<p>I tried to search this forum on AP Credits, but every word with ap in it showed up, so…</p>
<p>I am looking for advise for using/ not using high school AP credits at BAMA. I know UA is very liberal with giving credits, but also know taking the full advantage may not be an advantage if it forces a student into higher level classes than those in which they can comfortably succeed, especially freshman year.</p>
<p>For example, DD completed AP Spanish in her junior year. She intends to minor in Spanish at UA, but will arrive next fall having gone an entire year without a Spanish course. She may well benefit in taking a lower level course at UA than she is compelled to, given her AP class.</p>
<p>For purpose of this discussion, and because she hasn’t taken several of the tests yet, we can assume test grades of FOUR in these AP classes:</p>
<p>Spanish
U S History
Statistics
A/B Calculus
Psychology
English</p>
<p>Any wisdom/pitfalls regarding these common AP classes and their utilization at BAMA?</p>
<p>I imagine many of us are helping their Class of 2013 students rough out their schedules in advance of BAMA Bound.</p>
<p>PR /advertising and International Business Honors/marketing (we are meeting with advisors during our Feb 26th visit to figure this out) and Spanish minor.</p>
<p>Frankly, if she can get a masters through a program such as University Scholars or something similar, I’d be thrilled to pay for a fifth year for her at UA. However, if using AP credits can get her a head start, without undue stress or potential grade issues, then it would be great to use them to lessen the overall requirements for graduation.</p>
<p>I’m sure many of you are weighing similar decisions. Advise is much appreciated.</p>
<p>In the case of my son, Using AP Italian credit (3) would have actually hurt him in comparison to using the SUNY Albany credits (6) for the same classes. Crazy system.</p>
<p>This may or may not be applicable to your situation, but FWIW: my S came in with AP credits to skip Calc I, Calc II, Physics 105, and Physics 106. We had similar vacillation about whether to apply those credits and skip the classes, or repeat them. I’m happy to say he made the decision after talking with the College of Eng’g folk, and he went directly into Calc III last semester and into Statics and much higher math this semester. He handled/is handling all math and physics aspects well. I think this is a function of how great his HS teachers were and his own smarts. </p>
<p>So, I have to believe that a 5 on an AP test really does mean you know the material and can move on without a doubt; a 3 should prompt a re-do (IMO); a 4 is the ‘ify’ score. Depends on the major and the student: how necessary are the basics of that class to moving forward…and how motivated is the student to seek help if they need it, after choosing to skip ahead and runs into trouble?</p>
<p>My S also applied 14 CLEP Spanish credits, but has not yet taken any further Spanish classes at UA, so can’t answer that question for you.</p>
<p>I can suggest you talk with your student’s dept advisor and get a feel for whether it is wise to skip classes or repeat them. </p>
<p>You can get AP results quicker via phone (if you pay the slightly extra fee to do so), if your BamaBound session is close to end of school year and you have not yet received written results to help with your decision.</p>
<p>We had the same concern about which Spanish my D would take, and she didn’t know her AP score before Bama Bound- although her AP Spanish teacher estimated a 4 or 5. We contacted a professor in the Spanish department and he told her she could take the Spanish placement test if she wanted to have a better idea. She did exactly that and then emailed the professor again to discuss which class to enroll it. The placement test put her in a 300 level Spanish class which the prof said was consistent with a student who took AP Spanish. This was very helpful because there were very few seats available in the 300 level Spanish classes. She completed Spanish 353- Spanish Conversation and she said that it was incredibly easy and she was happy she hadn’t taken Spanish 202 like she had originally planned. This semester she is taking Spanish 356. AP credit has enabled her to double major in Spanish. She had originally intended to minor it.</p>
<p>I have always been told to use the AP credits IF it was not part of his/her major and something they had to build on, and redo the AP credit if it was. However, I really think it depends on the student’s confidence in their knowledge of their subject. At another university, my engineering son was told by the dean to skip Calc 1 and Calc 2 with his 5, but was told to retake physics even though he got a 5 in that. He was prepared for Calc 3 but was glad he did physics over. (He also got to use his 2 english ap’s and was happy to do so!) My freshman UA son came in this year with 7 AP credits. 5 of them didn’t have anything to do with his Math and CS major and he was happy to accept these credits. He went back in forth with what to do with his Calc BC and Computer A 5’s, and in his case he decided to “skip” the classes and take the AP credit UA offered. This ended up to be a good decision for him as he didn’t have any problems with the “next” classes he took. Again he felt confident in what he learned in his AP class and felt that if something was “missed” he could handle figuring out. I hope whatever choice your daughter makes is the right one for her.</p>
<p>The using the ones not connected to their major makes a lot of sense. </p>
<p>As for the foreign language, her concern is that she might have lost her ear over a year off, but I think she would pick it right back up. Her teachers have always commented that she had a knack for Spanish. </p>
