There has been much chatter on the Oxford College of Emory Class of 2019 Facebook group about placement tests and I have not been able to determine whether or not I need to take them since I have AP credit.
As far as I know, these are the AP exams that Oxford College could potentially grant credit for:
Biology (4)
Calculus AB (4)
Chemistry (4)
English Literature and Composition (4)
Human Geography (5)
Latin (5)
United States History (5)
I have seen discussion on the Facebook group about calculus, chemistry, and language placement tests, but I have yet to see anyone mention whether or not it is necessary to take the placement tests with AP credit. Also, I am strongly considering going on the pre-med track, so GPA will be important down the road in several years if I apply to medical school (or any graduate program for that matter). Taking advanced courses or skipping courses may not be ideal for me, since I have heard that AP credit does not appear on a college transcript when applying for graduate school and having a lower grade in a more advanced class than in an easier class could possibly be detrimental in my admissions decision for graduate school.
So I have these questions:
Do I need to take the calculus, chemistry, and Latin placement tests since I have AP credit in those areas?
Regardless of the necessity of placement tests with AP credit, would anyone advise skipping entry-level courses/advanced courses because of AP credit/placement tests, especially calculus since I found that class to be hardest class I took in high school?
Any insight from someone familiar with Oxford College would be greatly appreciated!
Also, @bernie12, I really don’t know much about Oxford so please bear with me if I ask seemingly self-explanatory questions! They’re throwing a lot of information at us right now as far as completing questionnaires, taking placement tests, and other items to be done by certain dates go.
@FLStudent97 Don’t worry about it…their placement test stuff is actually kind of confusing to be honest. On main there is only chemistry and it isn’t really an actual placement test so much as it is prep work. It screens out very little people from taking 141 (only those unable to complete the prep would drop it and one has all summer to do it).
Ok, so your AP credit: You should retake chemistry. If you were extremely strong or interested in chemistry, I would say you can skip it and take something like analytical chemistry w/lab to compensate…but if that isn’t you, just retake.
Biology: You can do whatever you want since biology requires an upperlevel course w/lab and thus that can function as a compensatory course. Taking biology 141 does not function as the best refresher and is tedious (especially at Oxford! More so than main. On main, 142 is usually the more painful one for most as it requires considerably more problem solving and logic skills and less raw memorization). It isn’t really linked that much to 142 so you won’t be missing anything you didn’t get from AP. You can sit that one (141) out. I do not know policies regarding the lab at Oxford. I think they are still integrated so you also opt out of 141 lab. Also, Oxford doesn’t offer any advanced options for freshmen in biology I don’t think so you’ll mainly just be sitting out of biology for semester (maybe that will help you do well in chemistry, where students at selective schools struggle. Students with AP background have an advantage, but it is still usually like a B average for them, like a 3.2 on average vs. 2.5-2.9 for the whole class, so often gen. chem is not an easy A unless you are prepped even beyond AP)
Calculus: Many med. schools apparently do not require it (Emory has no minimum requirement for math at all) or only require 1 semester (they all prefer methods or stats courses). Many take AP credit for it, but at the same time it is best to stay safe and proceed to calculus 2. Note that Calc.1 and calc. 2 are quite different. If your integration skills are strong enough, you’ll do fine in calc. 2. Also intro. calc. classes at any Emory campus are generally easier than AP, so I honestly wouldn’t worry. If you can differentiate decently and know the basic integration techniques, you’re good to go (and even then, most of calc. 2 focuses on sequences and series which is mostly limits and logic in my opinion). You can maybe start over if you want an easy A, but I say that time can be better spent taking something else. If worse comes to worse and a school wants 2 semesters (I actually don’t think any school does so unless you are shooting for Harvard’s program with MIT or something) of a calculus based course, Oxford offers a stats class that uses calculus, so maybe you can take that (this would actually make you look good if it went well. Two birds with one stone!).
Maybe take the equivalent to QTM 100 at Oxford since it is required for the biology major. OR maybe a continued writing requirement since you scored a 4 on AP Lit. Taking an CWR that is at higher than 100 level won’t risk your GPA, so don’t worry about that) in spring or fall that would have been taken up by that space in calculus.
@bernie12 Thank you for all your expertise when it comes to anything Emory-related! I haven’t heard from anyone or seen anything on an Emory or Oxford website that provides as much advice as you have. I would agree with you with regard to taking Chemistry 141 at Oxford, as I did find AP Chemistry challenging in high school (I maintained a B+/A- throughout the year and it is deemed to be the most difficult AP class at my high school, though I beg to differ with the AP Calculus classes…). On the Facebook page, some of the rising sophomores have said that the chemistry placement test isn’t difficult and is mostly an assessment of algebra skills with some knowledge of chemistry. I will most likely exempt whatever entry-level English course is offered at Oxford and take an advanced writing course, as you have suggested. I haven’t heard much about exempting biology courses at Oxford besides what you have said, so I might wait to hear more opinions before I make a decision. I haven’t heard anything about placing out of Latin classes at Oxford, but someone did share an email address of a Latin professor on the Facebook page. The placement test website also leads me to believe that there isn’t a Latin placement test and that placement is determined by the student’s high school Latin career.
I wish Oxford were more clear with all this information. A lot of students on the Facebook page seem to be a similar situation with not knowing what to do.
Just a note for anyone who may be taking the Chemistry Placement Test:
In the instructions, it states that you do not need to take the test if you have AP or IB credit, but I did anyways. It took me about 10 minutes to complete and it is essentially an assessment of your Algebra I skills. Don’t stress over it.
Do you believe this is an intentional institutional policy specifically aimed at midgets and dwarfs? I’d be very disappointed if a fine school such as Emory was targeting “little people” in their policies.
@sherpa Haha, nice. Very little people can get in (and are in fact favored) through Emory’s holistic admissions policy but they SHALL NOT take chemistry lol. And there is no oversight that can stop such policies at the departmental level.