<p>I’m sure that there are many situations where students are officially recommended not to skip even when allowed; the original question was not meant to include these situations, but only include situations where there is no official recommendation to repeat the credit that is granted for the AP, IB, or other college credit.</p>
<p>It is worth noting that at least one college, UC San Diego, does not allow students to repeat for credit any course for which AP credit exempts them from. [Undergraduate</a> Admissions, Policies and Procedures](<a href=“http://www.ucsd.edu/catalog/front/UgrdPol.html]Undergraduate”>http://www.ucsd.edu/catalog/front/UgrdPol.html) says:</p>
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<p>What AP credit counts for what UC San Diego course is listed here:
<a href=“http://www.ucsd.edu/catalog/pdf/APC-chart.pdf[/url]”>http://www.ucsd.edu/catalog/pdf/APC-chart.pdf</a></p>
<p>This policy appears unusual in that it actively discourages repeating AP credit, unlike most other colleges which allow repeating AP credit even if the student would otherwise be recommended to skip the introductory course (though the AP credit may be erased in this case).</p>
<p>That is interesting about UCSD ucbalumnus. I wonder if the other UC’s are like that. </p>
<p>I think the need to retake the classes for AP credit depends on your major. My friend’s son is a business major so he took his AP credit for Physics and Calc since he would never need to rely upon it for other businesses classes. </p>
<p>However in Engineering, I would not be in such a hurry to bypass those classes since everything you take afterwards heavily depends on a retrievable grasp of those subjects.</p>
<p>Berkeley is not like UCSD in that respect – subject credit and advanced placement are often given for AP scores, but there is no penalty for retaking the course (although the AP credit will then be removed). However, AP score usefulness does vary by major at Berkeley, in that the same AP score on the same AP test may be accepted by one major but not another, even though it would apply to the same course requirement for the major.</p>
<p>Berkeley’s College of Engineering tells freshmen with AP calculus credit to review old freshman calculus final exam problems in order to determine their placement.</p>
<p>Carnegie Mellon SCS has kids take a math placement exam in the summer. If you have a 5 on the exam, but flunk their placement test they recommend repeating the course. I don’t know why more colleges don’t use that approach.</p>
<p>That would make sense. Many colleges give math placement tests on algebra, trigonometry, and precalculus topics to see if students are ready for calculus or need to take remedial math courses. They could just add calculus problems to the tests to be able to use them for placement recommendations beyond beginning calculus.</p>
<p>Many, many students at the high school where I work end up placing into remedial classes when they hit 4 year schools. They may have gotten As in their classes here. We don’t do AP (except Euro), so don’t have test scores to “confirm” anything, but we do offer Community College level Calc, Physics, Stats, English, Bio and perhaps a couple of others. It’s graduates of those classes who I’m referring to with placing into remedial classes. Not all do, but many do. I don’t have specific percentages.</p>
<p>With my own two older sons (they were homeschooled for 9-12 and 7-12 respectively) I had them repeat Calc (had them skip the Calc AP on purpose to not be placed out of it). Oldest ended up regretting it and bored when he needed a Business Calc class. I should have had him take the AP. Middle son is currently bored in his regular Calc class, but has a super high A average and is thinking pre-med, so there are other considerations involved. He currently agrees with me that retaking was not a bad idea. I don’t know what he’ll think later. He did take credits for Stats and Psych (5s on AP).</p>
<p>My youngest insists on being in our public school and is (and will be) taking the community college level classes. I’ll have him repeat the courses (most likely.) I’m not convinced that the foundations are there. But who knows? He’s not looking at higher level schools so I reserve the right to change my decision.</p>
<p>If I’m not mistaken, med schools require science and math credits to be fulfilled at uni level. DD2 could use AP credits to move past all pre-med requirements except O-Chem + lab, but won’t as she is seriously thinking about med school. </p>
<p>She will DEFINITELY use her AP credits for humanities, language, and social/behavioral science gen ed requirements.</p>
<p>Seems to me that with all the “repeating” that is apparently going on, the AP program is being diluted. If you are not actually getting the AP credit for doing well on the exam, then what is the purpose? Seems like the AP exams are beginning to be utilized as a criteria for admission at the most competitive schools, rather than their original purpose of earning college credits.</p>
<p>The problem with the AP credit HarvestMoon1 is that like everything else in this process, there is no consistency among schools whether they accept your AP credit or use it for placement. So a student won’t know until he decides on a college whether he can/should use his AP credit or not and it also depends on major.</p>
<p>Students are also made to feel that they can’t just take the AP class for the advanced knowledge, they are pressured to take the exams from the HS so that they can show on their scoresheet how many students take/pass AP exams.</p>
<p>Our HS also had very few honors classes so it was regular track or AP track.</p>
<p>All I have is personal experience. Both kids, engineering majors. S took Calc I which he had in HS. </p>
<p>D started in Calc II, she got a 5 on AP CalcAB and felt she knew the material very well. Most of the kids in her class had AP CalcBC, it went all right. She did fine but felt a little behind the curve. It was a good idea as she had to drop a class later in college and had the room since she didn’t take Calc I and was able to graduate in 4 years.</p>
