Anyone taking AP classes?

[400exstud]

This year I only have AP Chemistry. The test is comming up quick, May 15!

Just wondering how many others are taking an AP this year. The pressure is building and the time is comming!

[TRX_450]

none this year but next year im takin ap chem and ap american history

[I-7]

Its really not worth it in the end. Enjoy high school with easy classes while you can.

[250xridamatt]

My AP US History test is friday morning. Im currently studying for that. I also have AP Biology on Monday morning, but I have lost all hope for that test. I dont think studying will do me much good.

[Rootar]

haha good luck man i made a 2 on the chem even tho i aced every test, i did make a 3 on the physics but the college im going to this fall will only accept 4s or 5s so good luck im the only person in my school in the last 3 years that has made a 3 on an AP test......if you dont have an extremely odd nack for chemistry you might as well go to sleep.

[SGA]

Originally posted by Rootar
haha good luck man i made a 2 on the chem even tho i aced every test, i did make a 3 on the physics but the college im going to this fall will only accept 4s or 5s
What do you mean by 2's and 3's? Also what do you mean by the college only accepts 4's and 5's?
Is that like 3.0, 4.0 and so on?
Kind of curious, never heard of 2, 3 etc. Thanks im asking for a high school student taking a couple of AP's.
From what I understand, colleges would rather see you do good in AP courses rather than acing regular courses.
In other words, they place more weight on accepting you if you take AP courses and get a "B" as opposed to taking regular classes and getting an "A".
Is this true?

[Rootar]

Originally posted by SGA
What do you mean by 2's and 3's? Also what do you mean by the college only accepts 4's and 5's?
Is that like 3.0, 4.0 and so on?
Kind of curious, never heard of 2, 3 etc. Thanks im asking for a high school student taking a couple of AP's.
From what I understand, colleges would rather see you do good in AP courses rather than acing regular courses.
In other words, they place more weight on accepting you if you take AP courses and get a "B" as opposed to taking regular classes and getting an "A".
Is this true?

yes the AP course are weighted credit for people looking at your transcript and also in GPA, an A in an ap course is worth 5 points instead of 4, B is worth 4 (same as an A in a regular course) etc.... now the AP test at the end of the end to decide wether or not you get the college credit for the class are graded on a scale of 1-5, smaller colleges will acept 3s and give you credit for the college hours of that course, bigger colleges and also depending on what your majoring in can mean they'll only accept 4s and 5s, its crazy how hard the test are, they are basically making it as hard as possible trying making you not do good on the test so that you dont get the college credit becasue then they would be losing money, even though the test are state manddated doesnt be the colleges dont have anyhting to do with it, they want their money all the same.:ermm: it sucks but thats the way it works

but yes its basically the same as having an A if you have a B in an AP course but dont take it unless you can make the B.... or youll just be hurting yourself

[parkers30]

he is talking about the test grade. They grade on a 1/2/3/4/5 system. I don't know how those scores translate into a pass/fail or letter grade system. you need to shoot for at least a 3 and probably a 4 to get the credits accepted anywhere

I took AP Calc 1, AP US History, AP British Literature and got a 3 on Brit lit and a 4 on Us History. I used the community college credit for Calc, no tests for that :blah:


In the end you have a good chance the college you go to won't accept the credit, or that the credit won't apply to your degree. Calc is the only thing of 15 hour of dual enrollment and 2 AP tests that transfered for me.

[parkers30]

Not all high schools work on a weighted grading scale, I know mine didn't :ermm: AP and honors classes still look very good on your transcript.


Do most of you have to pay out of pocket for the AP tests or does the school pay for them? We paid out of pocket.

[Rootar]

ouch man the school payed for our testing. and i guess all schools are different on grades.

[parkers30]

the ACT is state mandated now in IL though as part of the PSAE as they call it. The testing conditions were far better there than at the community college when I took it again and I didn't have to pay for it, you win some you loose some

[Rootar]

yea we have to pay for our act testing everytime we take it, 40 bucks a pop i took it 3 times and last time i made a 27 wohoo

[troutman561]

If your going ot a community college tho wouldnt AP classes not be worth it since anyone can get into a CC?. And then if you get your AA there you can go to any state school you want, so once again that would render AP classes worthless. At least that is how it works in FL....

On the other hand tho if you have to take a class like chemistry or physics in college do it in HS to get experience, because I didnt have chem in high school and I struggled thru it in college..

[parkers30]

You could still save yourself the time taking the classes and transfer the AP tests into the commmunity college.


If you are refering to my post we has Dual enrollment courses that we recieved community college credits for. The course were taken at the high school from normal teachers but we recieved transferable credits from them too.

[troutman561]

Yea I figured thats what you meant, which then would make it worth it.. Sorry for my lack of knowledge, I just slept thru HS, tho I still did graduate with honors lol, gotta love Florida schools.

[Regular_Joe]

IMO those AP classes never compare to the real thing (at least the Math and Sciences I took). They will however expose you to most of it. However colleges (especially community ones) generally have the same teacher teaching Calc I up to Calc III and beyond. So you learn in Calc I what he expects. If you skip it your simply thrown into Calc II, you didn't learn Calc I 100%, and you don't know the teachers style. This usually ends up bad.

IMO do take AP classes, but retake them anyway in college. It makes for an easy A, but you also get the basics down 100% and learn the teachers style before you get into the harder Calc II stuff .....

[parkers30]

I guess my Calc class was different, I had a former state college professor, she taught us most of Calc II also.

[DF400ex]

Originally posted by I-7
Its really not worth it in the end. Enjoy high school with easy classes while you can.

Yeah but it depends on your view. If you are in AP classes you are probably mature and smart enough to handle it. The work load really won't be to much more for you and will prep you for college. I took as many as I could in high school, and played 3 sports. I still found plenty of time to hang out with friends and have fun. Because of that my first year of college wasn't to bad. I saw people around me struggling with stuff that I had to do in high school. When asked, they said that they took the bare minimum in high school.

This is a competitive world, I say if you can take them, do it. It'll set you up that much better for your future.

If your goal is not to go to college then that's fine to. AP classes may not be the option for you.

College credit classes in high school are great. They are soo much cheaper.

The reason why most people fail out of any calc class is a poor algebra foundation, either that or they never learned the previous course.

[400exstud]

http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/ap/about.html

Here is the Home AP site, SGA.

The classes are deffinately not easy, but with determination they are doable.

AP Physics, AP Calc, AP Statistics, and AP Psycology next year. What a bunch of fun.........not.

[SGA]

Thanks for the replies