AP Exams

[pengy]

I got 4s on all the tests I took this year: Biology, Chemistry, Calculus BC, English Language, and European History. My parents were not too happy about it... but it's better than the 3 on US History I got last year!

Usually 98% of students in our Calc BC classes at school get 5s. I'm that 2% who didn't. T__T

I'm taking 7 next year.. just kill me now.

[Mongrel]

Was I the only one who took AP classes for the sake of having interesting classes, and didn't take the tests?

[Sakura]

Was I the only one who took AP classes for the sake of having interesting classes, and didn't take the tests?

Haha, just because one took the test doesn't mean one didn't partake in the interesting class for the sake of learning. Most of us who take AP aren't standing in line waiting excitedly to take the exam, because it's actually pretty terrifying and off-putting. Actually, I'm taking all my classes next year for a reason that actually pertains to what I want to learn, not what I think I need for college. And usually, if you've enjoyed the class or done well in it, taking the test isn't too much of a stretch (unless you have severe test anxiety). My teacher described it as the victory lap, actually, after two difficult semesters of "training."

[Mongrel]

Haha, just because one took the test doesn't mean one didn't partake in the interesting class for the sake of learning. Most of us who take AP aren't standing in line waiting excitedly to take the exam, because it's actually pretty terrifying and off-putting. Actually, I'm taking all my classes next year for a reason that actually pertains to what I want to learn, not what I think I need for college. And usually, if you've enjoyed the class or done well in it, taking the test isn't too much of a stretch (unless you have severe test anxiety). My teacher described it as the victory lap, actually, after two difficult semesters of "training."

See, to me the idea of not getting to take those classes in college sounded incredibly unfun. English was always my favorite class, and I didn't want to miss out on Freshman English just because I could take a test to bypass it. Twice the English = twice the fun.

[fzun]

Was I the only one who took AP classes for the sake of having interesting classes, and didn't take the tests?

My school district pays for all students to take the AP exams to encourage us to take them and also to allow the low-income students to take them as well.

But of course, I was out of town and had to take the makeup exam for U.S. History and Calc AB and ended up paying $80 x_x. Good thing I passed XD.

I take AP classes to get college credit, but I won't take an AP just for the sake of having an AP class. I only take ones that I think will challenge me (like English and Calc) or interest me (U.S. History, Government)

I'm taking 7 next year.. just kill me now.

Do you plan on having a life? Talk about wasting your years of school away.

[Pickles]

Was I the only one who took AP classes for the sake of having interesting classes, and didn't take the tests?

I did. I took AP classes for everything in Freshmen and Sophomore years, then slid back to "enriched" English (in between regular English and AP English) for my Junior and Senior year, and took government/economics regular (which was probably harder for me than the AP, as I was constantly second-guessing the simpleness of the test questions). I had a huge argument with my dad about moving to "enriched" English, because it didn't get any extra GPA points (our AP classes got 5 for an A instead of 4). The fact of the matter was, I walked into the regular English class and on the first day, our vocab list was 20 words long...and all 20 of which I used in my normal speech already. I learned *so* much from the "enriched" class, it was worth the lower GPA!

I never took a single AP test. This is mainly because A) the college I decided to go to wouldn't take AP credit for compsci courses, B) I had a very stinky Calc teacher first semester of my senior year and spent second semester playing catch-up, and C) I didn't want to shell out the $75/test that it would cost when A) and B) were in effect.

[Fiddelysquat]

Was I the only one who took AP classes for the sake of having interesting classes, and didn't take the tests?

Nope. I love English so I took AP English in high school. She'd give us practice AP Exams and I scored top in all of them, but I didn't want to take the exam. I'm a design major but I still cram as many Honors English courses as I can into my schedule.

[Byakuya San]

I took AP classes for everything in Freshmen and Sophomore years,

Erm...what?
In my school, there aren't any AP classes offered to freshmen, and the only one available for sophomores is US History. Also, as far as I know, if you take an AP class, you HAVE to pay for (and take) the test too.

Not to mention that we don't offer Psychology, Computer Science, and all those other fun-sounding courses. Looks like we're way behind the times here.

[Pickles]

I took AP classes for everything in Freshmen and Sophomore years,

Erm...what?
In my school, there aren't any AP classes offered to freshmen, and the only one available for sophomores is US History. Also, as far as I know, if you take an AP class, you HAVE to pay for (and take) the test too.

Not to mention that we don't offer Psychology, Computer Science, and all those other fun-sounding courses. Looks like we're way behind the times here.

I honestly can't remember if they were called AP or pre-AP, but the tests were not required for any of us - we had to pay extra, though only a few people in the classes didn't take 'em. TOSO might be able to remind me, as he just grad'd from my high school, though a lot of things have changed since, as they went from 6 class periods a day to 8 split over two days shortly after I grad'd, and other minor changes. But yeah. They called all of our "honors" classes AP or pre-AP or something like that (though I could've sworn it was pre-AP in intermediate school). I was in mostly honor's classes, but our HS was crazy competitive and thus we had multiple sections of said honors classes (for instance, there were usually at *least* 6 honors math classes per grade).