<p>Since her daddy has wanted to revisit his own HS Spanish, I was thinking about investing in Rosetta Stone for them ( I took BASIC and FORTRAN as my languages in the 1970’s, useless). Anyone have experience with Rosetta or a similar language software?</p>
<p>This is an interesting thread and I hope to get others comments. If a student is going to go to a professional school - GPA is so important so I think the student needs to be a bit careful in advancing too much.</p>
<p>i think using the credits for all the basics is wise. i think she would probably do fine going into the next level of spanish, but taking he placement test would be a good way to decide for sure.</p>
<p>my kid repeated credit for one of her AP classes. turned out to be a waste of time. i think more kids regret repeating than not.</p>
<p>As far as engineering goes, last fall I had an opportunity to speak with Dean Karr about AP credits, specifically calc and physics. He stated that he always encouraged a student to take those courses again at UA, regardless of the AP test scores. He did said that in the past, when a student has presented a very thorough plan of why he wanted to take the credit and move on (he gave an example of a boy who wanted to do an international engineering program and needed to take specific courses in a certain sequence and could only get there by taking the credit), he wanted the students to take Calc II and Physics at UA. He said it was for the reinforcement of prior learning, the transition from HS to college and to help bond freshman engineering students that will study together for 4 years.</p>
<p>Since your D isn’t engineering, TXArchitect, this doesn’t apply to you directly but I think you can take it and what kjchpmom has said about taking the credit outside of the major and use it as a guide. It is a tough call and was the one thing we struggled with the most in all of our college decisions.</p>
<p>This happened to be tonights discussion after dinner. Looking at what to do with D’s IB & AP credits and CLEP scores.
We will also be seeking advise while visiting later this month.</p>
<p>My D did not take full advantage of her French credits. She decided to take Intermediate French - Honors and did find it not to be difficult. She did take advantage of all other credits, though if she had come in as pre-med (as she’d been considering) she probably would have redone her sciences. She is majoring in History and Math and she did take full advantage of those AP credits (12 in HY and 8 in MA, IIRC). Frankly, she fulfilled the vast majority of her core with AP credits and we are thankful for it. She carried a very rigorous load at her HS and has been very adequately prepared. We were concerned with jumping ahead too much, but it’s been fine. I think it depends on your child. Everyone’s situation is different.</p>
<p>D will transfer 52+ credit hours, she will use all of them as none of them are in her major, Marine Sci/Bio. She will have to take her Natural Sciences in her core and one Lit class and a UH class for a HU. Then all she has left are sciences. If she had taken Bio or Chem DE she would have retaken it.</p>
<p>Something to consider, if you take the Calc AB test, it doesn’t really benefit you without the Calc BC AP exam because they do not offer Calc II in Fall semester. IMHO it would be better to retake Calc I and get a good grade than to wait till Spring for Calc II. Of course this only applies to students who need more than a semester of math credit.</p>
<p>My son who came in with 35 credit hours, mostly via the dual credit program at his school, came in with 14 credit hours of Spanish.</p>
<p>He had no experience with Spanish prior to high school. Neither myself or his dad speak any Spanish, so he definitely did not get any practice or reinforcement with us. At his small high school, students have the option to take Spanish 3 and 4 for dual credit and receive credit for 100 and 200 level Spanish classes. These were not advanced courses, just the standard Spanish 3 and 4 offered at his SMALL HS. I signed him up because I knew he would do well and with dual credit you transfer the grade along with the credit and knew it was a chance for him to start off with a strong GPA already established.</p>
<p>My son also had the opportunity to do a 6 week travel abroad program to Mexico sponsored by a local university after his junior year. </p>
<p>He decided to minor in Spanish and started his first semester in a 300 level language class. I know that much of his comfort comes from his travel abroad experience, but not only did he receive an A+ in the 300 level course, but the instructor spoke to him one day and told him he should consider a double major (adding 4 more classes to the engineering curriculum is most likely not going to happen). </p>
<p>Back when I went to school I took French through my junior year and took my senior year off. When I took the language placement test I was only able to test out of one semester. After I got reintroduced to the language, the courses were VERY easy for me and seemed a review of what I’d covered in HS. I am sure the year away caused me to do much worse on the placement test than I should have.</p>
<p>I’d say if you have a year away from a language to find an opportunity to practice and make sure your skills haven’t gotten ‘rusty’, then also take the placement exam at the school and trust what it says. If it places a student in an upper level class, that indicates they do have the ability to succeed in that class.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure they do offer calc II in the fall, they just don’t offer Honor’s calc II. So if you want the additional honor’s credits you’ll need to make a choice.</p>
<p>@longx I thought kids could only bring in a max 45 of AP/IB/CLEP credit?</p>
<p>@KJCmom - So taking the credit for the Computer Science worked out ok? The AP one is in JAVA, I thought that the one at UA was in something else. Did your DS have to learn that on his own?</p>