<p>What are considered the most important AP exams?</p>
<p>English Language and Composition
Calculus BC
US History
Chemistry/Physics</p>
<p>English Lit
Calc
US History
a science AP
and anything else that’s important to your college major, if you have one picked out</p>
<p>What, English Lit is barely considered at colleges. It’s lang that’s the staple AP.</p>
<p>No, English Lit is the harder one of the two and looks better I think.</p>
<p>I was always under the impression Lit was harder and more impressive looking. It may be that Lang is more widely accepted, I don’t know.</p>
<p>But moving on to other subject areas…</p>
<p>BC Calculus.
Choose two of the major sciences: Biology/Chemistry/Physics (B or both Cs)
A foreign language.
Apparently the above posters agree that USH is important. I’d also say Euro as well.</p>
<p>Then it depends on what you’d like to major in.</p>
<p>The easiest self study APs (for awards, etc.) are: Psych, Enviro, and Human Geography. Take a language if you’re a native speaker as well. Slightly harder self-study APs would be Statistics, Macro/Microeconomics, Comparative Government. I’ve heard good things about Art History but having never taken it I can’t say anything.</p>
<p>A foreign language AP(usually Spanish or French) is also very important, though not as much as the others.</p>
<p>Generally, from what I have gathered, the most important AP classes to have taken are:
AP Eng Lang
AP Physics (B or both C’s) for ANY physical science major
AP Chem or Bio
AP Calculus
Personally, I think it is also important to have some economics experience.</p>
<p>I’ve already taken enviro and stats, two relatively unimportant APs. Next year I’m taking Lang, Chem, psych, and APUSH. I’ll be taking calc, physics C, gov, and lit. So I won’t get an AP language in… Will that hinder me?</p>
<p>Are you taking a language at school? Some colleges require 4 years of foreign language.</p>
<p>^
Such as?</p>
<p>If your wanting to take just an AP language test and not necessarily the class, you could just challenge the AP test if your already taking a foreign language. For example, my school offers up to Spanish IV and no AP. My senior year, I’ll be in Spanish IV then I am challenging the AP Spanish test.</p>
<p>For practical purposes:</p>
<p>AP English Language - not only do you learn how to write powerfully and convincingly, but you read great works of literature which can be better than the books you read in AP Lit. Such was the case for me.</p>
<p>AP Statistics - I really, really approve of the AP Stats curriculum and exam. It’s a great overview of statistical methods and hypothesis testing that a lot of people will be using. It’s a different kind of math, and although it’s certainly easier than calculus, it is most likely going to be more useful than calculus, no matter what field you’re going into.</p>
<p>AP Art History - easily the most applicable AP class to a person’s daily life. You learn all about world cultures, world politics, world history, and world religions. Not to mention, you learn to appreciate everything artistic around you, and you can spot many cultural references in film and TV.</p>
<p>AP US Government and Politics - let’s face it…a lot of people don’t know ANYTHING about the structure of government in this country. Don’t be one of those people.</p>
<p>AP Environmental Science - it’s hard to believe just how many ways the daily actions of humans hurt the environment, but a good enviro class will open your eyes to this.</p>
<p>@OtherWindow: From Harvard’s website: “An ideal four-year preparatory program includes four years of English, with extensive practice in writing; four years of math; four years of science: biology, chemistry, physics, and an advanced course in one of these subjects; three years of history, including American and European history; and four years of one foreign language.”</p>
<p>To add on to Keaseby Nights, AP Comp. Gov. is quite useful as well, especially if you subscribe to the Teaching Comparative blog and read it daily. Lots of important current events.</p>
<p>Besides AP courses for admissions look at the General ed/possible major requirements of colleges you’re considering (and their AP policy) Would AP Art History get you out of the arts requirement? What kinds of history courses are you required to take (world, US, euro)? Would getting X on AP Y get you more credits?</p>
<p>^
Heh, “ideal”. Not a single school in my fairly strong district even offers European history. :p</p>
<p>Those definitely aren’t requirements, too.</p>