Advanced Placement Thread

Kalawishis

Kalawishis

For those who don't know, Advanced Placement (shortened AP) is a series of tests designed and administered by College Board. They are scored one to five, and one who passes with a high enough score (usually 3 or above) can earn credit at many U.S. universities. AP also refers to classes in high schools that prepare students for these tests.

So this is the thread for all who are taking AP tests in the future and/or are taking AP classes. What classes are you taking? How are things going? Studying well? Any studying tips? Any funny AP stories? Any general thoughts on the difficulty, content, or general character of anything related to AP anything is welcome in this thread. This thread isn't even restricted to the U.S. only. Comments on AP analogues, like the International Baccalaureate (IB), are also welcome.

Personally, I'm taking four AP classes this year, my junior year. They are AP Statistics, AP U.S. History (shortened APUSH), AP English, and AP Physics I. Classes are pretty easy and my grades are good, but I'm worried about the tests. I've already taken two AP tests my sophomore year (AP Computer Science and AP World History) and I did acceptably on those, but four AP tests might be overload for me.
 
I took around 7 AP classes in high school, though I went to a small school in a rural area and that was all the AP classes they offered. Got a couple of college credits from the tests so that was nice, but otherwise they are no representation of the rigor of actual college classes, particularly science classes (at least in my university).

I think you'll be alright. The AP English and US History tests are not that difficult. I didn't have AP Stats or Phys so I wouldn't know about those.
 
Kalawishis said:
For those who don't know, Advanced Placement (shortened AP) is a series of tests designed and administered by College Board. They are scored one to five, and one who passes with a high enough score (usually 3 or above) can earn credit at many U.S. universities. AP also refers to classes in high schools that prepare students for these tests.

So this is the thread for all who are taking AP tests in the future and/or are taking AP classes. What classes are you taking? How are things going? Studying well? Any studying tips? Any funny AP stories? Any general thoughts on the difficulty, content, or general character of anything related to AP anything is welcome in this thread. This thread isn't even restricted to the U.S. only. Comments on AP analogues, like the International Baccalaureate (IB), are also welcome.

Personally, I'm taking four AP classes this year, my junior year. They are AP Statistics, AP U.S. History (shortened APUSH), AP English, and AP Physics I. Classes are pretty easy and my grades are good, but I'm worried about the tests. I've already taken two AP tests my sophomore year (AP Computer Science and AP World History) and I did acceptably on those, but four AP tests might be overload for me.
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The tests aren't as terrible as you think, just make sure you take as many practice problems from the old tests as you can. For APUSH there's a Crash Course book on Amazon that refreshed my knowledge before the exam. For English that depends on the type of English; Literature it's nice to have a couple of book examples in your back pocket to use on any of the essay questions, while Language is not bad if you have already had World since they have the same DBQ type prompt.

Scoring well is nice for college apps (especially in junior year), but if you plan on taking a similar class in college, check the syllabi in your college class to make sure AP covered everything. The college credits are nice only if you can handle the following classes in college without killing your GPA. It's better in my experience to take a class that does not directly follow in sequence to the AP credits you have "earned" in high school. Language for instance might get you out of English 101, but make sure to take another specialized intro English course Freshman year to close any gaps between college and AP. History could give you the chance to study different types of history without taking the generalized version. Just remember come college you're still a freshman and plan your schedule accordingly. There is no "strength of schedule" bonus in college like there is in high school.
 
I went to an AP crazy school so I took 13 of those things, including 7 my junior year. Let me tell you that you can easily manage four so long as you plan accordingly; perhaps the most important thing is to buy a review book for each one right now.

AP physics and US History are among the only tests which you're going to have to study for well in advance. I would strongly recommend simply ignoring your course material and reading the review books front to back. Simply put your courses will be less efficient and will cover some things you won't need for the AP exam.

For US History, make overviews of each decade separated by topic (eg economic condition, foreign affairs, social changes/movements, etc) and then practice writing essays in the prescribed AP format. The multiple choice segments will always be relatively simple if you're prepared to write the essays, just be careful for trick questions.

Stats and English you can just study for the night before from the review book, for the most part how you'll do on those is already determined by how strong you are at writing and regurgitating mathematical algorithms. They are the two easiest AP exams by a mile.

I only ever took the two Physics C exams, but Physics is a test where there is a huge curve. The main thing to keep in mind is that often a 60 will earn you a five, so stay focused even if you hit a rough patch, because you can miss a huge portion of the test and still get a perfect score. Just make sure to prepare for the more difficult free response questions at the end, as, like the essays in US His, if you can solve those then you can solve MC questions.

Good luck!
 
