<p>My daughter is doing very well on her AP classes and got 5 last year on the two exams she took and presumably she can use her AP results to skip some courses (at Cornell, where she is going next year as an economics major). But if she asks for advice, I might just tell her not to skip anything, take challenging courses but dont assume that, say, AP calculus will replace the 1st year university course. Getting behind, especially in the tough 1st year, might be a disaster. Any comments?</p>
<p>Sorry if this is covered in old posts - I read a bunch and did not find it.</p>
<p>My S went into his freshman year with 22 credits from the APs he took in HS. But his college recommended that he retake Calculus if he was considering going into Engineering, so he did. He says that he is VERY glad he retook it. However, if he hadn't planned to go into anything math-related, there would have been no reason to do so.</p>
<p>Having those credits will give her several attractive options. She might have enough to graduate 1 or 2 semesters early, thus saving $$. Or she could take a lighter load the first year, say 12 or 13 credits. That would help her to ease into things without the pressures of so many classes. Finally, it allows her the luxury of taking more electives in things she might not otherwise have been able to explore. This is especially good for a kid who undecided as to their major.</p>
<p>This is where she should use her academic advisor. They should know or be able to direct her to someone who does know whether it makes sense to take the course again or take an upper level course. DIfferent schools also use AP scores in different ways, some will give you the credits, and some will only let you use the to get out of entry level classes.</p>
<p>I second the advice of both posters above. My D also opted to retake Calculus--but
she's considering the possibility of med school--one of her majors is Biology. She is also retaking Chemistry. However, she DID take the credits for Biology--at the recommendation of her advisor--and will be jumping into Genetics. She had planned to retake Biology but the advisor was the one who suggested she take the credits for this one. Credits for Psych and for English Language and Lit were less problematic in terms of impact to her major. </p>
<p>She's enjoying having sophomore standing at the end of her first semester, and I think
she feels she made the right choices so far.</p>
<p>All advice above is right on. Check with department chair or advisor if considering skipping a course due to AP credit. Have that advisor go over the course syllabus for both the course to be skipped as well as the next course in the sequence with the student to see how comfortable she/he will be moving up. During the years I taught AP Calc AB, I recommended to my students that those with 3's on the exam should retake the course, those with 4's should have a long conversation with advisor before making the decision, and those with 5's should go on. It definitely depends on the school (and department), which is why I recommend that kids check the syllabus carefully before deciding.</p>
<p>Rule of thumb seems to be to not use AP credits for content related courses (chem, bio, physics, history) if they are in your major or minor. all other uses seem to make sense.</p>
<p>Obviously, it depends on the score achieved and the nature of the AP. A 5 on Calc AB will be treated differently by colleges from a 5 on Calc BC. A 5 on Physics B will also be considered differently from a 5 in Physics C. My S did not retake any courses in which he had an AP but went to the next level and has done well (math & physics). I read in one college catalog that is a student had taken the AP in a lab science more than two years before college, it was strongly advised to retake the course, no matter what score had been achieved. </p>
<p>In the social sciences and humanities, things are different. Some colleges will not give credit for US Government or Economics, or AP-USH or AP-Euro, etc... because course coverage, instructor's perspective, theoretical and methodological approaches are considered to be sufficiently distinctive as to render overlap with the AP curriculum of little importance.</p>
<p>All of the above is sound advice. My s. is planning to major in engineering or physics. He decided to retake calculus (he'd gotten a 5) and is glad, but was able to use his calculus and physics AP credits to qualify as prerequisites for a sophomore level engineering class he then took in the first semester of his freshman year (while simultaneously retaking calculus).</p>
<p>Marite - You are extremely knowledgeable and helpful in all of your posts and I hesitate to disagree with you, but at Stanford the same credit is given for a 5 in Calc AB and 4 or 5 in Calc BC. In both cases, the students place into Math 51 (Linear Algebra) which is the third quarter in the math sequence. My son's high school did not offer Calc BC and he took Math 51 for his first math course at Stanford.</p>
<p>Several things you and your daughter should consider. First is the course a necessary base for more advanced coursework. CalcAB is a base for Calc 2 and Calc BC is a base for diffeq's. So a student had better know the prior material in order to have a good chance of doing well in diffeq's. However in a course like biology not so much and something like history, very little. </p>
<p>Also, how good does she think the AP course was taught? Obviously this will be a somewhat subjective evaluation but she should be able to honestly determine if the coursework and tests challenged her. If she gets a 5 on the CalcBC test, perhaps she should consider taking credit for Calc 1.</p>
<p>My son's AP Calc and Physics teachers were very good and really challenged the students in these classes. Their students have gotten a high % of 4's and 5's on the AP exams, typically about 75%. Therefore he did not hesitate to take the AP credits for Calc 1, Physics 1, and Statistical Methods. He did fine in Calc 2 and Physics 2 and even felt that his hs calc tests were more difficult.</p>
<p>Finally some colleges offer or require placement testing for some subjects like calc. Cornell does offer a diagnostic test for Calc 1. Tell your daughter about this and suggest that she take it. If she does well then she should be comfortable enrolling in Calc 2. If not she should take Calc 1.</p>
<p>It's okay to disagree with me! I am by no means omniscient :) Thanks for the correction. In some colleges, a 5 in AB will be treated as the equivalent of Calc 1 and a 5 in Calc BC as the equivalent of both Calc 1&2. Then, of course, some colleges allow grades of 4 or 5, others only of 5. And some do not seem to give credit for AB or for the AB subscore at all. This does not mean that students have to retake Calculus; they can indeed place into more advanced courses, sometimes after a placement test, sometimes after talking with the director of undergraduate studies.
