I took Psychology as an elective this (junior) year and received an A-. I loved the class so much that I wanted to take AP Psychology as a senior next year. However the school strongly recommends me not to take it because they believe that I should not take AP Psych after having already taken the elective option - they told me it’s better to take a new course. Does taking an AP Level Psycholgy course after having already taken the regular option look bad to colleges? Should I take it? I really love Psychology and was looking forward to taking the AP Level but don’t wantg schedule to look bad to colleges
S took AP Biology Sr year after taking regular Biology Freshman year. The colleges didn’t look badly on it at all and the interview he had actually was glad he did it since it is directly related to his major and showed his developing interest as he matured.
What would you take instead if you didn’t take AP psych?
It is pretty common to take AP courses after taking lower level courses in English, math, foreign language, and lab science. For example, AP calculus can be taken after precalculus, AP Spanish can be taken after Spanish 3, etc…
But it may be less common in social studies and history, where the AP course is more likely to be an honors option in place of a regular course (e.g. student chooses between regular US history and AP US history).
I would follow the strong recommendation of your school.
Intro biology is generally a prereq to AP Bio. A better analogy would be taking AP USH after taking regular US History, or taking AP Econ after taking regular econ. IMO, Taking AP Psych is a waste of a period if you’re already taken psych, and I think colleges would agree. Study the gaps on your own and take the AP exam if you want the potential college credit, but otherwise, I’d suggest taking another class.
If you don’t plan to major in psychology, I doubt it’s a good way to spend your time, especially your senior year. It might look like you were scrambling to take any AP class you could to boost your GPA or make yourself look more impressive, which isn’t what you want to convey. In high school, I only took classes because I wanted to and not because it would get me into schools (though I did take honors and APs and had a high GPA), but I regret doing that to a certain extent because I could have spent my time a lot more efficiently. But I only gained that wisdom from experience looking back, so you need to do what’s best for you. I say take advantage of a free education while you still have one, and use every class wisely, but if psychology is your passion and you want to major in it, taking AP psych and passing the exam gets entry-level classes out of the way and might help you out in the long run. If not, I’d find another AP.
Alternatively, if you want to take a psych class at a local college/community college during summer/winter session or concurrently enroll in high school in college, you still get the rigor of a college-level course and get to take another psych class, but without it being repetitive on your transcript.
(Side note: I took AP psych in HS and got a 5, yet goofed when signing up for my fall 2016 college classes and took psych 101 honors because I didn’t have another class planned and panicked. It ended up being my favorite class, the best teacher I’ve had so far, and she’s now going to write me letters of rec for my transfer apps this fall. Also, it inspired me to want to minor in psych. So as long as you learn from your mistakes and try to benefit, it won’t be the end of the world.)
Some APs do require the regular course first, such as bio, chem, and physics. So it doesn’t look bad to do this? If there is another AP course that would fill a gap in your academic record, I suggest you do that first. If not, take AP psych if you really enjoyed reguslr psych. You may want to get in touch with the AP psych teacher though and ask if he/she thinks it will be too redundant given that you already took regular psych. They should be able to tell you.
I would go by your school counselor recommendation. My kids school is offering AP psych next year and made it a prerequisite to have taken the regular 1/2 year psych class first.
That said, it wouldn’t surprise me if they end up dropping that prerequisite in the future.
You could pick up an AP psych review book and look over it to see if there is much, if any, material that wasn’t already covered in your other class.
You can also self-study for the AP exam without taking the AP course. But as noted above, you should follow the recommendation of your guidance counselor, and also as noted above I would speak to the AP Psych teacher to see how much of the material you have already covered.
Good luck!
If it covers same material but more in depth (i.e. regular Psych is not a prerequisite for AP class) it’s possible you wouldn’t get HS credit for it …that’s how it would work here. Which also means it wouldn’t be part of your GPA.
If you love the subject matter and think you want to pursue it in college, then there are several other options you should seriously consider: First, take a higher level biology and/or AP Stats…both of these will be highly relevant. If your high school offers independent study programs, you could undertake a psych related independent research project. If there is a nearby community college or other college offering psychology classes, you could look into enrolling in college classes either over the summer or during the school year.