So next year (my junior year) I'm taking three AP courses: AP physics 1, AP chem, and AP computer science. AP physics I'm not worried about because everyone I know says it's a pushover, and chem I'm not that worried about either because I really like the teacher who teaches it and learning about chemistry and stuff so I'll be motivated. What I'm most worried about is computer science. I have very minimal computer programming experience (which according to most people is okay but still) and on top of some of my other classes I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do it all

So my question is if I have school from 7:30 - 2:30 then XC from 3:00 - 5:15ish am I going to ruin the keyboard of my computer with my tears as I cry myself to sleep at my desk
 
UncleSam said:
I went to an AP crazy school so I took 13 of those things, including 7 my junior year. Let me tell you that you can easily manage four so long as you plan accordingly; perhaps the most important thing is to buy a review book for each one right now.

AP physics and US History are among the only tests which you're going to have to study for well in advance. I would strongly recommend simply ignoring your course material and reading the review books front to back. Simply put your courses will be less efficient and will cover some things you won't need for the AP exam.

For US History, make overviews of each decade separated by topic (eg economic condition, foreign affairs, social changes/movements, etc) and then practice writing essays in the prescribed AP format. The multiple choice segments will always be relatively simple if you're prepared to write the essays, just be careful for trick questions.

Stats and English you can just study for the night before from the review book, for the most part how you'll do on those is already determined by how strong you are at writing and regurgitating mathematical algorithms. They are the two easiest AP exams by a mile.

I only ever took the two Physics C exams, but Physics is a test where there is a huge curve. The main thing to keep in mind is that often a 60 will earn you a five, so stay focused even if you hit a rough patch, because you can miss a huge portion of the test and still get a perfect score. Just make sure to prepare for the more difficult free response questions at the end, as, like the essays in US His, if you can solve those then you can solve MC questions.

Good luck!
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Thanks for the advice! If you don't mind, what AP classes did you take your junior year?
 
Ununhexium said:
So next year (my junior year) I'm taking three AP courses: AP physics 1, AP chem, and AP computer science. AP physics I'm not worried about because everyone I know says it's a pushover, and chem I'm not that worried about either because I really like the teacher who teaches it and learning about chemistry and stuff so I'll be motivated. What I'm most worried about is computer science. I have very minimal computer programming experience (which according to most people is okay but still) and on top of some of my other classes I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do it all

So my question is if I have school from 7:30 - 2:30 then XC from 3:00 - 5:15ish am I going to ruin the keyboard of my computer with my tears as I cry myself to sleep at my desk
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CS A is an extremely basic course. You're introduced to basic programming and OOP (object-oriented programming) concepts like types, variable scope, classes, iteration and recursion. If none of those words mean anything to you, don't worry, they didn't mean anything to me either. I'll just say that even for high school it's barely a semester's worth of material, stretched out across an entire year. I spent 80% of class time playing emulators and flash games and had no homework but still got a five.

That being said, I also saw a lot of people absolutely unable to comprehend the material. AP CS is often a high school student's first introduction to material where actual rigorous logic and reasoning skills are necessary. If you're mostly strong in memorization or "fuzzy thinking" skills—ie the type of person who does their math classes by memorizing formulas as opposed to truly understanding the proofs and connections between concepts—then you will probably not enjoy comp sci at all. Given that your other AP courses are chem and physics this is probably a needless warning but it's still probably prudent to give.
 
Shrug said:
these are absolute bullshit i had to take 11 to get into college and will get no credit
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colleges that dont give AP credit are legitimately not worth it imo, i took 16 in HS and now im graduating a year early cuz of all the requirements I get to skip. I thought I wanted to go to somewhere like MIT but now that I'm more than halfway done with university the thought of spendin all that time retaking courses I already passed is super lellers
 
Also the reason top schools don't accept AP credit is because 1) you can teach for a test and 2) most high school AP courses are bullshit
 
I got a 4 on the AP Stats test in grade 10, even though I had to self teach myself like half the course (I missed some time for an exchange trip/PE and even the rest of the class didn't get to the last two chapters). The funny thing was, even though I made it abundantly clear (through e-mail and actually talking to the ppl organizing it multiple times for both) that I wanted to take the AP test, they managed to fuck it up and not give me my test until two weeks after everyone else took it (and idk how many people will believe me but no I didn't get any answers or w/e from my friends in the class--idek if I took the same test). And the school still hasn't charged me the $120 or w/e for taking it almost a year later! Sad thing is tho, other than Stats, Calc AB/BC (which I'm taking), and Chem/Physics 35 AP (I'm not sure if I'm gonna take Chem but I'm def taking AP Physics), my school doesn't actually offer many AP classes. A couple of years ago they were just like "because we are a school for gifted kids, we expect you to be smart already, so we will be implementing the AP curriculum into the regular curriculum, but not calling it an AP class so you don't get AP credit. If you want the AP credit, you have to take another half-block [idk if other schools have this, it just means every other day for one term] class relearning the same stuff in a term after you already passed that course. lol!!!" so we're basically fucked in that sense owell.

