AP classes truly equal to college classes?

TheMathProf
Fri, 25 Jan 2008 07:33:27 +0000

As far as the letters in Calc go, A used to refer to precalculus topics, B used to refer to differential calculus (taking derivatives), and C used to refer to integral calculus.

Over the years, starting in the late 80’s to early 90’s, the precalculus portions of the exam were gradually removed, meaning that these days, there is precious little A that still occurs on either exam, and that a fair amount of C has crept on the AB exam.

That being said, on the quarters system, most colleges would say that A = first quarter and B = second quarter. One of the things folks don’t realize is that under the quarters system, you’re significantly more likely to take 3-4 classes, whereas under the semesters system, you’re more likely to take 5-6 classes. Because of this, your semester system tends to offer classes of shorter length (for class meetings) and covers approximately the same depth. Give or take a little, and some colleges will obviously differ grossly from this.

As far as difficulty goes, I got a 4 on my AP Calculus AB exam several years back, was granted credit for the first course, but not the second. Only the very last chapter at the end of the second course was new material, and I was so used to spacing out/skipping the second course that I totally bombed that section once we got there.

So equivalency of AP courses to college courses are really going to depend on the subject area, the rigor of the high school, etc.

For instance, the high school that I teach at now will have five weeks of classes after the AP exam, and the expectation is that we’re still teaching new material. Many other high schools across the nation are done by the time AP exams come around. My guess is that those high schools that are done at AP time aren’t adding that material, and probably aren’t covering as much.