<p>She took Spanish I even though she had 3 years of HS Spanish. It was an elective. She said that it would have been very hard to come into that class with no Spanish background as most people had HS language classes. Some in her class had 4 years in another language, but the class moved very fast and was not for the novice.</p>
<p>I agree that this entirely depends on the student, how well the class was taught at their high school, and what they intend on majoring in. My S2 took AP credit for Calc 1 (5 on the AP), credit for Chem (was never taking another chem class, good riddance), but retook physics, with a 5 on the AP, knowing they didn’t cover in hs what he would get at university. He’s mechanical engineering so he needs to have a good foundation. He was right. Until mid-term was all review. After mid-term was basically all new material.</p>
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<p>It also depends on the college – and sometimes even on the specific department within the college.</p>
<p>Some colleges and departments plan their curricula so that a student with a high score on the AP test is just as well prepared for advanced courses as one who takes the college’s introductory course and gets a high grade. Others don’t. They may have specific priorities for their introductory courses that do not match the AP curriculum.</p>
<p>At the college my daughter attended, the economics department (her major) specifically told students not to repeat introductory macroeconomics or microeconomics or calculus if they had a 4 or 5 on the AP tests. My daughter, who had AP credit for all of these courses, followed their advice and had no difficulty whatsoever. But at the same college, the biology and chemistry departments urged students who planned to major in those subjects to take the college’s introductory courses even if they had 5s on the corresponding AP exams. They felt that their own introductory courses, which included more material than the AP courses and involved more lab work, provided essential preparation for upper-level courses.</p>
<p>In general, I think that if a college advises you to either retake or not retake a course, you would be well advised to do it, unless you feel that your preparation is very shaky, in which case you might want to retake the course even if the college recommends against it.</p>
<p>Since you can opt to send AP scores, or not - I guess in the case of San Diego, disclosure is “required”?</p>
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<p>Instead of deciding now, it may be better to decide later after:</p>
<ol>
<li> Knowing how he did in the CC courses.</li>
<li> Knowing whether the university considers the CC courses transferable and equivalent to its own courses.</li>
<li> Knowing how he did on AP tests, if he takes them. (If the CC courses are thought to be weaker than they should be, then taking the AP tests may be a way to check against a relatively well known standard.)</li>
<li> Having him try the old final exams for the potentially skippable courses at the university he will attend.</li>
</ol>
<p>For some reason, #4 above is rarely suggested (although the Berkeley College of Engineering does recommend that for students with AP calculus credit), but it is probably the best indicator of how well the student knows the material in the university’s own courses.</p>
<p>While it is not a good idea to skip ahead of a key prerequisite when one’s knowledge of the material is shaky, it is also a waste of time and tuition to repeat courses that one knows well.</p>
<p>ucb:</p>
<p>the only data that I have seen is for the Cal States: approximately 50% of ALL Cal State frosh require remediation, in high school-level English and/or Math. At some Cal State campuses that number is 90%, (many for which English is a second/third language).</p>
<p>I think we were a bit misled about AP credits ourselves. My D is a senior in HS and she has been taking a lot of AP classes hoping she can get the credits and graduate early. We found out that a school’s website may say they allow the credits but the counselor says it’s not advisable to take some of them.</p>
<p>fire123, I think they meant graduate early from college. </p>
<p>In HS you have to complete the number of credits your schools says you need to graduate. At our HS I think is was something like 130. The AP classes have the same credits in HS as non AP credits. You could never get ahead by taking them. </p>
<p>Years ago, we used to go to summer school to get ahead which I did and I graduated a semester early.</p>
<p>Fire123, what ucbalumnus said is spot on:</p>
<p>“While it is not a good idea to skip ahead of a key prerequisite when one’s knowledge of the material is shaky, it is also a waste of time and tuition to repeat courses that one knows well.”</p>
<p>For instance, for my daughter there was NO HARM in taking ALL of her 35 hours of credit in AP and dual courses, because none of it was in her major. It all applied to core curriculum, and she’s a music major.</p>
<p>For my other D, it will NOT be in her best interest to take credit for Calculus I. It’s an AP class, her teacher is a bit lacking and she’s going to be an engineering major. So more than just “getting the credit” she really NEEDS TO KNOW the material - it’s the foundation for the rest of her math in college.</p>
<p>D got a 5 on Calc BC. She opted to start in Calc II (at our suggestion) School did not recommend this, they pushed her to go to Calc III, both her advisor and a phone call home during the registration period. Although much of the material is repeat, there have been several topics which she did not see in HS class, including some which will be important for her in follow on engineering classes. Right decision.</p>
<p>I would be fine with her not getting credit for this class if an A would skew the curve etc. (not saying that’s the grade she will get, but at this point she has good scores.) It is because she wants to be solid in the material, and because she has a heavy course load, that we recommended she repeat the class.</p>