Basically what the question says, I want to know if I should take AP exams for my classes. I have AP lit, psych, stats, econ, and Comp sci.
Sure. You might get college credits and/or placement into a higher level course.
It’s a tougher decision this year, now that students, especially seniors, have to register for the tests several months earlier than in the past. In previous years if a senior applied and was accepted ED (or RA), he/she would be able to check that college’s policy before signing up and paying the fees. All you can do going forward is review the polcies of the colleges to which you’re applying and make an educated guess based on your research. If you can afford the fees, I would err on the side of taking the exams.
My D’s senior APs helped her get out of a lot of gen ed requirements and opened up her schedule for what she really wanted to take.
yes. The upside is that you may get college credit for those classes.
That can help you perhaps graduate earlier (and save $), have the ability to drop a class, take a fun class, study abroad, do research, etc.
The downside is …there is no downside. If you don’t do well it doesn’t matter and you just have to take the college version of that class (if necessary).
most schools cap the amount of credit you get with AP scores. If you’ve already reached that for the set of schools you’re targeting, you might skip some of them-- 5 is a lot to study for.
While true, unless the OP is planning on attending a safety, s/he has no idea what the AP policies will be. Even guessing will be problematic, because while some universities will cap, the student can pick and choose which to apply to the cap to be most beneficial. Some (or all) of the 5 APs may be more desirous of credit than any already taken. Unless there is a course which will universally not get credit, I’m in the camp of signing up for the exams now, and then make decisions about not taking (assuming the HS does not require AP exams to be taken) until after college decisions are made. Yes, it may involve losing some money. Alternatively, one could gamble and register late and pay the late test fee.
The other thing to keep in mind (and I’m not a proponent of this, but other users have mentioned on other threads), people transfer colleges. So even if a score is not needed for the freshman college, it may come in handy for the transfer college.
The last data I saw was from 2017, where 38% had a cap. Can you provide a link to updated stats that show it’s now over 50%?
Some which have caps may allow all to give subject credit and/or advanced placement. An example is Dartmouth, where AP/IB/A-level credit toward the number of credits for graduation is capped at zero, but specific scores and exams may get subject credit and/or advanced placement.
https://www.dartmouth.edu/~reg/enrollment/types_credits.html
https://www.dartmouth.edu/~reg/enrollment/credit_on_entrance_exemption_charts.html
In a few cases, an AP test can be known to be worthless based on the student’s major. For example, a student who will be an engineering major knows that AP physics 1, physics 2, and statistics will be worthless, because any course requirements in those areas for engineering majors will be calculus-based. But many students are not so sure of their college majors at the beginning of 12th grade.
If the student already has a well defined college list, s/he can check each college’s AP policy to see which possible AP exams s/he may take have value at all, value at some, or value at none. But not every student has a well defined college list that early.
From that list, my guess is that AP Lit and econ have the most potential for getting out of core requirements, so I’d sign up for those.
Outside of affordability, I can’t think of a good reason not to take all the tests that you signed up for. (Yes, 2 negatives means you should take all the tests)… Especially considering that outside of AP Lit, the other ones are all on the easy side.