load is much heavier than theirs.
The AP class she found most useful in preparing her for school was AP Lit/Comp. S is in the class this year (HS senior). The teacher basically kills them the first 3-4 weeks of school. They read, read, read and write, write, write. In college she takes classes where she has to write all the time - and she can just produce without even thinking about it.