Hey everyone,
I am currently enrolled in AP Environmental Science, AP Stats, AP Art History and AP Chemistry. I am wondering if it is worth it to take the AP exams for any of these classes.
I am a senior. Having already completed by college applications, I don’t see a reason to spend the money on these tests. I doubt any college would revoke my application because I didn’t take an AP test. My senior year would be FAR FAR FAR less stressful if I didn’t have to start prepping for these tests.
I might still take AP stats because I am considering majoring in it. But taking the test for art history especially seems useless.
I did apply to some top schools like Yale, Brown and Stanford. Would any of these top schools care? Or would they never even know?
Thanks for the help and advice!
It only matters if any of the schools you get into accept AP credit for gen ed classes. My d got 4 units of credit for her AP lit exam, which freed up time for her to take classes she was interested in. Check what type of gen ed requirements are fulfilled by APs, they can add up saving you time and sometimes money on credits.
A major reason (probably the main reason) to take AP exams is to get AP credit when you start at universities.
For example, assuming a semester system, you might be taking 5 classes at once for 8 semesters, which comes to 40 classes. Regardless of where you go, there is a real chance that during that time you will get at least one class with a bad professor in a very difficult class, and want to drop it. If you show up at university with a moderate amount of extra credit for AP classes, you can drop a class without falling behind.
You don’t need to take all 4 AP exams, but it does seem like a good idea to take at least some of them.
Agreed with the above; I knew several months in advance that I would get no credit for the exams and saved hundreds of dollars on what would have just been an ego boost.
I know that you have to register for exams before college decisions come in, so you might have to take a best guess. FWIW I looked up AP credit policies for the schools you mentioned:
Yale - 2 art history credits for a 4 or 5
Brown - 1 art history credit for a 5, credit for the intro environmental science class with a 5, a 4 or 5 in chemistry exempts you from the placement exam
Stanford - a 5 in chemistry places you into a higher level and gives you 5 retroactive credits
Unless you’re considering majoring in art history or chemistry there wouldn’t be much benefit, but I assume these are the top schools to which you’re applying, and match or safety schools would offer more credit.
If your family can afford it, another consideration for taking AP exams is to validate your teacher’s credentials. Some of them are rated on how their students do on AP exams. If it would help your teachers, and it’s not an economic hardship, then I really hope you will take them. Sometimes their comp is dependent on how their students do.
As others have mentioned, check whether AP scores would give you useful credit toward degree requirements (including general education ). Exemption from a required course can give you an additional free elective in college.
If you can use AP credit to take a more advanced course, you may want to try the college’s old final exams I’d the course you can skip to check your knowledge.
If you are admitted EA or ED by a school and know their AP credit policy, you may skip those AP that do you grant you credits at all or very difficult to qualify for credit in the AP exam registration. That would save you some money. Sometimes, even you can get AP credit but the credit may be not useful for your intended major graduation requirement, you may skip that too. For instance, extra useless elective credits may make you pay upperclassmen tuition rate earlier.
Taking them helps prepare you for the stress of college and college exams.
thanks for the responses everyone! Does anyone know if colleges have a limit on how much credit you can get? I’v already taken lots of APs and gotten lots of good scores. I know of some colleges that limit the amount of credits you can get from APs. Is this common?
You have to check each college’s web site on what its AP policies are. Note that there are three things that you may get from an AP score:
A. Credit units toward the number to graduate. May help graduate in fewer than 8 semesters if one’s major and general education subject requirements are not voluminous, though that is probably not very common unless desired for non-academic reasons (e.g. cost).
B. Subject credit. If an AP score fulfills a requirement, the student can take a free elective in its place.
C. Advanced placement. The student can start in a more advanced course, though it would be a good idea to try the old final exams of the course to be skipped to check one’s knowledge by the college’s standards.
Colleges differ in which AP tests are accepted, which of the above they give for each AP score, and what minimum score is needed.