<p>I think Caperi understood my point the best. I am not critical of AP classes in and of themselves, but rather of the idea of tying the classes to a standardized test (particularly where the standardized test in question is not a standard part of college applications). Granted, AP teachers will vary in the amount of time they spend on test prep type activities, but I question why any high school teacher should spend time preparing its best and brightest students for these 3rd party tests. If I were a teacher with a classroom full of academic superstars I wouldn’t want to waste a minute of our time together. It seems that Caperi’s school, and the admissions officers they consulted, shared this perspective. (Interlochen, a renown boarding school in Michigan, has no AP classes as well. There may be others.)</p>
<p>Also, as I said in my initial post, I understand the value of placement and advancement. But you don’t need AP tests to accomplish either result. For example, my high school didn’t offer Spanish AP. So when I started as a freshman at Stanford the university just had me take a short language test. I did about as well as I expected, got credit toward my foreign language requirement and was allowed to skip lower level classes. I didn’t need to spend a year preparing for an AP Spanish test (wasting class time, buying AP Study guides, hiring private tutors, dropping extra-curriculars, etc.). I just focused on doing well in the classes that I was enrolled in and when the time came to start college I was placed where I needed to be. I just don’t see the need to go through all this worry and expense to accomplish the same result.</p>
<p>yankeefreak127 raises a very good point about the pure volume of tests students are taking these days. The expansion of the AP curriculum, both in terms of classes offered and classes taken is compounding this problem because each AP class comes with its own standardized test. A student with 10 AP classes will have 10 additional standardized tests to waddle through! I just can’t imagine how that could be the highest and best use of such an advanced student’s time.</p>
<p>It is very possible that my anathema to the way the AP program encourages our country’s brightest students to load up on standardized tests is influenced by the way my alma mater measured success. As the Stanford admissions website says: “What a course is named or whether it concludes with a standardized test is considerably less important to us than the energy a student contributes to the learning process and the curiosity with which he or she pursues questions and ideas. Sometimes this challenging high school course load will include advanced placement classes; other high schools choose to offer equally demanding courses that neither carry the AP designation nor lead to an AP exam. We want to be clear that this is not a case of ‘whoever has the most APs wins.’ Instead, we look for thoughtful, eager and highly engaged students who will make a difference at Stanford and the world beyond”</p>