<p>Our school offers 6 AP classes(WH, USH, CS, Calc, Lit, Bio) plus Advanced Physics which although not designated AP supposedly prepares students for the exam.</p>
<p>S15 plans to apply to selective colleges and has gotten the impression(from these forums?) that he should make up for his limited AP offerings by self studying for exams. I don't see the point in putting forth the effort and money to do so. He will be taking all of the courses that are offered, and I really don't see how taking additional exams will enhance his application. Where would he even disclose this information on the application? I understand that adcoms consider AP classes to be very important in showing rigor in your schedule, but if you are not taking the classes will taking exams have any impact? He is currently taking Advanced Physics-is there an advantage to taking the exam since the class will not bear the AP label on his transcript? </p>
<p>"He is currently taking Advanced Physics-is there an advantage to taking the exam since the class will not bear the AP label on his transcript? "</p>
<p>Well if he scores high enough he will get college credit and you won’t have to pay for him to take that class in college. That’s really the only advantage to taking an AP self study class.</p>
<p>ProudMomx3 - I pretty much have the same question as you. What’s the point of studying for and passing an exam if you haven’t taken the course? Colleges aren’t blind. They can see when a student has self-studied for an AP exam (where’s the class?) Further, they also know what courses are offered at the high school; if the high school doesn’t offer 10 AP classes, they don’t expect the applicant to have taken 10 AP exams.</p>
<p>That said, if your son feels the Advanced Physics class prepared him for the AP (without further self-learning/studying) then maybe it would help to take the AP exam. That would show that the physics class was essentially AP without the label.</p>
<p>I’ve heard that many schools are getting rid of the AP label so that they are not bound to the curriculum although the course may be just as rigorous (or more so) and provide much of the same material.</p>
<p>At my son’s high school if you took an AP class you automatically took the exam (you paid for the exam as part of the registration fee in the fall). The benefit to taking the exam is that, if you score high enough, you could get credit from your college for that class and not have to take (pay for) that same class in college. You cannot get credit at any school, that I know of, just by taking the class - you have to take the test and score high enough. That said my son did just pay to take the AP Language test in high school (he did not want to take the AP Language class). He scored well enough on it to not have to take freshman English/composition classes in college - instead he could take other literature type classes. His thought was, for AP Language at least, it would pretty much be intuitive - and if you are a good writer it was worth the $86 to take the test. He honestly spent no time studying for it - just went in that day and took it.</p>
<p>I’d never knew “self studying” for an AP exam was “a thing” until I started visiting this forum. As others have said, I think there’s definately a financial advantage if the student is confident that they can get a high enough score to satisfy a requirement at a prospective college. But just to add “meat” to your applications…personally think the impact is small. And that’s if you’re studying for an AP that is offered at the HS. I don’t understand the notion that seems popular here of self studying for APs that aren’t offered.</p>
<p>DS had 5 APs he could take at HS (Calc AB, Stat, USHist, Govt, English). I think colleges were happy with that. 4 of these were in his senior year and by May when the tests were to be taken, he knew where he was going and that he would only get credit for Calc and Stats so only took those two exams. School did not require exams.</p>
<p>One caveat is, esp for a math oriented STEM kid, is to consider studying and taking Calc BC if your school only offers AB (such as ours). If one does well on BC and gets entire year of Calc credit, a kid can potentially start in second year math classes as a freshman. DS did do that and that has allowed him to get a second major in math as well as a Masters degree in math in his 4 years.</p>
<p>Also, there’s no downside to not doing well on the BC part as one gets an AB grade anyway in the process.</p>
<p>I have the suspicion that self-studying for AP exams is mostly popular amongst the population that thinks they can get in anywhere if they just put up more and more standardized test results. Which, as we know, is not true.</p>
<p>I can see an advantage for a homeschooler in “self-studying” for an AP, since it provides external validation. Otherwise, I personally would look for other ways to experience intellectual challenge if at all possible.</p>
<p>ETA: I do know one kid who had to self-study for three AP exams because they were not offered at her school and she needed them to attend Cambridge.</p>
<p>My son self-studied for 4 AP exams one year, 3 of which were not offered by his school (Calc BC and the two Physics C subjects). He did it in part because he was interested in the subject material, found it easy and liked being able to learn at his own pace, which was about 10 times the speed such material was covered in the classroom.</p>
<p>While no school requires that its applicants self-study for AP exams, it’s quite possible that doing so will make you look better qualified for certain programs. Northwestern, for example, has a hard-to-get-into Integrated Science Program (ISP) where they largely expect that you’ve already done advanced work in all the high school math and science classes.</p>
<p>I see no point to doing this unless your son is interested in the material and/or is applying to schools where he will actually get credit. Selective colleges really don’t care about your AP scores when deciding whether to admit you. They only want to see that you took the hardest courses offered at your high school and that you did well in them.</p>
