Skipping first year courses with AP/IB credits

<p>Do many freshmen choose to skip some first year courses with the high marks they received in their high school AP/IB courses? Will second year courses be MUCH harder?</p>

<p>From what I've gathered, most generally will use AP/IB credits to fulfill requirements that are unrelated to their major/they would rather not take out of disinterest in the class. It seems most opportunities to fulfill major requirements (like getting a 5 on the Physics AP for a physics major, for example) are not taken advantage of, because the student doesn't know how hard the beginning level courses are. They might be doing a disservice to themselves by skipping it, doing very poorly in a higher course, and forfeiting a chance to get a really solid, basic understanding of their major's lower courses as a foundation for the higher classes (while getting a pretty decent grade).</p>

<p>well in some cases, like for my foreign language, I have no intention of further (formal) study, so I definitely used that credit.
the one class that I took credit for and moved ahead (calculus) has been quite a challenge.</p>

<p>i used my APs to place out of intro classes - including those that pertained to my major. i'm in AEM and i didn't take either intro econ classes, which i'm really happy about because i hear they're weed-out classes.</p>

<p>^for econ, their site also basically is like "please don't take those courses again!" whereas biology really encourages students to forgo at least one semester of AP credit and take at least the fall semester at Cornell.</p>

<p>this brings up a good point. if there are certain courses you're considering skipping, you might look at the departments that offer the courses at Cornell and see if they have any recommendations.</p>

<p>In my experience, I have found skipping all classes you have AP credit for, at least if you are an engineer, to be a very smart strategy. Even if you forget some of the material, you can always review to refresh your memory. </p>

<p>Math 1910 is a very painful class, and if you have credit, I highly urge you to just go onto Math 1920. Get ahead a semester in math and forgo pain that you already have credit for. Phys 1112 is really just a review of AP Physics C Mech, so I found that it would have been better to just skip it.</p>