<p>My D plans to take several hard APs in her Junior year, and want to add AP Psych alaso as she needs at extra GPA point that comes with an AP course. This will offset some of her freshman year lower grades. But we keep hearing colleges do not consider AP Psych as an AP. Will they weed out the AP Psych grade while recalculating?</p>
<p>It's just one of those classes..
Like Intro. to Psych in college; known as an easy A..</p>
<p>Yes, that's why she is planning to take it, along with AP calc BC, AP Phys, AP USH etc etc. Question is, will that hurt her chances in competition?</p>
<p>AP Psych an easy A?
+
colleges don't consider it a real AP?
WHAT!</p>
<p>I'm going to be taking AP Psych next semester, and I've only heard brutal recounts from people who are generally VERY smart and said Psych is the farthest thing from an easy A.
It is half year, which might give the impression that it's a "phony" AP course, but it's certainly not.
So I guess stuff like this varies by school, and usually a college's regional officer or w.e, recognizes such things (easy classes, easy teachers, easy AP's). For example, at my school the "easy" AP is considered Environmental Science, which is kinda of the fall-back option for those who don't want to deal with AP Bio and AP Chem.</p>
<p>Obvisously, every HS and teacher are different, and can make even Calc BC easy if they so choose. But, to answer the OP: Psych is a real AP class, but like at the college level, it only covers one quarter/semester worth of material. Thus, it's one of the so-called AP Lites, which includes other one semester/quarter courses such as Enviro, Human Geog, Calc AB, both Econs, Comp Sci, and the like. Plus, AP Psych has the reputation as easiest for which to self-study.</p>
<p>The APs considered more 'rigorous' are Calc BC, science triumverate (Chem, Physics, Bio), Eng. Lit, USHist, & Euro, and perhaps languages (for non-native speakers).</p>
<p>I don't quite think it's fair to label Psych as an easy AP if you're referring to a class, because that can vary dramatically from school to school, teacher to teacher. I'm taking it this year, along with BC Calc, Lit, and Gov, and it's easily one of my hardest classes just because the teacher makes it that way. In terms of the exam, I'm pretty sure it can be considered to be on the easier side. But in terms of earning an A in the class, it definitely depends.</p>
<p>Yeah, it's hard to label classes. At my school, lit and bio are pretty easy, while Econ is very difficult.</p>
<p>Yeah, we write 2 essays every week in psych and the tests are pretty hard? I really think it depends on the teacher...</p>
<p>second. it's super easy at my school, but then my school is also known for having one of the hardest APEL classes (we have to write a 30 page paper on literary criticism) and Lit classes (only a handful get As each year), while other schools have incredibly easy APEL and Lit classes. it really depends. i don't think it'll matter either way..its an AP class.</p>
<p>At my school AP Psych is kind of a lot of work but it is an easy A. Also people say it is an easy 5 on the AP test</p>
<p>well, taking ap psych looks better than NOT taking it</p>
<p>Psychology is an AP... I'd take it... I really learn a lot in that class. </p>
<p>Also, I self studied AP Environmental Science/Human Geography, and I learned a lot from that too... all the APs they call jokes is where I actually learn something novel and new... </p>
<p>This is the first time I've heard an AP being designated by a college as non-legitimate. I don't know enough to give you advice on that matter... however, as an interesting course, take Psych.</p>
<p>At my school the AP Psych class is a breeze.
It's actually really sad. SO many juniors/seniors take it just to have an AP on their transcript, do absolutely no work, cheat (poorly*) on the tests and quizzes and whine incessantly about everything while never letting the teacher lecture in peace... or do much at all in peace. The teacher can't teach all too well but that derives much from how she can't control the class. Regardless the material's not hard (self-study via the textbook's the only way to learn anything in that class in my school), so meh.</p>
<p>In spite of how any high school may teach the course (or any AP) the exam is standardized and if you ace the course but bomb the exam it'll say something about the level of education/standard of work. The class is still an AP, and it stills manages to net you credit (assuming you meet the exam score required by the respective schools) so there's no question there. It just might have a bad rep because of the ease of the material?</p>
<p>*they don't get caught, the teacher's too trusting, they just always manage to have the "key" to the test which they text to everyone else but usually turns out to be a wrong key or something and they fail anyway. Recently alot of people have gotten around to blaming the scanning machine for incorrectly grading the tests and insisting that they see their tests back and the answer key to verify it was properly scanned. And the teacher complies at which point most of the class erases their answers, puts the correct ones and demands she grade them again by hand. I get to sit and watch with one of the only 3 people with legitimate A's in the class. Hooray for high school.</p>
<p>no AP psych in my school. but i know a lot of friends that just take the regular psych course (supposedly an easy A...never took it, so i wouldnt know) and they just take the AP test ....so whether it should be considered easy or not...you decide.</p>
<p>There's nothing wrong with AP Psych. And the difficulty varies from school to school. At my high school, you would have gotten a quick wake-up if you expected an easy A.</p>
<p>
[quote]
The APs considered more 'rigorous' are Calc BC, science triumverate (Chem, Physics, Bio), Eng. Lit, USHist, & Euro, and perhaps languages (for non-native speakers).
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Many of those also only cover a semester's worth of college work, unless your college teaches these subjects pretty slowly. At my college, some of those covered <em>less</em> than a semester's work (Chem and Bio come to mind).</p>
<p>A semester, or a quarter if you are on that system, <em>is</em> a complete class in college, in any case.</p>
<p>Coming back to my original question (!!), how do colleges view this AP? Do they consider this at par with other Humanities APs or kind of disregard it? Do they strip it off while considering core/hard courses?</p>
<p>At my school atleast - AP Psych is a joke. Many honors classes at my school are much harder than Psych.</p>
<p>and - it depends on the college, but if they recalculate GPA, they'll usually weight it as an honors</p>
<p>At my school, AP Psych is known as a brutal class. I'm currently taking it as a senior, and rarely a week goes by without multiple papers and projects, or extensive research; even worse, two students of twenty-five have As (I'm one of them, ha).</p>
<p>I love psychology though, so it's all fine by me.</p>
<p>XP:</p>
<p>Adcoms know generally hard and easy classes, and know which AP's offer full year college credit and which are so-called AP Lites. </p>
<p>AP Psych is an AP class so it counts for quite a bit. But, is it veiwed in the same light at AP Lit? Absolutely not (if for no other reason Psych is a social science class). If AP Psych is your elective, it can be a good schedule strenghthener. But, if it replaces a more rigorous AP, then it is a schedule weakener. If it replaces a fourth year of a core academic subject (math, science, eng, foreign lang, history), it is also a schedule weakener IMO.</p>