Sorry if the title of this thread comes across as rude, but I was curious about something.
Every now and then, when CC posters ask about their future schedules, I see AP courses that I’ve never heard of. Some examples that I’ve heard of being offered at high schools (some are from CC users) are AP Marine Bio, AP Astronomy, AP Sociology, AP Asian History, AP Swedish, AP Ceramics, AP Photography etc.
However, on the College Board website, there is no proof that any of these courses are actually real AP courses. Someone who takes AP Chem will probably take the AP test at the end of the year for college credit. But someone taking AP Astronomy won’t have any AP test to take because it doesn’t exist.
So main question is, what’s the deal with these classes? Do colleges honestly look at these classes and recognize them as being equal to a class like AP Calc BC or AP Physics C? And how exactly would these students receive college credit for these courses? Or is this just a label to make the course appear to be hard?
@Anish14 No offense, but I checked and that’s no AP course. It says CASE STUDY.
If you compare it to any other AP course page, it is much different. There is no syllabus, course overview, or exam summaries unlike other AP courses.
ex. AP History page: http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/public/courses/teachers_corner/2177.html
Actually, if you read carefully or scroll down to the very bottom of the page, it appears to be part of the AP Computer Science course, which is actually a real course. The entire page makes comments about AP Computer Science and java.
Also, why is it not on this webpage? https://apstudent.collegeboard.org/apcourse
*edit: Not only that, but even my classmates who took AP Comp Sci had to do this during the school year. This was not a separate class for them.
I realized that 2 seconds later- too lazy to go back.
Well, it’s an online forum. People might try to lie just to tr(o)ll or pull people’s legs.
But even if it was an AP class, I wouldn’t weight AP Photography as much as I would AP Calculus or AP Physics.
While I do not go to a school that offers courses titled like these, I do have my thoughts on this. AP stands for Advanced Placement, and the use of ‘AP’ in these courses’ titles could simply represent that the course in question is beyond the difficulty of a regular and/or honors level course. These are just my thoughts.
Going off what faulty start said, I recall someone explaining that sometimes a school would have AP in the title in a not actual AP class so it could be weighted the same.
So if a school has a rigorous course that’s harder than honors or wants to add AP to the title of a music class, people seeking a high GPA won’t get discouraged from taking it
Or you know, as said above, they’re just trying to make themselves look better in comparison to other posters on here…
AP Photography and AP ceramics both fall under AP studio art disciplines, so those are real AP courses. As for the rest, some schools might use AP in the title for a course that has an AP prerequisite.
These post-AP classes definitely get noticed and are weighted like AP classes. The only “non-AP” AP course that my high school had was AP Russian, which there actually is an exam for, just not through college board because its still in development. The other post-APs (organic chem, DNA analysis, neurobio, multivar, linear algebra, quantum, etc) were just weighted like AP courses and did not include AP in their title.
Basically just honors classes then.
Our local public school offers AP Gym! They actually put that on the transcript. Isn’t that just the best? Some things you just can’t make up.
I wonder if colleges notice the dilution of AP with the two year sequences of AP classes I often see kids posting, like preAP world history one year, the AP World then next. It kind of defeats the purpose.
AP Gym XD.
Why would the schools put such weird(but hilarious to me) classes? Is that to make it “better” to college admission officers?
AP ceramics might just be another way of say AP 3D Art which is a class. Plus, AP art classes require a portfolio that meets certain criteria and you might could meet the requirements of 3D with a ceramics portfolio plus a couple of mandatory 3D pieces. D did AP drawing and AP 2D (which covers lots of medium but hers was all paint).
Thanks for all of your responses!
Actually, I didn’t realize that Photography or Ceramics fell under several AP Arts courses so thanks everybody for clearing that up. So that clears up the AP Arts.
I actually went and searched for this “AP Botany” class that my friend kept insisting was real and just found a NYTimes article (don’t know if I’m allowed to link it on CC). Apparently this is an issue that that Collegeboard has been dealing with since before 2007.
I’m baffled over the AP Gym course, though! Just when I thought I’ve heard it all 
I’m rather surprised that counsel for the College Board has not been in contact with these high schools. They (the CB) seems to be protective of its registered trademarks.
Adding to what neato said: how about AP Sports Teams?! AP Football! AP Swimming! AP Basketball!
Joking aside, I’ve never heard of “AP Asian History”
@thelittleswimmer Heh, yeah, if AP Gym can exist, then probably any AP Sports Teams course could exist!
Yeah, AP Asian History was just one “AP” course I heard about once. There’s also “AP Middle Eastern History” apparently (it was in that NYTimes article), so I’m not too surprised that something like “AP Asian History” could exist
I wanna see AP home economics.