importance of AP

Test Preparation
1

<p>How important are AP's? I mean I know they are important but does taking like 7 AP's with 0 SATII's better/wores/same to a person who took 4 AP's and 3SAT II's ? </p>

2

<p>I think AP’s show you work hard and the SATII’s are there to prove it. It’s probably better to have more AP’s than SATII’s because AP’s are a year long course and college level. Someone can be successful with SATII’s without taking the AP course. If you take an AP class, you probably have a better chance of doing well on the SATII’s. </p>

<p>So I think take the AP’s and prove that you did work hard by scoring well on the SATII’s. But AP’s are more important, I think. </p>

<p>One thing though, some colleges won’t look at AP scores for admissions purposes. So in that case, you’ll want to do well on the SATII’s…if they’re required/recommended for admissions. If not, then I wouldn’t worry about it. Just work hard and take AP’s. </p>

3

<p>SAT Subject tests are required or recommended for some colleges. If your prospective college wants them, there is no way around that. Unless the college specifies which SAT Subject test it wants (e.g. for engineering), conventional wisdom is to submit one math/science and one English/history/foreign language, with the caveat that a heritage speaker of a foreign language should only submit that score as an additional test.</p>

<p>AP scores carry little to no weight in admissions. AP classes will show that you are challenging yourself with your schedule. College admissions will view your transcript in the context of others from your school. If your school offers only 6 AP’s and you take 4, you are likely OK. If your school offers 30 and you take the same 4, you are most likely not OK for top colleges. On the other hand, it is not a race where the person with the most AP’s wins.</p>

<p>The goal is to make sure that your GC checks of the “most rigorous” course load box on the Secondary School Report (top right of p.2 on the link below).</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.ugadm.northwestern.edu/documents/UG_Admissions_SecondarySchoolReport.pdf”>http://www.ugadm.northwestern.edu/documents/UG_Admissions_SecondarySchoolReport.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

4

<p>It’s somewhat important, but some schools do not offer AP courses. I know people here at MIT who are from the US who didn’t take a single AP course.</p>

<p>The main advantage of AP’s is to prepare you for more rigorous courses, and earn credit for introductory college courses so that you don’t have to take them in your freshman or sophomore years. </p>