What is AP Credit exactly?

kihyle
Thu, 11 May 2006 02:09:58 +0000

AP credits substitute for courses – so for example, if you get a 5 on AP bio, it is possible you can skip a year or 1-2 quarters of biology, which makes life just that much easier and brings graduation day that much closer

on your transcript AP classes will be listed as units (AP bio 5 = you passed entire year of lower division biology with no grade) – they do not count for you GPA but they count as if you passed some required classes – so you get units for these classes and do not have to take them while everyone else has to work for their grade

which classes you can skip with AP’s you have to check with your particular program

also, if you get your AP’s to substitute for enough courses and get enough credits, you’ll get a sophomore standing – this means you now have enough units for the system to count you as a sophomore – this gives you an advantage of being able to enroll for courses earlier than most of your peers who’ll have freshmen standing – this does not mean you have to graduate early, but all colleges have some kind of upper limit of units you can take before they kick you out with some degree – AP’s count toward this upper limit, but it is usually so high that you do not need to worry as even double-majors don’t get to reach it

if you plan to go to professional or graduate school, some schools do not count AP credit – they want you to take the class and they want to see you receive grade for it – for example, medical schools usually want to see lower division biology and chemistry even though you can pass out of these (entire year or some quarters) by receiving a good AP score – so you have to take this into consideration

AP’s can sometimes have a detrimental effect on one’s grades – if you skip some lower division courses in your major due to AP scores, you are more likely to forget some key concepts and then struggle later in other courses on same subject