If I'm being completely honest, I'm dreading taking Physics 30 then 35 AP next year, because I took Physics 20 last year (scheduling meant that this year was Chem 20/30 + Bio 20 and next year I do my Physics/Calc) and the Physics 20 teacher basically was really nice but didn't teach us anything. We did one lab, which was watching her bang a tube that took like 5 mins, and I don't even remember what we learned (still got like a 95 in the course cuz it was ez :/). As if not really being prepared isn't enough (and I do think this--the same teacher taught me Science 10 and when I took Chem 20 and now Bio 20 I realized/am realizing that we didn't really learn enough to prepare us for these classes), the Physics 30/35 AP teacher at our school doesn't really teach cuz he believes in self-directed learning. He's really smart and nice and all, but he's kinda hard to approach (mostly because he leaves the class reasonably often -_-). How hard are these courses? I know some of my friends that had the same science teacher as me are struggling with it rn, is that just because they struggle learning in this way, or is it because the coursework is just that hard? (I realize you guys can't answer the one about how they learn, however I will just assume that if the course isn't overwhelmingly difficult)
 
MikeDecIsHere said:
Also the reason top schools don't accept AP credit is because 1) you can teach for a test and 2) most high school AP courses are bullshit
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Teaching for a test is a really overlooked concept. My APUSH teacher had been an APUSH grader for about seven years when she taught our class, so the course became less about the material (not that we didn't cover it: you have to know the material to score well), but essay writing essentially turned the class into a crash-course on how to correctly write the essays at times. A lot of the people in my class who were huge history fanatics and such dismissed the teacher and ended up with 4's (which is a really good score, but they were disappointed), while other people who really picked up on how to write the essays were the ones who ended up with the 5's. I think AP is a better measure for college courses than dual-credit (which is where you can earn college credit in your HS classroom), but neither are really close to what the rigor of an actual university course is like.

I took 12 separate AP Exams in HS (I took 13 total, but I took Spanish Language twice). It really helps you get elective credits for university (things like World History, Spanish Language, Music Theory) or core classes out of the way (Economics, Government, US History, Psychology, and basically anything that isn't going to be expanded upon in your major). That said, I don't think it's a terrible idea to re-do some courses. I took Calc BC as a Junior and got 5's on both the AB and BC portions, but when I got to university, I re-took Calc 1 and Calc 2: I didn't want to go into Calc 3 with a whole year in between the material from Calc 2, and I wanted to be sure I was really solid on Calc concepts, considering I was an engineering major initially. Definitely listen to your adviser's recommendations about which AP credits to accept or not. You can accept your AP credits at any time, so if you end up switching majors, you can accept them later on in college and be fine.
 
MikeDecIsHere Is right. It is more important to get a high GPA then take 15 APs. Colleges won't care if you don't have the absolute hardest course load. In fact it will look better because that means you are focusing time on extracurriculars as well. Remember everyone has a million extracurriculars so do things to stand out (2 sport varsity athlete + 3 APs will look better than 6
APs).

My university only lets you take 3 courses for AP credit and they only take 5s. Just remember when you sign up for all those APs that colleges reject plenty of qualified students, so if they will cut into your sports too much or some sort of leadership position (Environmental Club President) its ok to drop them. That being said take some, I found some basic classes boring and just played Candy Crush on my phone, but don't stress having the hardest schedule.
 
jvl101993 said:
Teaching for a test is a really overlooked concept. My APUSH teacher had been an APUSH grader for about seven years when she taught our class, so the course became less about the material (not that we didn't cover it: you have to know the material to score well), but essay writing essentially turned the class into a crash-course on how to correctly write the essays at times. A lot of the people in my class who were huge history fanatics and such dismissed the teacher and ended up with 4's (which is a really good score, but they were disappointed), while other people who really picked up on how to write the essays were the ones who ended up with the 5's. I think AP is a better measure for college courses than dual-credit (which is where you can earn college credit in your HS classroom), but neither are really close to what the rigor of an actual university course is like.
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This sort of just proves my point. I'm sure there's nothing wrong with your AP teacher, especially considering how well it sounds like the class did, but if the class turns into a "how to write an AP History Essay" Discussion, then it's not really a high level history course. It's a how to pass the AP exam course. This is what college professors are realizing and that's why they're pushing for their schools to not accept AP credit. Because students are coming in who get 4's and 5's on the AP exam but really don't know the material at a high level like they want.

Example: I just taught my students the proof of the product rule with Derivation (Hello AB Calc Kids) using the derivative definition of the limit. I asked my senior calculus kids if when they learned the product rule they discussed its proof (had an AP teacher who taught the course for about 12-13 years), and they had no idea what I was talking about.
 
also most bigger colleges don't except more than a certain number of AP credits because they want you to stay the full 4 years.
 
im taking one ap next year (human geography) as a freshman
i've heard a lot of different things about it, some say it's very difficult, others say it's very easy.
What should I expect next year? Is it super super difficult for a freshman?
also, how do ap exams work? they seem kinda confusing
 
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