Hello everyone.
How much would it affect me if I didn’t take AP English Language and Composition in my junior year? I will take the exam for it, and I will take AP Literature in my senior year. I wasn’t recommended to take AP Language since I was a new international student, and I followed their advice. But in hindsight I really should have taken it and not let them influence me in that way. Will it make a significant impact on my applications for college?
If you are able to get a 4 or 5 you are good. Yeah, you probably should have taken it but it’s fine. If you score well I don’t think it matters.
No, actually it is better that you did not take it. As a new international student, you could just have easily crashed and burned in this class, considering that your classmates have spoken English all their lives.
No. Taking or not taking one class will not be the deciding factor in the admissions decision.
For what it’s worth, my son’s school (which offers around 24 AP classes) doesn’t offer AP Language – they don’t consider it a serious course (particularly since so many people manage to self-study and do well). Instead, juniors take electives in American, British or World literature (you have to have all three to graduate, but AP Lit senior year can cover two of them). Hasn’t seemed to have any impact on placement.
The only concern you should have is whether your overall coursework is considered to be in the “most rigorous” category at your school. This will be in your GC recommendation, so just ask them if you fall into that category. I can’t imagine a school that would drop an otherwise rigorous schedule out of that category because of one AP. If it still bothers you, ask your GC to explain why you were not placed into AP Lang in the recommendation. That might be helpful if the course really is standard at your school. They just want to see that you took the most rigorous schedule available to you and will understand that it was not your choice.
@higheredrocks
I totally agree. I am a current junior taking the class and I realized within the first two months of the year that I could have skipped the class and done just as well on the AP exam. The AP Lang exam is based heavily on writing ability, something that is very difficult to significantly improve in seven months unless you work hard at it and/or have a good teacher. If you are a natural writer, you should do fine. The multiple choice is just basic reading comprehenesion with some rhetorical device analysis, simple if you do your fair share of reading. I’m sure you will do fine!