<p>My daughter is wondering if she should self-study for AP Eng. Lit. as there is no course offered in her school. She's a junior, taking AP U.S. History and AP Biology this year. Next year as a senior she plans to take AP Chemistry, AP Calculus and one other AP if there is anything good offered. Her school is private and doesn't offer a ton of APs. </p>
<p>Our question is whether it's worth studying for and taking a third AP this year, or whether colleges discount the AP Eng. Lit. since the SAT I has critical reading and writing which is maybe similar? Also, would it make sense to take a SAT II in English Literature as well? Or is that redundant? Her plan is to take SAT II's in U.S. History and Bio, although we see that a few school specifically want to see a math one too. Should she take Math II or Math I if she will have finished precalculus by the end of this year?</p>
<p>Thank you - we really apprciate your help!</p>
<p>AP English Lit and the Lit SAT II go more in depth the CR section of the SAT...and they include poetry. You also have to be able to write about literature, something not found on the SAT I. To me the AP tests better show your ability to analyze readings and write.</p>
<p>If your D is taking precal, then the Math II is the test to take.</p>
<p>Hmm, I just noticed something...your D is in line to take the exact same SAT II's as I did (US His, Bio, Math II, and Lit).</p>
<p>Colleges DO NOT discount AP English Lit. The AP Lit test measures your ability to read/understand/write about college level literature; the SAT I tests your ability to read and write at a solidly high school level. The material covered in any good AP Lit class is significantly harder than what is covered in a high school honors class and certainly several times harder than the SAT I critical reading. The class is also more rigorous. I know in my school, the volume of reading covered in AP Lit is about 20x that of Honors. If she wants to take SAT II Literature, she should take the AP, it will prepare her well. It's not redundant.</p>
<p>Thanks so much for the input. That's amazing that you took the same SAT II's. Do you mind saying how they went? Which were hardest ones? Did you have to study a lot for all of them or did your school prepare you pretty well? Was it overwhelming taking four? Did you also do the AP tests in the same subjects (Bio, Hist. and Lit)? Thanks!</p>
<p>My son and others from his prep boarding school took IIC at the end of precalc and found the test to be very hard. Everyone on this forum will tell you how easy it is, but I disagree. S is a strong math student and got a 680 on II and a 740 on I. I should add that he does not prep for these tests. I think if you finish a good precalc test and actually study for the II, you could do fine. One other thing- my niece took college calculus as a junior and absolutely bombed the IIC.</p>
<p>My scores:</p>
<p>Bio M - 760
Math II - 760
His - 770
Lit - 720</p>
<p>Taking the SAT II's weren't such a big deal since I took them the day after finals ended (Bio I took after sophomore year).</p>
<p>Bio - My teacher was absolutely insane. He forced us to literally memorize our notes (about 10 pages per section) verbatim for every test. So I had the material pretty down pat. For that one, I obtained a few practice tests from him and just took those. </p>
<p>Math - Precalc was actually my last final, so the material was fresh in my head...I used the PR's study book. It's funny, I had never thought I had learned much in precal until I realized I was pretty prepared for the test.</p>
<p>US History - the only SAT II that I also took the AP Test for. It was a month after the test, so I just reviewed the PR's AP Book. It's a little more fact-orientated than the AP, but it was still manageable.</p>
<p>Lit - I came into the test not knowing what was going to be on it. I had taken AP Lang, but my teacher said that I should be fine for the Lit SAT II...it was fairly difficult - maybe if I had waited until October to take it (a month into AP Lit, which I'm taking this year), I would have done better.</p>
<p>It is pretty draining taking 3 SAT II's in one day...my testing room started out with 30 kids in it...only 2 (including me) ended up staying for all three.</p>