General

@alvinhero123: No problem bud. :^)

@ritopls: Thanks for sharing your experience!

@alvinhero123: AB is very manageable. It's just a little step up from precalc.

Calc 1 all comes down to knowing a few basic rules to find derivatives (basically the slopes of tangent lines) and then knowing what they tell you. If you put the work in, you'll be fine.

My school didn't have AP Euro.

[quote=ritopls]APUSH is probably the easiest AP class besides psych and the econ ones.[/quote]

Do you know how difficult ap calc ab and ap euro are? Taking them next year.

[quote=pikacheww]Last year, I took World History AP (my school only let sophomores take WHAP) and got a three as well! But I was really happy with my score cause I swore I screwed up the essays. I guess all that studying helped out!

For junior year, I'm taking AP US History and I'm nervous. I have a summer assignment I have to do and ugh, so much to read. o.o A lot of my friends are taking AP Chem but I had gotten a solid A- throughout the year in chemistry, so I decided against it. Those are the only two AP classes available for juniors at my school for this upcoming school year.[/quote]

APUSH is probably the easiest AP class besides psych and the econ ones.

AP scores shouldn't affect your college decisions. A 3 would give you credit to clear a GE course or hopefully elective credit for many colleges (probably not privates though) and getting more credits could mean priority for class enrollment. I feel like GPA probably weighs the most when it comes to college decisions because it's how consistent you've been throughout your school year and how you'll perform in college, not just some standardized test you studied for.

I didn't take any AP classes freshman or sophomore year so when I took 4 AP classes my junior year, along with with tennis practice and games, it was really hard to adjust and get enough of sleep. But if you really want to do well, you'll find a way.Taking AP classes makes you a more well-rounded student though and I think they did benefit me in a lot of ways. The GPA boost is critical if you're aiming for a higher tier university. I suffered a lot my junior year, and I took 4 more AP classes senior year, but the difference was that those classes were notoriously easy at my school. I actually regret not taking more AP classes. You'll definitely feel all your hard work pay off when you get admitted into the college you wanted!

Honestly. They just save you money, like most of the above posts already mentioned. If you happen to do badly on the AP exams, don't worry. General credits/begineer level courses tend to be the AP exams, you'll be seeing the same material and the workload won't bother you. Another benefit, is possibly graduating early or the last year being filled with irrelevant courses or few courses/3~12 worth of courses.

Secondly, if you're doing fine GPA wise/extracurricular activites/SAT~ACT/Essays/Reccomendations and you score a full scholarship somewhere, you are fine. Do your best to prepare for the job market when you conquer college.

If you're willing to put in the effort for AP classes, take them! You're not required to take the AP exams and if you don't feel like you need it, then there's nothing wrong with opting out. I took 7 AP classes during high school and, while they were stressful, was definitely worth it in the long run. I ended up getting credit for 15 hours, which is about a semester or $4500 at my school.

Some schools do take 3's, depending on the subject. I also got a 3 on World History and my major doesn't even require the class so it was worthless for me. I got a 3 on U.S. Gov. and I was mad about it until I realized my school accepts that as credit. And of course, a simple test score doesn't define you so don't beat yourself up over it!

Most people take APs for the GPA boost. It really depends on your major if you're concerned about AP scores. If you get a 5, you're cleared from the class (depends on the college though). If you get a 3/4, you *might* be exempt from 1 semester. I would recommend just taking a bunch of APs. Most likely they will clear a lot of GEs out for you in college so you have more slots for classes you're interested in. It also looks better if you take a lot of APs (even if you don't do so hot on the AP exams) because colleges see you're challenging yourself. Don't beat yourself up for getting a 3. Just study a tad bit more next time and you'll do better! Also note that some AP exams are harder than others, so don't stress yourself out about your score.

If you go to a not-super-prestigious university, AP classes will save you a lot of money. From my friends that are going to well-known universities, I hear that even if you get a 5 on the AP exam, they want you to take the course again. For the first three years of high school I'd thought that I'd go to a selective college, or at least one that would garner a lot of name recognition. I knew they wouldn't accept my AP scores even if they were 5s. But I studied for the tests anyway because it kills me not to.

In my senior year I decided a state school would be better for me for a number of reasons. I would be able to take so many more courses because my AP scores would cover those credits. That was a large factor in that decision. I'll have the room in my schedule to take 8 or 9 more classes than most others in my major.

Furthermore, you don't need to go to a good college to get a good education. If you have the diligence, you can get a top tier education from a mid tier school. Granted, employers can be swayed by that shiny Ivy diploma. For many, a selective college will be a good idea, but definitely not for everyone. Take a look at your goals, and that'll give you your answer. Personally, I hate not doing well on something, so doing well on my APs was important to me, even if I hated the subject (World and U.S. History, Eng. Lit and Lang, and the non-molecular sections of Bio). I guarantee you won't regret a 5 on an exam, but you may regret getting 5 hours of sleep rather than 7. I took so many tangents, but whatever.