In the end, I'm glad I didn't take the Calculus AP test, as I didn't have the repetitive experience due to my bad first semester teacher. Plus, as an added bonus, I took it first semester of college, and breezed through the class with little to no effort. It was quite nice to walk into college and take calculus and compsci and walk out with two easy A's for my transcript. It also gave me extra time to focus on Music Theory, which the first bit of which was quite grueling (rudiments! ahhh!!)

[fzun]

I took AP classes for everything in Freshmen and Sophomore years,

Erm...what?
In my school, there aren't any AP classes offered to freshmen, and the only one available for sophomores is US History. Also, as far as I know, if you take an AP class, you HAVE to pay for (and take) the test too.

Not to mention that we don't offer Psychology, Computer Science, and all those other fun-sounding courses. Looks like we're way behind the times here.

My school offers Human Geography to freshmen and then Psychology, U.S. History, World History and European History to sophomores. But most APs are reserved for juniors and seniors (like macro/microeconomics, government, english, calculus)

At my school there is no option not to take the test, but we don't pay for them (school pays for us).

My school used to offer CS but they stopped and I so wish they still had it because that's what I want to major in

[Syrill]

I got 4s on all the tests I took this year: Biology, Chemistry, Calculus BC, English Language, and European History. My parents were not too happy about it... but it's better than the 3 on US History I got last year!

Usually 98% of students in our Calc BC classes at school get 5s. I'm that 2% who didn't. T__T

I'm taking 7 next year.. just kill me now.

Well, you can think of it as you're part of the 2% awesome enough not to follow the majority. ;P A 4 is still AWESOME though. Congrats on all the shiny 4's! I'm not 100% sure, but I think whether it's a 4/5, colleges will offer the same credit (if you're interested in those numbers for that reason). I think that one of the only reasons a 5 might be a little better [besides obvious bragging rights] is that with a 5 in Calculus BC, the AP program projects a 5 also in Calculus AB. Maybe it does that with all the different projected scores equaling what testers received in Calculus BC? I'm not sure. It's no biggie though. Calculus BC credit covers most of what you should need. Calculus AB just offers a little extra that you probably don't need. As to the 7 next year, if you died, you wouldn't get any fun. You've already made a string of 4's so you should do fine. :} Killing is not needed.

fzun, your school is awesome for paying for it. :O

The AP classes were made more interesting by taking the test. Ah, the thrill of testing.

[Igg]

Could someone please explain to me what an AP Class is; and what the implications of taking them & the tests are?

[Pickles]

Could someone please explain to me what an AP Class is; and what the implications of taking them & the tests are?

AP = Advanced Placement. Basically, it's an honors or advanced class which at the end of which, you can take an "AP test" to test you over the materials you were supposed to have learned. Depending on how well you do on the test, some colleges will actually give you credit hours for the subject. In other words, say you take AP calculus, and get a 5 (highest you can get) on the AP test. You apply to college and submit the test result, and they might give you credit for their first semester calculus course. Thus, you go into college with some credit, and less classes you *need* to take. Not all colleges will give you credit for the test. Some give you credit if you get a 4 - others only if you get a 5, etc, etc.

[fzun]

Could someone please explain to me what an AP Class is; and what the implications of taking them & the tests are?

To elaborate off of what Pickles said:
http://www.collegeboard.com/student/tes ... about.html

It's the highest level course you can take in high school. Very rigorous. And if you score well enough on the exam most colleges will give you credit (although how they give you credit varies from school to school).

[Igg]

Ah, OK, I kind of knew that already but it's now slightly more organised in my brain. We don't have anything like that in England so it's a little weird to get one's head around.

Also I gather your college/university system is pretty different from ours. Well, it is at my Uni anyway. I understand you guys specialise a lot later than we do (and your degrees take longer to finish)?

I'm doing a 3-year BA in History of Art at The Courtauld Institute in London. So right when I applied I knew exactly what my degree when I finish was going to be. We only do Art History courses and there's none of this faffing about with credits. Like I hear about people not having enough credits to progress, and things like that? The only way that happens here is if you fail one of your courses, in which case they usually let you into the next year but make you do resits along with your exams that year. Different courses I've done/will do count for a different number of course units but I didn't even know that until I got my results sheet at the end of first year- we just do what they tell us to do.

To be fair, my uni only does Art History and we're very small (about 400 students in total, about 150 of whom are Undergraduates); at other Unis there is more flexibility. My brother is doing Geography with Transport Management but he does get a couple of electives where he takes unrelated courses and they give credits towards his degree. Still, he knows exactly what his BSc will be when he graduates and did before he even started. We don't really do the major/minor thing unless you're taking a Joint Honours course, but even then you know what they'll be, you just don't necessarily know which way around they're going to be. If that makes sense.