<p>Ds is signing up for next year's classes. He's planning to take AP Bio. At his school, taking anatomy and physiology is recommended with AP Bio to do well on the test. He asked me, "Am I taking the test?" to which I replied that I assumed so.</p>
<p>Do your kids take APs and skip the test? If so, why?</p>
<p>if your school allows it (many make it required to get AP weighting and other political reasons) and if he doesn't want the credit for college, then I would skip the test if he doesn't think he will be prepared. You might have until this time next year when they need to order the tests to decide. Also who pays for the test? If it is the school he might want to consider taking it. If it is you, and you are already shelling out $$$ for others I would lean the other way.</p>
<p>He can always opt to not take the test next year. Our school doesn't require students to take the test. But the key is does he go in assuming he'll take the test and therefore sign up for A&P or assume he won't and not take A&P?</p>
<p>My children's high school does not require that AP students take the test. One child (now in his second year at Swarthmore) took 5 AP tests and scored 4's and 5's on all of them. The other child graduates in 4 months, and will only take 2 AP tests. Her reasoning is that for subjects close to her major, she'd want to take the college level first course to get in the swing of college (Johns Hopkins, ED) instead of taking the credit for a good score. My son, on the other hand, needed to trade in one of his AP scores for missing the second half of a 2-semester elective because of a scheduling conflict.
My advise has always been: if you can afford the test, take at least a couple of them so you have a card to throw on the table in college if you need it. If it's a course where you will be majoring, then don't plan on using the AP credit.
Alternate strategy: if you are attending a school where you are above the mean SAT's, and your goal is to graduate in 3 1/2 years, then take all the AP's you can and get the credit.</p>
<p>Our school requires everyone to take the test. Personally I think it keeps the kids honest - though some seniors don't see the point if they know their colleges don't accept them. (I think you should still take them - after all you might transfer to a different college.) S1 got rid of nearly all his distribution requirements and got a year's worth of credit thanks to the APs he took. He had no problem jumping into the advanced level math and physics courses.</p>
<p>If S takes the AP course at school, he is required (by the school) to take the test; the school pays for all AP tests regardless of whether a kid takes the corresponding course.</p>
<p>nj raises another question: Just because you CAN get credit for a college class with a good score on the AP test, you can opt to take the class again in college, right?</p>
<p>Our school did not require the test. My kids took all the tests anyway.
If the class is taken senior year, you can see if the college your S will be attending gives any credit or placement for a good score. This may help him decide.</p>
<p>Our school requires the test if you take the class. You can take the class again in college. No college class is exactly the same as an AP course, anyway.</p>
<p>You can always opt to take the class again in college, and not use the AP credit. For bio majors it is often recommended to do so. But if you are NOT a bio major, and AP Bio score can get you out of a requirement, it can be a big help (this happened to my son at Stanford, though they stopped giving credit for Bio since...).</p>
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At his school, taking anatomy and physiology is recommended with AP Bio to do well on the test.
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<p>This is not necessary. My kids' school only recommends chemistry. My S took without chemistry. Taking the test is a requirement.</p>
<p>Our school does not require that you take the test. In fact, I'm not sure that at a public school they can require it...I know some of them do but I would think you could contest that "rule".
My son took AP Statistics with a new teacher. Scored a "1" on the AP test. It was pitiful. She did not prepare them at all to take the test. Daughter is taking the same class this year and I am not paying for the test. No point, since I know the teacher will not prepare the kids adequately. She is taking the class because the other option is Calc and she is not a math kid.</p>
<p>Our school requires the kids to take the AP exam (but doesn't pay for it) or a "teacher made" final exam which is usually a released AP exam. We're debating how many and which ones D should take this year- she's in 6 AP courses and would have one every day for the first week and then the last the following week. She'll get some type of credit for almost every exam (if she does well) but realistically I'm not sure how she'll do if she attempts all 6. My thought is to have her focus on the ones that will do her the most good in terms of placement and credit if she's successful.</p>
<p>YDS- no he won't be required to take credits and place out of the intro Bio in college. Does he want to take A&P? What is he thinking of majoring in? If he likes Bio and has the room, then why not take A&P. If he would prefer to take some other class, then he can either study areas of the test which may be covered in that class or skip the AP test. Although coolweather says A&P is not required, since your school recommends it it could be that they cover some of the AP material in that class. He could study this portion on his own if he chooses to take the test without this second class.</p>
<p>By the later part of HS, I figured that these were the type decisions that my S could and should make. He was accepted EA by the school where he had the most interest. I seem to recall that his HS senior year I got a partial refund of one or two AP test payments when he decided not to take some tests. </p>
<p>BTW --what exactly is the problem with not taking the AP exam if the course grade is an A and the student's score's on previous AP exams were 5's?</p>
<p>For just about all of the AP classes at my D's high school, taking the AP test is a required part of the course. I think there are one or two classes (AP Spanish comes to mind) where taking the AP test isn't a requirement. The school does not pay for the test, FWIW, so I suppose if someone couldn't afford it (unlikely in our district) they'd have to rethink their requirements.</p>
<p>Our district has a rule where if you don't take the AP exam, you have to take the "equivalent District test", which, according to school lore, "no one has ever passed." </p>
<p>Of course, this is major silliness, because who cares if you pass it? If your grade on the AP exam doesn't affect your grade in the class, how could they count the intentionally impossibly difficult district test on your grade? I even wonder if the "equivalent District test" exists. But it's an effective scare tactic to make everyone take the AP exam.</p>
<p>S's school does not require students enrolled in AP classes to take the AP exam. Most of the AP classes are offered as dual credit courses through a local university. Many of the students prefer to spend the extra money ($60 per credit hour) to take the dual credit class and not have to stress about a one day exam. I'm not sure if that is the best way to go, but that is what my S has elected to do. He will take a total of 6 AP's - 4 for dual credit (APUSH, AP Euro, AP Physics, AP Eng Lit/Comp) and 2 exams (AP Calc AB and AP US Government). The school can offer dual credit on AP classes where the teacher has at least a masters degree (along with a thorough evaluation by the college regarding the course content).</p>
<p>My daughter took two AP courses in her junior year and decided to take both tests to find out how she would do. In her senior year, she took five AP courses and that just felt like too many tests. She ended up taking three of the exams and she had a practical reason for each one. I was glad she decided not to do all of them - those things are expensive! At her (public) school the tests are optional, but students are encouraged to take at least two.</p>
<p>I think he doesn't want to take A&P but still wants to do well on the test. :) We haven't talked about it a lot.</p>
<p>He's always been a math/science guy and had planned to major in env. science. But as this year has progressed, he's decided he's becoming a liberal arts kind of guy. When he comes home and talks about school it's never about math and rarely about science, except APES. He loved bio in his freshman year, so I think he really wants to take AP Bio, just not the A&P cuz he's heard it's a killer. </p>
<p>He definitely has the room in his sked as he takes eight classes per semester. I'm thinking that the A&P is blocked with APBio and the teacher steals time from A&P to tackle some of the APBio topics. This happens with BC Cal, which is paired (mandatory) with a second math class. The teacher really wants to teach BC Cal every day, but they wouldn't let him do that so he uses some of discrete math time to teach calculus.</p>
<p>07dad, I don't understand your question, but maybe that wasn't directed at me as I never mentioned a grade or a score.</p>