WHAP is a notoriously crappy AP exam from what I remember, so I wouldn't let it discourage you.
From someone who's in college, take literally EVERY SINGLE AP CLASS YOU CAN. NOT EVEN KIDDING.
Even if you get credit for a class you can't use as a gen ed or for your major it still helps to have a buffer of 20-30 credits coming into college in case you drop classes.

Please please please take as many AP classes/exam as you can. I can't stress that enough. I took 9 AP classes in high school and it was HELLA worth. I wish I took more back then.

Last year, I took World History AP (my school only let sophomores take WHAP) and got a three as well! But I was really happy with my score cause I swore I screwed up the essays. I guess all that studying helped out!

For junior year, I'm taking AP US History and I'm nervous. I have a summer assignment I have to do and ugh, so much to read. o.o A lot of my friends are taking AP Chem but I had gotten a solid A- throughout the year in chemistry, so I decided against it. Those are the only two AP classes available for juniors at my school for this upcoming school year.

I got a 2 on AP gov. 3 on AP Stats. 4 on AP psych. I can get credit for the latter two, so I can skip like two general ed classes in college.

But yeah they're usually just good for getting credit, cause most of the highly ranked universities don't care about weighted GPA.

5s on Calc AB and BC
5 on Psych
5 on Latin
4 on Gov (teacher didn't teach at all, read through a crash course day before)
4 on Lit
4 on APUSH
3 on Physics B

I had a relatively easy time with all classes except Physics B. I was really depressed that year though so I'm not sure if that impacted me at all. AP scores won't affect college decisions but they'll definitely save you some money if they take the credit. Just aim for 4s at least if you plan on going for the more selective schools.

Taking AP Calc AB and AP euro next year for my sophomore year which will be my first time taking ap classes so idk anything about ap classes yet.

let's see if i remember them:

4 on Physics C Mech and E/M
5 on BC Calc, 4 AB subscore
4 Bio and Chem
5 World and Psych

think that's it lol

It wont hurt your chances. It just means if they dont credit you, you spend more time in school.
I racked up hella credit tho

Check the colleges you're looking at and see what's their AP cutoff range. Some schools will only give you credits if you get fives. Others will accept fours or threes.

I took a handful of AP classes. In retrospect, they didn't really do a whole lot for me, but at my school they were pretty much required. Don't worry too much about them.

5 on ap calc bc
5 on ap music theory
5 on ap chemistry
5 on ap microeconomics
4 on ap macroeconomics
4 on ap biology
3 on ap physics c mechanics
2 on ap physics c electricity and magnetism

Got a wide array of scores throughout high school...
Didn't take any english or history ap's bc they seemed stupid and useless.

Lol@people who go to school to have fun.

[quote=dabootydisciple]The worst part about AP classes are the summer assignments (if your school makes you do them)[/quote]
o ya, i have apush homework i haven't finished; its presence is haunting my very soul
also sucks cause collegeboard has changed the apush standards twice in two years - not sure what to expect/

AP tests were definitely worth it. I racked up over 20 credits (that's more than a typical semester) for like $1000 (the cost of a few AP tests).

I definitely got some bad scores, though.

I self-studied for World History in sophomore year (my school switched from IB to AP that year and I was in the first class of AP in my high school's history) and got a 2.

I also went through AP Bio my senior year and it ended up being my only C in my entire high school career. I hated that class with a passion. It literally made my life hell. I wanted to be a math and econ major; didn't have a need for Bio. But my teacher favored me because we were both Italian, so she took it easy on my grade. I survived, but got a 2.

And I got a 3 my first time taking Micro. I couldn't let that stand because I wanted to be an econ major, so I was the only one in my school who took the test my senior year and got a 5 on it.

The day before my APUSH test, my friend and I skipped school and we studied for like 16 hours. 8 of those hours were just watching documentaries of things that happened during the 20th century. We watched one just on Reagan, and Reagan was our essay. Easy 5. My AP prof was also a closet homo (who's out of the closet and is in Texas and is a huge republican and writes books) who really liked me because we were both Italian. Loved that guy. I wanted to be that guy. He was my second favorite teacher. My favorite teacher was my Micro and Macro teacher who was dating this girl who worked for Goldman Sachs. All he did was talk to us about Xbox, South Park, and how great Asian women are. It was cool. He didn't like me because I was socially awkward back then.

AP test scores don't impact college decisions. I think if you can afford to take the tests, then you should take the classes as you'll be a stronger candidate if you do well in the classes, and you'll have the opportunity to skip some general ed classes in college. Like AP English Lit and Lang are easy, I got 4's on both, and I got to skip those bs freshman writing seminars. It was cool.

But I kind of didn't like getting AP credits because I knew I'd love college and didn't want to rush graduation. But I guess I'm just spoiled, because an extra year in college is thousands of dollars out of my mom's pocket.

I took 3 of them junior year and 1 sophomore year and 1 this upcoming year. Don't beat yourself over AP test scores like you said it's just to get credit for college courses, colleges won't reject you or anything for your AP score. And a 3 is actually a good score it's considered qualified. My experiences were AP classes (calc, psych, us history, english lang & comp) wasn't bad, they were quite easy for me and it boosts your gpa weighted.