Can someone explain to me how AP classes work???

[N&B'smom]

My DS13 is going to be a freshman this year and he just did some testing at school for some pre-AP classes. What is the benefit of taking AP classes? Any info would be great because I have no idea, I went to a small private school and we didn't have AP classes.

 

[Poohforyou]

My DS13 is going to be a freshman this year and he just did some testing at school for some pre-AP classes. What is the benefit of taking AP classes? Any info would be great because I have no idea, I went to a small private school and we didn't have AP classes.

Taking an AP class will allow your son to sit for the AP exam in that specific subject. Depending on his score on the exam (1-5) he can earn college credit and/or be exempt from certain college requirements (i.e. won't have to take freshman english)

Typically AP classes aren't offered until junior and senior year. Prior to that a student on the AP track will take honor or advanced level classes.

 

[N&B'smom]

Taking an AP class will allow your son to sit for the AP exam in that specific subject. Depending on his score on the exam (1-5) he can earn college credit and/or be exempt from certain college requirements (i.e. won't have to take freshman english)

Thank you!!

 

[TLuvsD]

High schools all operate a little differently, so you will want to ask around (a friend with an older student,etc) about your high school.

In theory, AP classes are taught at a higher level than regular or college prep classes. In May, the students take a test (it's a nationally designated day). The score on that test can result in college credit for that class (varies by college). The test costs about $70 or so, some schools pay the fees, more frequently the parents pay. In some areas all AP students MUST take the AP test, in other places it is up to the individual student. At our high school, you could take one AP as a sophmore, more as a Jr/Sr. And IB was an option as well.

Pre-AP is, essentially, a track in high school. Often students are placed according to prior GPA, recommendations, etc. In your case it sounds like the placement can occur as a result of testing as well.

If you have additional questions, feel free to PM me. Our D just finished her freshman year at college, so I've been there, done that.

 

[trip]

Taking an AP class will allow your son to sit for the AP exam in that specific subject. Depending on his score on the exam (1-5) he can earn college credit and/or be exempt from certain college requirements (i.e. won't have to take freshman english)

Depending on what University you attend, don't entirely count on an exemption from classes but maybe just some general elective credits. But it does make you more attractive to selective schools.

 

[mnrose]

I agree with PP, although our school offers AP classes beginning freshman year. My son just took the AP Human Geo exam last Friday. He is in a 9th grade AP Human Geo course. There are 2-3 AP classes for Freshman, and more each year after that in our high school.

 

[LukenDC]

AP courses are a must if your son intends to apply to colleges with competitive admissions standards. Competitive colleges want students who have academically distinguished themselves in high school by seeking out a rigorous curriculum.

Many high schools weight the value of grades in AP courses on a 5.0 scale. That is why many top high school students have GPAs higher than 4.0.

 

[Duchie]

AP courses are a must if your son intends to apply to colleges with competitive admissions standards. Competitive colleges want students who have academically distinguished themselves in high school by seeking out a rigorous curriculum.

Many high schools weight the value of grades in AP courses on a 5.0 scale. That is why many top high school students have GPAs higher than 4.0.

I just learned recently that our school weigh them on a 6-point scale. So if your final average in the class is a 95, you get a 5.5. That was quite different from my school, where an A in AP classes (no matter what the number grade) was 5.0, B was a 4.0, etc.

 

[Ginny Favers]

When I took AP European History and Spanish my senior year of high school, I never planned to sit for the exams, and did not.

I took them because they were are great introduction to what college courses would be like. The papers I had to write, coursework, participation requirements for European History were as strenuous as anything I took in college-- which I really felt prepared me for what I was getting into.

A lot of kids, freshman year of college, suffer and do badly because it's so different, but because I knew what to expect, I did well.

Also-- I was exempt from the language requirement.

 

[N&B'smom]

My DS's school only offers Pre-AP for 9th grade.

