"Light" and "Heavy" AP courses

Parents Forum
1

“Light” AP courses cover material commonly covered in a one semester college-frosh-level course.

“Heavy” AP courses cover material commonly covered in a two semesters of college-frosh-level courses.

A “light” AP course that is a year-long course should approximate the pacing and workload of other academic high school courses. A “light” AP course that is a semester-long course, or a “heavy” AP course that is a year-long course should approximate the pacing and workload of a college course, or about double compared to other academic high school courses.

Note that not all colleges will give subject credit or advanced placement for each AP score, due to differences between the college’s courses and the AP content (either in topics covered, or in rigor level, or in not having any direct equivalent to the AP course content).

How the AP courses look in terms of being “light” and “heavy”:

"Light" AP courses:

Capstone
Seminar
Research

Arts
Art History
Music Theory
Studio Art 2-D Design
Studio Art 3-D Design
Studio Art Drawing

English
English Language and Composition*
English Literature and Composition*

History & Social Science
Comparative Government and Politics
Human Geography
Macroeconomics
Microeconomics
Psychology
United States Government and Politics

Math & Computer Science
Calculus AB
Calculus BC (if Calculus AB is the prerequisite)
Computer Science A
Computer Science Principles
Statistics

Sciences
Environmental Science
Physics 1**
Physics 2**
Physics C Mechanics**
Physics C Electricity and Magnetism**

World Languages & Cultures
Chinese Language and Culture*
French Language and Culture*
German Language and Culture*
Italian Language and Culture*
Japanese Language and Culture*
Latin*
Spanish Language and Culture*
Spanish Literature and Culture*

  • May be given subject credit and advanced placement for more than one semester of college course work, but the AP courses are inclusive of previous courses taken in the subjects. For example, four years of high school Spanish leading up to the AP Spanish Language and Culture course may be equivalent to two to four semesters of college Spanish.

** May be additional workload if taken without a previous high school physics course covering the material at the high school level, since college physics courses may assume high school physics as a prerequisite.

"Heavy" AP courses:

History & Social Science
European History
United States History
World History

Math & Computer Science
Calculus BC (if precalculus is the prerequisite)

Sciences
Biology
Chemistry

High school students should exercise care when choosing multiple “heavy” AP courses, or “light” AP courses taught over a semester, since the pacing and workload should be expected to be significantly higher than other high school courses, or “light” AP courses taught over a year. While many may count AP courses as if they are all the same, they may be significantly different in workload.

2

This is why D will take APUSH in 10th grade instead of 11th. She will take AP Chem , AP Calc BC and AP Physics 1 in 11th. Trying to find the right balance.

3

What source? Broadly categorizing so many courses as light can mislead many hs kids. Adcoms aren’t viewing hs core rigor based on the number of college semesters. And there’s big difference between Enviro or HG being seen as “lite” and putting the English AP, physics and calc in the same bucket.

4

These classifications are based on comparing course content, subject credit, and advanced placement with college courses.

In any case, this listing is less from a college admissions standpoint than from a high school student workload standpoint (in reference to the overstressed high school student thread).

5

But a lot depends on the teacher.

6

Just saying, those most “stressed” will still need the right balance for admission to the top colleges that they are “stressing” over. And I don’t think courses in the Light list are interchangeable in impact. Maybe a caveat would cover it.

And some of the personal reactions to course difficulty will vary. Eg, lots of kids find AP Lit to be a bear. Or struggle through physics.

7

Won’t workload vary among different high schools and teachers?

Side question: Is AP Physics C usually one or the other? The school course catalog I’m looking at says “mechanics, electricity and magnetism,” all together, under the title “AP Physics C.”

8

Yes, but the baseline workload for the “heavy” AP courses should be more than for the “light” AP courses. Now, if a teacher adds a lot of useless busywork to a “light” AP course, that is another story.

In this case, it looks like the school is putting both AP physics C courses together into one year, effectively making it “heavy” (or two “light” courses over a semester each instead of a year each).

9

AP Physics C is not light!

10

How did you decide heavy versus light? What is your reference?

11

See the first two sentences of post #0.

12

I think it would be an unusual high school that offered 1 year of Physics C Mechanics and 1 year of Physics C E&M. I’ve actually never heard of that.

Also, AP English Literature took a year in the local high school, and in terms of the workload (just counting the number of books to read and papers to write), it was equivalent to a full year of college English at most colleges/universities with which I am familiar. However, the number of books read in the high school class may vary widely from school to school, and similarly for the number of papers that are required.

13

What I have seen in high school course listings is either:

  • AP Physics C Mechanics (year course) -- "light", but with relatively advanced material
  • AP Physics C Mechanics and E&M (year course, or two semester courses) -- two "light" courses in a year = "heavy" course
14

My son’s HS offered a full year of each of the Physics C courses, but the students who enrolled in these classes had not studied Physics previously. Most students took the first course concurrent with BC Calc (although some were in AB). The school did not offer Physics 1 or 2 as AP courses.

I don’t know if the instruction was heavy or light, but 75% of the students scored a 5 on the AP exam and the balance scored 4.

15

Isn’t art history usually 2 semester course in colleges?

16

Best advice I can offer is to ask around to get a gauge on AP class difficulty at your given high school. As an example, Environmental Science was a bear at my D’s school and AP Bio is a breeze with a teacher who allows test corrections and generally wants students to do well.

17

AP English was one of the hardest classes I took in high school. I received 2 semesters of credit for it in college.

This is an absolutely ridiculous list with a ridiculous ranking system IMO.

ETA: Went back and looked at my undergrad’s AP credit system. Yup, 2 semesters for English. Up to FOUR semesters for your so-called “light” languages

https://admissions.msu.edu/documents/msu_ap_equivalencies.pdf

18

re post #10. Those definitions contain no backup for why you came to that conclusion. YOU are not the authority and you saying so is not sufficient. Is it based on U X’s standards, or a survey of many U’s or what? Perhaps different U’s give different credit than the ones you know of.

I don’t feel like doing research to determine if you are right. Quote a source.

19

I have. It’s rare, but I have seen it.

Usually, and I admit to not having looked at 30K course catalogs, when HS’s offer this, they teach mechanics in the fall and E&M in the Spring. However, I have seen cases where a HS only offers Physics C:Mech (usually as a year-long course) or more rarely, both Mech and E&M as a 2 year sequence.

Note that the OP is expressing an opinion and not speaking ex cathedra. Colleges will differ on the amount of credit a particular course warrants. Additionally, while the College Board dictates the syllabus, they do not dictate the structure of the course, so HS’s can teach them as semester-long, year-long, or 2-years-long, as they see fit. Additionally, the individual teacher can certainly make the workload for a course traditionally seen as “lite” as “heavy.”

All colleges will certainly be aware that Physics C is more rigorous than Psych (as an example).

As an alternative to @ucbalumnus thoughts, UK schools used to divide AP courses into Group A and Group B, where the former were the “heavy” courses, and included all foreign language AP’s and both English AP’s, among others. They have since stopped making the distinction.
https://www.ucas.com/sites/default/files/ap-subject-groupings.docx

20

Maybe terms people would find less offensive are “Typically equivalent to a semester long college course” and “Typically equivalent to a year long college course.”. Though none of this should be new to those who pay attention to how CollegeBoard runs the AP program. I remember being surprised to hear myself that the two AP Physics C courses each correspond to a semester long college course, usually, while AP Biology and AP Chemistry aren’t broken up in this way. Maybe it is less surprising that there are no lower level AP Foreign language courses.