Anyway, when my S signed up for Multivariable Calculus, he was told that his 5 on the BC exam meant he did not have to take a placement test. He did very well in both MV Calc and Linear Algebra. I cannot imagine his agreeing to retake Calculus, but many students do feel that their AP-Calculus classes were sufficiently rigorous even though they achieved good scores. In this case, it may be desirable to retake.</p>
<p>I think, though, the big discovery is that college courses go at a much faster clip than AP courses. I calculated that by taking college biology (using the same text as AP-Biology) my S had 90+ hours fewer of class time than his schoolmates who took AP-Biology. This meant a lot less handholding, a much faster pace, fewer quizzes, tests, exercises (none, of course, for the AP exam). Some students who did well in AP courses find it hard to adjust to the faster pace.</p>
<p>marite-glad you used the Biology example. My daughter is currently taking AP Biology and plans on majoring in Biology. She doesn't feel that her teacher is very strong, so no matter what her AP score turns out to be, she will retake Biology. If she scores a 5, she will take the credit for the hours only and retake Biology. All her other AP course she will use to exempt the 100 level courses.</p>
<p>My son had a 5 on AP Bio but was told by Swarthmore to at least take one of the intro Bio courses, although it wasn't mandatory that he did. He took Bio 1 and will skip Bio 2 because of the AP Bio. So he does have Sophomore standing by now but did not get as much credits as he thought he would. But that is ok with him and with us.</p>
<p>I actually found out that at Harvard, the AP Biology exam does not count in the department (I don't know if it counts toward the Advanced Standing which is decided by the College). I asked a prof why students who had taken AP Bio and gotten a 5 on the exam were still required to take an introductory Bio class, and he told me that he felt that AP Bio classes did not cultivate students' analytical skills. I have no way of evaluating this claim. I do remember that in the National Research Council's evaluation of advanced high school math and science conducted a few years ago, AP-Bio came in for a great deal of criticism.</p>
<p>Somewhat on topic is a recent Jay Mathews column discussing how some colleges feel about the use (and in their opinion the over-use) of AP. I feel like I need to state that I'm not Jay's agent, as I've mentioned him twice now in about 5 minutes in two separate threads! </p>
<p>Marite, our kids did not take AP bio so I cannot dispute on the Harvard profs comment and must assume that he is correct. However a look at the HC catalogue indicates that there is not a comparable course at Harvard offered either and the SH states, "4. AP Biology does not substitute for any concentration requirement in Biology."</p>
<p>While there is an intro chem there is no such course in biology. Specialization begins at the git go-genetics, human anatomy, cell biology, et al. And since every HC undergrad has not taken AP bio I suspect that this level of preparation is not assumed or required. I noted that the powerpoint lecture notes of one intro bio class(integrative biology of organisms) were fairly basic and non-quantative in nature(<a href="http://www.courses.fas.harvard.edu/%7Ebs51/powerpoints.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.courses.fas.harvard.edu/~bs51/powerpoints.html</a>). It does look very interesting however!</p>
<p>Another option is to look into the honors courses some colleges offer. These courses sometimes cover all the same material as regular courses, but at a faster pace. A student might finish all math requirements in two semesters rather than four. Someone who had scored well on the Cal AP exam might find the honors courses less repetitive.</p>
<p>Perhaps someone out there has some information regarding this related question which has been raised by my D: If a student accelerates graduation by a quarter or semester due to credit received from AP's or other college level courses taken during high school, is this an issue for graduate school admission? i.e. does it matter one way or another for a grad school if less classes are taken at the university where one graduates? Thanks in advance.</p>
<p>This is so school dependent. It is shaping up that my daughter's AP scores will not do her any actual "good" at college. Nevertheless, AP classes were her only option to fulfill the "most difficult courseload available", so she really wasn't considering college credit when she took them. I don't know if she will get enough non-major credit to improve her draw at registration time, I don't even know if that is a consideration. She is thinking about doing med school prereqs, but majoring in history or French, so she needs to maximize her grades in her science courses, and the number of upper level science classes she can take will be limited.
A lifetime ago, when I went to college, I CLEPped (remember that test?) my way to 3 hours short of sophomore standing, so I always registered early. My parents were excited, visions of graduation in 3 years danced thru their heads. However, even back then college was quite the racket. My uni required 1 year of American History, I got CLEP credit for Western Civ, and one semester of AH. My school required Freshman Comp and English Lit - I got credit for Freshman Comp (yay), and 1 year of American Lit (I learned American authors, but my history was fuzzy?!), but no English Lit - and so it went, credit but no real help toward graduation.</p>