<p>So I plan on taking 10+ AP exams by the time I graduate and will be a AP Scholar with Honors or Distinction. Stupid question but the qualifications for the AP awards is all AP exams cumulated before you graduate right? and does this really stand out to colleges cause it doesn’t seem that impressive…unless you’re the top state recipient. What do you get…a certificate by mail or just the status? Thanks for your help!!</p>
<p>btw…please evaluate how hard APUSH, APPHYSICSB, APCALCAB, APSPANLANG, APENGLANG, and APPSYCHO exams are if you’ve taken them already!</p>
<p>Yes, AP awards are for all four years total. I’m not sure how much the actual award matters: it probably depends on the school. The schools will know which APs you took in high school and your grades for all of them, anyway, so I can’t see them caring a whole lot. But it’s worth mentioning on your application (I sure did). Taking 10+ AP courses will look impressive enough, assuming you did well in them :).</p>
<p>AP Calc AB is pretty easy if you know your stuff. Strong curve, no impossible questions. It’s one of the most popular AP exams and it still has a pretty high pass rate.</p>
<p>AP English Language, however, is just as popular with a lower passing rate, I believe. This one’s a little harder to judge, but last year the 5-rate was 8% and the year before I think it was 5%. If you know your stuff well and write well you should be fine. This one is more “mechanical” than AP English Literature: it’s not as much into the “art” as much as it’s deconstructing how authors write, especially rhetoric. Probably better for a math-minded person than Lit.</p>
<p>AP Spanish, just make sure you can do everything: read, write, listen, speak. I can’t say much more than that since I’m a native speaker. The passages and listening sections were definitely “real Spanish” and not “made-for-learners” stuff, anyway.</p>
<p>AP Psych is easy. You could pass it with one day of intensive studying, surely. Don’t stress about it.</p>
<p>The AP English Language pass rate is deceptive. There’s very little selectivity (self-selection or otherwise) going on in who takes the exam, as compared to other exams (e.g. Calc BC’s mean grade is 0.77 greater than the one for AB, despite obviously being a much more difficult exam.) It’s not a particularly difficult exam.</p>
<p>Thanks for the help! I would agree that Junior English (AP Language) would be based more on English grammar, usage, and mechanics as opposed to rhetorical and classical skills of Literature (even though I’m good at English, I’m definitely not a Lit person). I’ll be aiming for that 5 though, obviously! I noticed you skipped Physics, which I already planned to NOT take the exam, so its kind of like you read my mind. Otherwise, I heard the Psycho exam was the easiest one. APUSH I want a 5 hopefully. Calc AB I’ll honestly be satisfied if I still get a 3 since this is kind of like a no-choice Math option for me at the moment and I suck at math. Spanish - I’m an above-average foreign learner so I’m expecting no less than a 4. </p>
<p>About English Language and APUSH, aren’t these the two perennial exams with the most signed up? I’m not sure if I would benefit from this in terms of curves, scores, etc.</p>
<p>I HIGHLY recommend AP Statistics not as a class that you will most surely pass, but as a class where you should get at least a 4 or 5. lol And you learn some enlightening views on about everything.</p>
<p>APUSH: Dunno, most people say its godawful.</p>
<p>Physics B: It’s physics without calculus, which basically means that it’s plug and chug algebra. I kind of doubt that it’d even be worth taking the test. No college science department that I know of gives any credit for it, and College Board thinks it’s so worthless that they’re going to eliminate it within the next 5 years.</p>
<p>Calc AB: This class will be a breeze if you’ve already taken a Pre-Calc class with derivatives. Tons of people take the test, so the grading scale is less forgiving than that of CalcBC. The test tends to be somewhat harder than the material. It’s doable if you know your concepts thoroughly, but you have to really have it down if you want a 5.</p>
<p>Span Lang: If you have a good teacher, you can expect a 4. 5s tend to be tough to get, but if you do enough practice with the listening (which is a *****), and the speaking (can you give a 2 minute speech in spanish with 2 minutes to organize your thoughts?) and the writing (need to have your grammar down pat and know how to use subjunctive/relative pronouns) and the reading (an essay and the two minute speech require you to synthesize written articles, so if you don’t understand them, you’re screwed). So actually, 5 is a kinda tough.</p>
<p>AP Eng Lang: Is definitely NOT a grammar/usage/mechanics test (SAT Writing style questions on this test? 0). It does require you to know rhetorical strategies/techniques, because the half the multiple choice and one essay are based on these. If you can make a good argument under time pressure (40 min/essay), the other two essays will be a breeze. Out of the 4 passages on the multiple choice section, 1 or 2 will be passages more than a century old, so you need to practice reading “old” style English. Any bozo can get a 3 if you can write a comprehensible essay. You’ll get a 4 if you are good at the multiple choice/essays. For a 5, you have to rock (ie get 90% of points) either the essays or multi-choice, or be fairly strong with both.</p>
<p>I guess the view of English varies. Out of the 50+ students who took it from my grade with me, I was the only one with a 5. Our teacher was horrible, though, so that might have something to do with it. Esquiar’s description was much better than mine: I forgot about the older-style passages.</p>
<p>If it makes you feel good about AP Calc AB, our school had one of the worst teachers I’d seen and still nobody got a 1. 50% passed, which seemed like a miracle given the little he actually did. Two 5s (out of 30) from someone actually in the class, plus I got a 5 from self-study. It really isn’t tough at all if all you want is a 3 as long as you do your homework and your teacher actually covers the material. Even a few questions are just pre-cal questions (I believe that’s the “A” of “AB”).</p>
<p>I didn’t say Physics B because I did C. B is good (instead of C) if you don’t have any plans of majoring in math, science, or engineering. It’s premed-style physics. It shouldn’t be too bad as long as you know your trig and algebra well enough. More breadth, less depth than C. Kind of a glorified honors course?</p>
<p>^^^^ does the certificate have the average score you got that year, and can you receive it if ur a rising junior?? also, are there benefits from receiving this, or do the colleges rlly not care??</p>
<p>The certificate does not indicate any scores, just type of scholar (with honor, national, etc). The only benefit is that if you indicate “AP Scholar with Distinction” on your application, it gives colleges an idea of how well you have done on AP tests without actually having to send the scores.</p>
<p>About “Fall”, which school year? When you’re a senior and you’re getting ready for applications? Or the fall when you enter college. The latter seems to make no sense as the former is a disadvantage if you take many senior AP exams.</p>
<p>The certificate is sent in the fall after you take the AP exams. If you qualified for a scholar level after junior year, then you get it in the fall of senior year. If you qualify for a level or a new level as a senior, then you receive it after you’ve already started college. The AP exams were not originally intended to be considered in the admissions process (although that is changing recently), but to be considered after enrollment in a college to provide credit.</p>
<p>So does that mean all awards are distributed the fall of your senior year? THEN anyone who qualifies for new awards gets those first year in college?</p>
<p>Awards come out every fall for accumulation of AP tests you have taken through the previous spring. At our HS people earn a lower level award fall of their senior year for soph and jr year AP’s and then a higher level award the fall after graduation for all APs taken in HS. Two awards. Both cumulative.</p>