<p>I know that taking AP classes looks good on your transcript, but aside from that...</p>
<p>If I pay 89 dollars per class to take the tests, I know I wouldn't have to take the class again at select colleges, but wouldn't I still have to pay the same flat tuition rate?</p>
<p>So when people say taking AP tests saves you money, how exactly is it saving me money, because wouldn't I just be paying even more?</p>
<p>Wouldn't it be better to just take the class again in college to learn it even better than you did in high school, since you're paying for 12-18 credits in your tuition anyway?</p>
<p>You’d be able to take more classes.
Some colleges will let you graduate in 3 years if you came in with enough college credits.
And a lot of it is that they make your transcript look better. It’s very difficult to get into certain colleges without them, if they’re offered at your school.</p>
<p>Some schools charge per credit hour so if you get AP credit, that saves you money. Even if they charge a flat rate, if you have enough AP credit, you can graduate early which saves you money. Having AP credit also allows you to take higher level courses earlier which might be useful.</p>
<p>My kids took AP classes, because if they didn’t, they would have been bored - their HS only has honors courses for Freshman level. So, if you don’t take AP, you’re not challenged. </p>
<p>The other positive is that all the other kids that take APs are the kids that want to challenge themselves, so the kids feed off off each other, which makes for a nice positve feedback loop, and as a result, IMHO, a better learning environment.</p>
<p>The college credit is just the icing on the cake, and a reward for pushing yourself in HS.</p>
<p>They’re for college credits, and the AP test is cheaper than the corresponding college course.</p>
<p>Also, for those students really engaged in learning, it allows them to place out of lower level classes and go onto more challenging topics (ex. BC calc exam places student out of calc 2 and into linear algebra or the like).</p>
<p>And the test scores aren’t considered in admission. Many schools won’t even accept them before the student commits to attending the school.</p>
<p>For some AP tests, a sufficiently high score may exempt you from taking a required introductory-level course, giving you an extra slot in your four year schedule to take a free elective course.</p>
<p>However, if the course to be skipped is an important prerequisite to other courses, it is best to check the college’s old final exams for the course to make sure that you know the material in the college’s course, which may not be identical to that in the AP course.</p>
<p>But note that many of the “easier” or “AP lite” tests (e.g. human geography) are not commonly given subject credit or advanced placement in college, though they may be given credit units (especially at public universities). Also be aware that actual college courses may cover material faster than high school AP courses, because high schools often spend a year on an AP course that is supposed to be like a semester-long college course (e.g. calculus AB, statistics, chemistry, psychology, the government ones, etc.).</p>
<p>@nugraddad I’m not saying there’s no point in taking AP classes, I asked about AP TESTS.</p>
<p>If you’re saying I’m not challenged, please know that by graduation, I will have taken 9 AP courses (calc, physics B, macro and micro economics, psychology, Spanish, statistics, and biology).</p>
<p>I just didn’t get why credits from tests were beneficial but now I see that you can take higher level courses which looks better on your college transcript when you’re applying to grad schools</p>