<p>I noticed that Both the actual coursework as well as the test preparation for AP test are harder than the actual classes when you take them in College.I especially noticed this in English composition, I didn’t do so well on the test because I’m not goo at writing essays in such a short time, especially hand written, because well, I actually like to think about what I’m gonna write first, make it thought provoking, etc.
However when I actually went to college and took the courses, they were much easier, and most of the time you’ll never be timed to write an essay about a subject that you may not want to write about. I’m guessing more technical classes such as math could have a different feel, Math is always gonna be the same structure pretty much. But I feel that full language and history courses give you more to wiggle room to understand the concepts.</p>
<p>So your basis for this generalization is an AP English?</p>
<p>All science and math APs are so dumbed down it’s not even funny.</p>
<p>It might depend on what college you go to?</p>
<p>Strongly disagreed</p>
<p>I think and have heard that many AP classes are incredibly watered down. The content of the actual college class is much more in depth and more about comprehension of the subject than memorization (which from my observations can get you through almost all of AP Chemistry). I have heard plenty of stories of people getting 5s on BC calc, and then having a really rough time taking calculus at college. I think that the only thing that would make college classes easier is that you have more free time to work.</p>
<p>I received a 5 in AP Calc AB, but when I took Calc II at college, I had the chance to succeed, but I dropped out because I did not have the free time like Poeme said and because Calc II introduced Work and other physics concepts, which I had no background on, and mathematical application of the formulas in problems of mathematical theory.</p>
<p>Depends on way too many variables really.</p>
<p>The first variable is the actual teacher. Some teachers are difficult while others aren’t.</p>
<p>The second variable is the actual college you go to. Some colleges are more difficult while others aren’t.</p>
<p>I’d still recommend taking the ap classes EVEN if the college class would be easier. Mainly because:</p>
<ol>
<li>the ap class is cheaper (total cost ~100$ vs $300+ at a college)</li>
<li>you get college credit for the class</li>
<li>looks good on the application</li>
</ol>
<p>College Courses are suppose to be more rigorous than AP courses. I took Calculus 1 and 2 at a local community college and the class was, by far, more intense than the AP exam. Many college professors tend to go into topics not widely covered by the AP course, and I believe this is true for the AP sciences and math. I cannot say for the other subjects. This probably also depends on your high school teacher, some teachers could more stringent than college professors. Nonetheless, Professors from good universities assume the student as taken AP courses already and decide to delve into harder topics.</p>
<p>A lot of kids (including me) complained about how hard AP physics was, but a good number of schools don’t even accept the AP Physics B score for credit. Take that for what you will.</p>
<p>yodastreet - I’ve heard that Physics C is a lot harder than B is. Not sure if it’s true or not, because I’ve taken neither.</p>
<p>Well I also took AP world history and AP micro-economics. Generally, college freshman history classes are cake to me. The history AP test was pretty hard to me. Microeconomics was moderate.
Maybe its just me in particular. But yeah I said that math and sciences could be different, but to me literature and history college classes are a peace of cake. Also from what I hear the AP foreign language tests are extremely difficult. I did well in a major university Intermediate spanish class no problem, all you have to do is participate and do homework, and I still don’t speak spanish fluently lol.
Also it could be just me because I’m the type of person who thinks comprehension is easier than memorization. I hate memorizing stuff as I think most of it is a waste of time because when you understand the concepts, you can understand how the material is derived rather than blindly memorizing the facts. For example, I never memorized my multiplication tables, I just found a way to notice certain patterns and if you do that you’re able to multiply large number without the tedious memorization.</p>
<p>1st=year physics is known to be deliberately hard in college.</p>
<p>^^thanks for the insight. Now I don’t have to worry about the humanities courses in college.</p>
<p>and calc 2 (in college, not the watered down BC version), is usually the point when engineering majors switch to geography :D</p>
<p>sciencefrenchie, it’s true. Physics C is generally considered harder than B, although B is more broad in topics; and that was implied in my previous post. I think my use of the word “even” might have thrown you off into the wrong interpretation (sorry).</p>
<p>Really? Try some math/science AP’s. They’re so easy compared to their college equivalent. The high school teachers will still spoonfeed you and explain it to you until it makes sense, but the system is completely different in college - they literally go out of the way to make it more complex than it really is. I did both the AP Physics C exams in senior year of high school (but ended up with 3’s on both so have to redo them now, and I’m currently in the first one - Mechanics), you’re not gonna believe how hard they make it. Even if you have a 100% understanding of the physics concepts and are perfectly proficient in writing all equations down, you’ll still get the answer wrong 80% of the time. Its more about the math than the physics, really (which I think is ridiculous).</p>
<p>In my high school class, we could just stop when we had the equations down (“oh…so three variables…three unknowns…you guys can solve it, lets move on”), but they go over the top to make it confusing here with all the vector math and sig figs/rounding/decimal places and take points off for the silliest reasons you can think of. I lost two points on my last exam because I had 4 sig figs in the x-component of my vector and 3 in the y-component of my vector (and yet the question asked to answer in terms of decimal places, which I had correct). If you’re doing too well, they’ll do something stupid to make you go low.</p>
<p>Barron’s gives you a cursory review on W = Fd… but yea I disagree that AP classes are harder than math/science classes, because even one of the most comprehensive AP reviews can only give you that, nothing else (like bouyant force…etc etc)</p>