<p>Many selective schools don’t give credit for AP classes and the ones that do accept only 5s and let you start at the next level (say the 120 level vs the 105 level course). You won’t save money and you won’t graduate early.</p>
<p>Absolutely “yes” for taking AP tests via the self study route, if the classes aren’t offered at the HS.</p>
<p>I’d think that this would, if the student gets strong AP test results, (1) help them come across on their college apps as being driven and having a love of learning, (2) get them credit at college much cheaper than taking the class at the university level, and (3) maybe allow them to finish up college earlier and save $.</p>
<p>Yea. While I personally self-studied APs just to spite teachers at my HS :o, I got some unexpected benefits when I got to college – second-year math as a first-year, as someone mentioned; skipping a few breadth reqs; priority when I register for classes (which is big at Cal); and of course I learned a lot of material that I would never have gotten if I was stuck in HS courses.</p>
<p>I don’t know how much it benefited me, but my high school had no AP English classes (we also had no AP labels, but some classes might as well have been and were even focussed towards the AP). Yet more than half the people in my grade signed up for one or both of the APs. I’m more of a STEM person but I pulled out 5s on both with little effort, and now I have some (likely to not be used) elective credit at my university.</p>
<p>“Many selective schools don’t give credit for AP classes and the ones that do accept only 5s and let you start at the next level (say the 120 level vs the 105 level course). You won’t save money and you won’t graduate early.” </p>
<p>My kid didn’t study for APs, but took several tests in areas in which she had no formal training. I think it helped. It’s one thing to say in an app “I’m interested in politics” and another to say that and score a 5 on AP gov without taking a course. </p>
<p>A friend was very interested in art history. She took the AP art history exam and scored a 5 without taking a course or studying. She simply liked and knew a lot about art history, so she took the AP exam to prove that she knew a lot. Again, I think that helped.</p>
<p>I don’t advise self-studying for APs, but if your kid knows a lot about a subject due to a real interest in it, taking the AP exam can help prove the kid really does know a lot about the subject.</p>
<p>To clarify S15 would take AP exams that he has already taken classes for. For example he took a DE Environmental Science class last year and is taking DE Statistics currently. Since selective colleges seem to look down their noses at DE he thinks this a way to validate these classes and possibly gain credits since they won’t give anything for the “real” credits he earns for these classes. Go figure! Also, since he has a strong music background he is considering taking Music Theory. Seems pointless to me…</p>
<p>I think your son is right. He SHOULD take the exams.</p>
<p>Well…adding a caveat…he should take them as long as he can score at least a 4 and preferably a 5. If a practice test results in a score of 3 or lower, he should pass.</p>
<p>My S couldn’t get into the AP Government class in his junior year so he took honors government through e-school (an option in our district), looked over an AP study guide, and took the test and got a 5. His university is very generous and this counts as one of his electives. In his senior year his school did not offer the AP Computer class but as he knows how to program Java, he looked over an AP study guide for that and also got a 5. He is a CS major and normally I wouldn’t advocate using an AP class to cover a class in a student’s major, but since this was very basic stuff he used this AP to get out of some introductory classes. If your son only has to do a little more studying and these classes do NOT count for his major (where he really needs to know the material) I say spend the $89 for each course and have him take the test(s). What does he have to lose.</p>
<p>My son self studied for three AP exams. He was already accepted to several schools so it didn’t matter on his applications. It started out with a scholarship test he was taking for a particular school. He was already taking the math one and they said he could sign up for one more if he wanted to. He figured he would be there already (this was in another state and we had to travel far to get there) so why not. He decided Psychology would be easiest of the other choices so he got the Ap book and just studied it. He didn’t earn the scholarship but decided to keep studying and ended up taking the Ap test and I believe he got a 5. He also self studied macro and microeconomics and scored high enough on both to earn credit. He is studying engineering but these classes counted towards some of his basic requriements or electives which has allowed him the extra space in his schedule to double major.</p>
<p>For my son it was more about the challenge of being able to say he did it and the learning rather than only the credit. He also took a CLEP Chemistry test that he studied for on his own over winter break last year. It is a great way to get a few extra classes out of the way - especially for those subjects that aren’t foundation courses for your major. Perhaps some schools don’t give the credit - rather just advance you in the subject - but most do.</p>
<p>I believe Dartmouth will no longer be giving college credit for AP test scores. My guess is other schools will follow suit, most likely similar schools. Most colleges don’t give you credit for AP courses required for your major. </p>
<p>The colleges will see your high school profile when your student applies. This will show the number of AP courses offered. If your son takes those, then I would think there really is no need to self study other AP courses.</p>