I have a couple of questions regarding AP Exams and college credits:
College Board says AP Exams give me a chance either to earn college credit, advanced placement, or both. Does advanced placement here mean skipping courses? How does skipping courses work (any restrictions, exceptions, etc.)?
As for college credit, if, for example, I took an AP Physics Exam and scored a 5, and the college’s policy says a 5 earns me credit, what can I use this credit for? Isn’t it for skipping courses (since I already obtained required credits, I don’t need to take the course in college)? If so, then what is advanced placement?
If, for example, I take a laughably easy AP Exam (or at least one that is irrelevant to my major), like an AP Psychology Exam or an AP German Exam, will this be beneficial? I heard that even an irrelevant exam like this will ultimately benefit me because the credits I take will be deducted from the total number of credits required for graduation? If, for example, I take an AP English Exam and score a 5, will I have a likely chance to skip an English course in my first college year? Or will I benefit from the credits I earn in a way other than skipping courses?
Also, please explain chances of skipping courses (whether it is likely) and whether skipping courses may be harmful. Should I focus on taking AP Exams for the purpose of earning credit or should I simply take an AP Exam only of subjects related to my major?
Sorry for number of questions. I’m really thankful for any help. Any answers/suggestions/ideas/opinions appreciated. Thanks!
These are all excellent questions and are best answered by choosing a specific university and looking at their requirements.
For example, at a community college, an AP test may give you credit as having taken an equivalent course- almost as if you took the course at a different community college and then transferred in. At a major research university, many of the courses will give you elective credit. At UC, for example, AP scores cannot substitute for General Education breadth classes. You will get credits, but you will still need to take the GE classes, so the value is less. However, a 5 on the English Composition& Lit course will get you out of an English writing requirement.
So, the course placement (like if you were to enter college and they asked you to take a test to see what class to put you in) feature of AP tests is usually valid. If you place to the next level class, you may be wise to take the higher level to avoid becoming bored.
The college credit can be true as well, and as you go down the “food chain” it becomes more valuable as a substitute for college courses (from no value to “general elective” credit to equivalence credit for specific courses). For example, if you have a ton of 4s and 5s, you could go to a community college for a year and transfer to a state university having satisfied all of your General Ed breadth requirements, and can then spend two years focusing on your major upper division courses. Going straight to university would give you a ton of (useless) elective credit and you would still have to slog through huge lecture halls full of bored students fulfilling their GE’s, and likely take 4 years to graduate.
So, IF you can satisfy requirements at your target post-secondary path, it is worth taking laughably easy AP exams to avoid being bothered with those courses in college. Your answer will vary depending on if you are headed to MIT (AP courses are helpful, AP exams are not fungible), or if you are trying to graduate early through a CC–>State Flagship path (and then move on to graduate school at MIT ).
Many, many 4 yr universities give credit for AP scores of 4 and 5, not just CCs. Many equally allow you to use your AP credits as core graduation credits and not just elective credit. You have to investigate college by college to know the real answers to your questions. (Simply Google the college’s name and AP credit and you should find the policies for the given school.)
Some schools do not give credit, only advanced placement. That means that you might place into a higher level course or an honors class but you have not fulfilled any graduation credit hrs with via the courses you placed out of. So if you need 16 hrs of that subject to graduate, you still need 16 hrs to graduate.
Sons AP classes (3-5’s depending on son and school) that were given credit were correlated to a class. For example AP Bio became Bio 101 (I made up the number) for 3 college credits. This way it showed as if he took Bio 101 (no GPA though) and got 3 credits. Over the summer, prior to starting freshman year,the school he went to sent out a list of AP courses and the college class they correlated to with number of credits.
You can then use these credits for overall number you need to graduate, usually 120, and for specific classes you may now not need to take.
Each school is different. Son1 took 13 AP’sand 1 college level class. His college gave him 45 credits. Son2 took 7 AP’s and 1 college credit course and his college also gave him 45 credits. Son1 and son2 both took AP Bio, or maybe it was for the AP Physics and Son1’s college gave him lecture credits only and Son2’s college gave him lecture and lab credit for the identical AP course.
AP scores may give you one or more of these things, depending on each college’s policy (and sometimes, the policies may vary by division or major within a college):
Credit units. These may get you closer to the number of credit units to graduation, possibly allowing early graduation, or allowing avoiding graduating late due to being a few credit units short after 8 semesters. This may also increase class standing for registration purposes. However, there may be a few schools where this can be disadvantageous, such as Michigan charging higher tuition at higher class standing.
Subject credit. This means that a sufficiently high score on an AP test fulfills a subject requirement for a major or breadth requirement. For example, a school may allow you to satisfy a requirement of calculus 1 by presenting a sufficiently high AP calculus score.
Placement into more advanced courses. For example, a school may allow you to start in calculus 2 instead of calculus 1 by presenting a sufficiently high AP calculus score. This is usually optional, though a few schools (e.g. UCSD, UCI) do not allow taking the course that repeats your AP credit (although it is more common that if you do take such a course, you lose any credit units from the AP credit). If you have the option of skipping to take a more advanced course, it would be a good idea to try the college's old final exams for the course that can be skipped, to check your knowledge against the college's expectation.
College courses taken while in high school may or may not be transferable to the college you attend, and often need to be individually evaluated for subject credit and placement unless there is a pre-existing articulation listing (common between public universities and same-state community colleges). Some colleges are relatively generous with transfer credit, while others are stingy (e.g. Michigan) or have policies against accepting transfer credit from college courses taken while in high school (some privates).
In most cases, transfer credit from AP scores or other colleges is not counted toward your GPA at the college you attend. If you later transfer to another college, that college will re-evaluate your previous AP and college credit based on its policies.
If you plan to later apply to medical or law school, note that college courses taken while in high school and their grades count, while AP scores do not (and usually do not count for pre-med course requirements).
I’ll answer this question by question so it’s sorted more easily.
It highly depends on each individual college. They all have different policies. It’s easy to Google by searching “____ AP policy.” So you look on each school and see what courses/scores they accept for credit. So say they accepted APUSH. A 4 may get you out of an elective and a 5 may get you out of History 201. Advanced placement would be college credit because you are skipping History 101 and going straight into 201. Each college is different so there may be certain caveats/restrictions. Maybe they don’t accept all AP courses. I don’t know if a lot give anything for 3’s. Maybe AP’s only cover general ed’s and electives instead of pre req courses. This is something you’d have to check with the individual places.
The credit traditionally means you get credit for a certain course (say Intro to Physics or Physics 104) and will be placed (advanced placement) in the successive course (say Physics 105).
It may be beneficial. The AP Psych could serve as a social science credit and the AP German could be serve as a foreign language credit. They at least see that you’re challenging yourself courseload-wise and may give you credit if you get a good score on it. Depending on the college’s policy, it may not deduct from the total of credits needed to graduate. If you get a 5 on AP English, you might be able to get out of an English elective, a writing course, or English 101 (intro first year course). The only other benefit is being proficiently prepared for college level work.
It is 70% likely that you will skip a course. Whether it is a gen ed, an elective or a pre-req course varies. I don’t think you will suffer by skipping courses but if you feel that you are suffering or that you are missing out by not being in that class, you can talk to your guidance person to arrange tutoring or something like that to help you out. Don’t pigeonhole yourself on only taking AP’s for your major. Having a broad range of AP’s is good. Focus primarily on taking AP’s to learn the material and prepare for college level work.
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