AP Tests

Is anyone else planning on taking advanced placement tests in the spring? If so, how many? Which ones?

For those of you who don't know, AP tests are available to high school students in the spring for a variety of different subjects. If you score high enough on a test, most universities/colleges will automatically pass you out of the introductory class for that subject and give you the credits. It's a great way to get out of all the non-major courses universities require you to take to become "more rounded". Also, you only have to pay $80 to take the test as opposed to $400+ for each credit(and most courses are 3-5 credits:skull:)

I took AP Chemistry last year and scored a 5(best possible) on the AP test.

This year I plan on taking the MacroEconomics, MicroEconomics, US History, and World History Ap tests. Unfortunately, my high school doesn't offer an AP World History course so I'll have to 1) find somewhere that is offering the test so I can take it and 2) study for it on my own time.

If everything works out and I pass all my tests tests I'll have 20 college credits(including Chem from last year) before I even attend college.

The MacroEcon and US History won't matter that much because the US History doesn't cover any General Education Requirements at my expected university (UW-La Crosse) and the GER covered by Macro is the same as World history(world history covers the full International Studies requirement while Macro only covers half).

Even so, the 14 credits I won't have to take because of World History, AP Chem, and MicroEcon will be greatly appreciated. That's a semester's worth of credits that I won't have to pay for:jester:

im taking AP US, and very much looking forwards to the final AP exam. could it hurt my 97 average in the class?
:book:

No, The test doesn't do anything to your grade in the class. You'll find out how you scored on it sometime in July.

AP tests are an american thing right?

Can even remember anything like that from when I was in school.

AP tests are really worth the effort, if your future college takes them. You get credits (saving you money), but many schools also use the classes you exempt as weed-out courses, and you get to skip the hassle of dealing with those. I had about 1.5 semesters worth of credits from AP results and a joint enrollment English course, and got to sit back and listen to everyone gripe about the meatgrinder calculus and chemistry classes. As an added bonus, online class registrations were timed based on credits, so I could sign up for courses (and cherry-pick the good profs) before the others in my year.

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Originally Posted by tibilicus

AP tests are an american thing right?

Can even remember anything like that from when I was in school.

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AFAIK, they are.

lucky us.

Can't do that here... :no:

I'll be taking very few of those. Signing up for extremely demanding classes with large workloads that don't even interest me? No way.

Over the next few years, I'll just take a few SAT-IIs and these APs: AP Spanish, AP Compsci, AP Global History (but that's mandatory anyway), and maybe AP Physics and some kind of AP math class if I'm feeling masochistic.

It is conceivable that I might sign up for one or two more that I don't know about yet, though.

Sophmore Year I took

AP Chemistry 5
AP Calculus AB 5

Junior Year

AP English & Comp 5
AP US History 5
AP Calculus BC 5

This Year:

AP Psychology
AP Statistics
AP English & Lit
AP European History
AP Microeconomics
AP Macroeconomics
AP Biology

IMO, AP tests are almost kind of jokes. Mainly because getting a 5 requires at most 80% of the points. Some of the ones have freakishly low 5 percentages ie in the 60%s. As long as you relatively pay attention in class over the year and your teacher isn't that horrendously bad, most people should do fine and get 4/5 with minimal studying.

Even though I'm going to end up having 12 AP tests taken, I have a funny feeling that they'll go to waste b/c alot of the Ivies either don't accept all or most of the APs.

I've taken a couple tests...

AP Euro - 4
AP Eng. Lang. - 4
AP US History - 5
AP Art History - 5

This year I'm taking
AP Eng. Lit
AP Environmental Science
AP Macroecon
AP US Gov.
AP Latin Vergil

I was a horribly hopeless slacker in high school- I only passed out of US history. I took AP language and Composition, but did poorly on the test, and nearly failed the class due to a combination of senior-itis which further compounded upon my original laziness, and was made even worse by the fact that there was mountains of busy work, which I despise. :wall:

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Originally Posted by seireikhaan

I was a horribly hopeless slacker in high school- I only passed out of US history. I took AP language and Composition, but did poorly on the test, and nearly failed the class due to a combination of senior-itis which further compounded upon my original laziness, and was made even worse by the fact that there was mountains of busy work, which I despise. :wall:

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This. For me high school consisted of playing sports, drinking and chasing girls....Not much has changed. Oh except my grades are better. I don't know how but I credit the whiskey.

I got a 5 on Chem and Calc AB. I got a 4 in Biology. I got 16 credits for school.

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Originally Posted by hooahguy

AFAIK, they are.

lucky us.

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We have a "similar" thing here. During my conscript year, the University of Tromsø offered a complete Ex. Phil. course, with exams. For those who don't know, Ex. Phil. is a philosophy class everyone attending university is required to take during their first semester. So it seemed like a nice way to escape some hated army labour. and get a much easier first semester when starting uni, as we thought we would then have one less class, and would have more time to focus on the other subjects.

However, that was not to be, because if you've already taken Ex. Phil. when you start uni, you're required to fill that open spot with a different subject, one which also has nothing to do with what you're actually studying for.... Great. So the trade-off was as follows: in exchange for taking ex. phil., you get zero advantages when attending university, less recreation time during the service, and, as it turned out, no bail-out from boring army tasks, since, guess what, the army was talking bull when they said they emphasized civilian education...

I'm soooo glad I didn't take that class.

AP World History - 3
AP US History - 3

This year I'll take for sure:

AP European History
AP Government
AP Economics

Dual Credit Classes: (I'm enrolled in a college in the same city and I get highschool and college credit)

AP Statistics
AP English

Tests I might take this year:

AP Psychology
AP Statistics
AP English

I only took 2 because I'm lazy but

AP English 2
US History 5