<p>So I've been thinking: what's the point of worrying over all these AP tests if as a premed student it would be favorable for me in terms of GPA to take all the classes over again. Was it just another weeding out criterion the admissions people used to see if I can handle college work?</p>
<p>For example, I got a 5 on AP Biology, but it would be beneficial for me to take introduction to biology at college since it is, as people on this board have said, much more detailed than AP Biology. And I have also gotten a 5 on AP US History.</p>
<p>My question is why a premed would choose to opt out of any classes (science or non-science) when it would help their GPA to take a humanities (since I've been hearing that in general premed science classes are harder than many of the humanities classes) and it is required of them to take all of the AP opt-out-able (sp.) science classes anyway.</p>
<p>Please help me out. I don't know if I should sign up for AP Government, AP Comparative Government, AP Spanish, AP Physics B, AP English Lang., and AP English Literature, this year.</p>
<p>My father is a doctor and my sister wants to be a doctor and he has advised her to go to a state university, where she could be the top of her class, and to take all of her AP courses over. He says that GPA is one of the most important if not the most important criteria in determining who gets into medical school. He would have the same advice for anyone. So from this, I would definately take all of your AP classes over again, even if you can get credit.</p>
<p>bball87: I did not mean to say that introduction to biology is an easy class. I mean that it is recommended that I take it as a premed; thus, the ap biology credit is useless once in college. Sorry if it came out that way.</p>
<p>So in summary, passing AP tests during my senior year is useless in terms of college credit on a premed track since I was already accepted to Cornell (meaning the admissions people won't really care if I got a 2 or a 3 on my AP tests). I am not asking this because I want to slack off; I ask because I can have some pressure off my back.</p>
<p>There are plenty of reasons to take AP tests. Just because you're premed doesn't mean you will never use AP credit. I've opted out of some AP credit (Bio, US History) but I'm still using around 18-22 credits worth. This puts me on pace to graduate 1 semester early which will save me approximately $20,000.</p>
<p>AP credit can also help lighten the course load. It's true that you can't use AP credit for distribution requirements in CAS but they still count toward the 120 credits you need to graduate.</p>
<p>Thirdly, AP credit allows you to take the upper level classes you want without taking the necessary prereqs.</p>
<p>Please tell me which AP course credits out of these have helped you at Cornell as a premed (i.e. you used to opt out of courses):</p>
<p>AP Spanish Lang. 4
AP US Government
AP Comparative Government
AP Microeconomics
AP Macroeconomics
AP Physics 4
AP English Language
AP English Literature</p>
<p>The reason I ask this is because I'm not sure if I should spend the extra time/energy studying for these "extra" courses such as the Macroeconomics or Comparative Government tests. I know some of you might say something like, "in the time you have to type this you should study," but I think it would just relax my nerves a little if I could just have this information, which I think is one of the purposes of this site.</p>
<p>Def. agree that you should only take one English AP test. I had 5's on both but could only use one. The other one was essentially a waste.</p>
<p>Out of the other ones, pretty much all of them can be used for credit. The Spanish AP one might be especially useful. If you get a good score on it, you can go into Spanish 209 (which is the easiest course I've taken at cornell). By taking Spanish 209 you can fulfill the CAS foreign language requirement. I had to get into Spanish 209 the hard way: by taking the placement exam during orientation. Scores were posted the following week. I would say that less than 10% of the test takers scored high enough to place into Spanish 209.</p>
<p>What happens if you do not score high enough to get into 209 on either the AP exam or the placement test? Do you need to take Spanish for 4 years? How much more difficult? Can you take a class that is the equivalent to something like high-school spanish 1 or a class for complete beginners?</p>
<p>You won't need to take spanish for 4 years but you'll have to start off at an introductory level and take 11 credits worth of Spanish. Whereas, if you go directly into Spanish 209, that's all you have to take (3 credits).</p>
<p>I honestly don't see why pre-meds wouldn't want to use AP credit. Do you think it translates to an automatic rejection in the medschool admission round?</p>
<p>A good friend of mind who graduated from U.Michigan a few years ago used ALL of his AP credit, passing him out of intro biology, general chemistry, and a semester of physics. He graduated with an incredible GPA, had a respectable MCAT (33-34? I believe) and went on to UPenn Medical School. Numerous other people I know at Michigan, Cornell, and other schools are doing the same thing, and it's definitely not hurting them. Another friend who skipped intro biology was accepted to Weill Cornell ED a short time ago. Why not get out of a cutthroat, painful survey class?</p>
<p>And, lastly, intro biology will NOT raise your GPA. If anything, it will bring it down. Next door neighbor who was valedictorian last year is at Cornell right now. This kid was ridiculously well-versed in biology, earned a B. . . (while earning a solid 'A' Chem 215)</p>
<p>Yes, I'm a pre-frosh, so you can take what I say with a grain of salt. But this is what I've noticed from a whole lot of asking around...</p>
<p>Wow... I better study hard for the Spanish test and watch a lot of Telemundo. And to think, I thought it was one of the tests with lesser importance.</p>
<p>So would you guys suggest I opt out of intro. to biology?</p>
<p>Maybe the reason I'm asking all of these question is because I'm unclear on another thing at Cornell: If I opt out of a class with AP credit then does that mean I will have the option to free up a semester of class during the year in which I would be taking the class? So for example, if I need to take 4 classes + a class of history, then I can use my AP US History credit or government credit to have only 4 classes instead of 5 classes that semester? If this is the case, then I can definitely see the advantage.</p>
<p>just to let u kno
people in the pre-med threads, especially people WELL-VERSED in this subject matter (i.e. they went through this) pretty much agree with the OP. </p>
<p>though it mite not apply to bio, it does for chem. taking orgo-chem after placing out of intro to chem may not be the smartest idea. also im guessing its beneficial for math (not using ap credits for calc). </p>
<p>ur goal is to get a high gpa. research each individual school.</p>