 

[Lorelei Lee]

My daughter took six AP classes and did well on all of the exams. the colleges she attends won't accept AP Statistics no matter what score you receive, but she did get credit for the other five exams and received 15 credits. It didn't exempt her from core requirements, but she was able to take more advanced classes to meet those requirements.

she just finished her junior year. this year she took 12 credits per semester instead of 15, and will do the same thing next year, and will still graduate on time.

She wanted to free up some time to take an internship. She did two internships this year and is working on finding one for next year.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

My DS13 is going to be a freshman this year and he just did some testing at school for some pre-AP classes. What is the benefit of taking AP classes? Any info would be great because I have no idea, I went to a small private school and we didn't have AP classes.

Why take AP classes

1. You can sit for the AP exam afterwards and depending upon your score, some colleges will give you college credit. Some colleges require as little as 3. Some require a 5.

2. Some of the most selective colleges won't give you credit. But even there, you might be allowed beyond the entry level class. But more importantly, at some of the highly selective colleges, if your high school offers AP classes and you didn't take advantage of them.....You're not likely to get in. Now if your school does not offer said classes, you won't be punished for not taking them. What selective colleges are looking for is did you take advantage of the opportunities. And they know that kids often play the transcript game.

3. Most high schools give bonus GPA points for them. However, because most colleges have their own formula for GPA and the like and will look over your transcript and calculate it themselves, this isn't the boom it is often made out to be.

4. It will get you used to college level work because that's what it is.

5. One should take care in selecting what advanced level AP course to take. Don't take AP Calc B and C your senior year if the school you want to go to is only going to let you out of Differential Calculus A and B is sufficient for that and one should use those two blocks for another AP class that will get you out of something.

 

[Gina]

AP courses are a must if your son intends to apply to colleges with competitive admissions standards. Competitive colleges want students who have academically distinguished themselves in high school by seeking out a rigorous curriculum.

Agree wholeheartedly. The AP test scores themselves don't matter -- colleges never even know about them or care as far as the college application goes. It's the fact that a student takes them that counts. And not just that, but how many they take, which is where the "rigor" comes in. They look at the big picture. If the high school offers 20 different AP classes and a graduating Senior has only taken 2 or 3 of them, that is a big red flag to them.

You're very smart to be thinking about all this now -- I know my DS has friends who were never in advanced or Pre-AP classes and then realized the colleges were going to be looking for them to have taken AP classes. A lot of them either flunked or dropped those AP classes, because they didn't have the background from the regular classes they had taken before that.

 

[Cinderella94]

Be aware that some universities will accept a score of 3 for credit in a class, for example, for a certain AP exam, while other universities may not accept a 3, 4, or even a 5 on that same exam. Regardless, taking the AP class and getting a good grade in it is attractive to universities. The students' grade in the class and their AP exam score are completely separate.

 

[okeydokey]

Our local high school has AP classes as well as dual enrollment classes (college classes that will count as both the High School credit and the College credit). We are opting for the dual enrollment classes instead. They are weighted the same in our system.

 

[marcyinPA]

Depending on what University you attend, don't entirely count on an exemption from classes but maybe just some general elective credits. But it does make you more attractive to selective schools.

This is very true. I know of a few students who could not use their AP credits in place of taking the course at their university.

 

[DopeyDame]

5. One should take care in selecting what advanced level AP course to take. Don't take AP Calc B and C your senior year if the school you want to go to is only going to let you out of Differential Calculus A and B is sufficient for that and one should use those two blocks for another AP class that will get you out of something.

Yes, you can get credit or place out of certain classes, but the best reason (IMO) to take AP or IB classes is to accept an educational challenge and learn more and think harder than if you took a standard level class. That will be a benefit regardless of the grade you get on the AP exam or what colleges accept.
So you should definitely take care in selecting your classes, but I hate seeing so much time and effort spent in trying to get "credit" for classes, rather than focusing on what you can learn and how it can advance your interests and passions.
If you love math, take Calc BC! If you love history, take AP European history! Even if your college won't give you a drop of credit, you will have learned more and be smarter than if you took a less advanced class.

