Should I be retaking AP credits?

ASH5297
Wed, 20 Jun 2012 18:00:37 +0000

Coming into my freshman year at the University of Maryland, I have about 43 credits that I have earned through 10 AP classes in high school (already checked and verified from UMD’s online table). I’ve already decided that I’m going to be on the pre-med track, as I want to go to medical school after I graduate. My cousin (who’s already been through the system), told me that, at least for classes that are Pre-Med requirements, I should retake the classes in order to start college off with a very high gpa that will be tough to lower later on when I’m taking harder classes.

His rationale is that because I’ve already taken these classes and gotten 4s and 5s on their respective AP exams, I know the subject material, and I should be able to breeze through their intro level classes, and earn a very high freshman year GPA. However, I’m hesitant, mainly because we’re talking about more than a semester’s worth of credits that I’m leaving on the table.

Also, on UMD’s premed page, it says that they do not recommend retaking intro level biology and chemistry.

Does anyone have any experience retaking classes/ can anyone advise me at all? TIA