 

[HM]

Check with your school counselors. Ours always arrange an AP night to explain the process and the classes to the parents and students. Also gives them a chance to meet the teachers who plan on teaching them the next year. (Ours is usually held in Jan or Feb, can't remember which).

This year we paid $88 for each test. My DD took AP English and AP Biology. Last year she took AP Environmental and AP Psychology. At our school as a Sophomore you can take AP Government, but all other classes are meant for Jrs and Srs.

 

[Gina]

Yes, you can get credit or place out of certain classes, but the best reason (IMO) to take AP or IB classes is to accept an educational challenge and learn more and think harder than if you took a standard level class. That will be a benefit regardless of the grade you get on the AP exam or what colleges accept.
So you should definitely take care in selecting your classes, but I hate seeing so much time and effort spent in trying to get "credit" for classes, rather than focusing on what you can learn and how it can advance your interests and passions.
If you love math, take Calc BC! If you love history, take AP European history! Even if your college won't give you a drop of credit, you will have learned more and be smarter than if you took a less advanced class.

Well put! Out of all the AP classes my son will have taken by the time he graduates, the one AP English exam he just took will probably be the only one he takes. We spoke at length with the admissions person about it, and the rest of the tests he would be elegible for are for classes that would directly apply to his major and he wouldn't want to place out of anyway. He's very much looking forward to physics and math and all that in college. (*boggle*)

Not only that, but you get into (at least here in Texas) the whole tuition-rebate-restrictions... There's a $1000 tuition rebate if you graduate within 3 attempted credit hours of what is needed for your degree. There's a small allowance for AP credits - I think it's 9 credit hours - but that's only two classes. Dual-credit classes don't affect the total, so he's going to take history that way next semester and get that core class out of the way.

It's all so confusing... I have learned more in the past year than I ever even knew there *was* to learn! Been quite an eye-opening experience!

 

[MOpGrad2013]

Your best bet is to sit down with the high school counselor (preferably the one who helps the junior and senior class, unless your son will be with the same counselor the entire time) and get that counselor to really help you with the ins and outs plus the question of whether the PreAP class is necessary. Some students will have enough adjustment in high school that the pre-course type of classes are not beneficial. Yet, the school can waive the pre "requirement" if he attends a regular class and has a teacher recommendation.

DS18 took two AP courses in junior and one this year as a senior. Not all AP classes are as rigorous as one would expect and not all AP instructors are equipped to teach the material.

He did receive good scores on the exams and had a weighted GPA for his graduation. However, the coleges were only accepting his unweighted and for class ranking, they use an unweighted. For him to receive the credits at his college, he must have an entire sememster in the university classes before they transfer into the transcript. And he still must attend his "freshman core" classes, so the English AP won't erase that requirement for the college.

The weighted GPA did assist with scholarships and grants. He is receiving more than half of his college tuition and boarding based on just the GPA and the rigorous class load he has carried.

I know it's still early, but if you have an idea of what colleges he hopes to atend, you can get a good idea of what different colleges think and this could be extremely useful as you make a 4 year high school plan.

The official website to learn more is www.collegeboard.com

Our school offers the classes with the expectation that the student will take the test at the end of the year. The school pays for the exam. If the student does not take the test, then the parents must pay for the test and there is no weighted grade point average given.

Asking my grads (DfosterS19 and DS18) and they both state that setting up for success is the best. One of my sons took the AP route and he handled it along with extra curricular and social fine, but the other started it and had to leave it. He took more difficult classes all four years--english, math and science, but had to cut out fun time, thus he wasnt too crazy about school. DS18 with the AP classes completed what the school required and then took easier classes as a senior. I wish fosterson would have been able to take the AP classes, but I wasn't there then and you can't change the past, but he is going on to pre-med school without them. In other words, don't pressure to do something that might not be the best, especially if he can get in later on. Freshman year can be hard enough (that's from DD15 who just finished).