AP courses a scam?

[Anonymous]

Your milage will vary a lot at different colleges, OP. I did well on math and science classes in HS but was glad I repeated calc and chem as a freshman at JHU because they were a lot harder there. I had friends at other colleges tell me that their college courses were easier than our mutual high school courses, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Another college professor and I agree a lot with the other professor who posted. They’re not equivalent to college classes. They are what they are and I wouldn’t call them a scam necessarily, but they are geared towards passing a test and do not focus on learning the material to the extent that a college course does.

What about IB?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, this happened to me. I placed out of Calc I in college bc of AP credit, and then felt lost in Calc II, III, and Lin Alg/Diff Eq. I presume it's bc I wasn't taught some of the foundation of the Calc I college class.

If I had to go back in time, I would have only used AP credits to get out of classes not related to my major.

This!!

[Anonymous]

Something sounds off here.

Is your child a math or science major?

Colleges usually don’t allow AP courses to replace science/math major gateway classes. Maybe Calc 1, but no others.

An AP class is not equivalent to a 2 semester gateway course in college. They don’t pretend to be, either. AP courses are like a one semester general education course in college.

[Anonymous]

If a course is a prerequisite for another course, I would rather take the prereq right before the other course, and not possibly a year before when I was in high school and in a different mindset. You can get rusty. Also, there might be topics in the continuing course that will be better covered by the same university's prereq.

And, as mentioned earlier, a deeper understanding of your major's core material important.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Another college professor and I agree a lot with the other professor who posted. They’re not equivalent to college classes. They are what they are and I wouldn’t call them a scam necessarily, but they are geared towards passing a test and do not focus on learning the material to the extent that a college course does.

What about IB?

I don’t know enough about IB programs to form an educated opinion.

[Anonymous]

Prof here. For calc and econ, I would pretty much always recommend that a kid repeat the course freshman year. If they took BC Calc as a senior, have them do Calc 2 even if they place out of the prereq. (If they took it as junior and then went on to MV then I'd probably start with doing MV again if the kid feels confident that they remember the BC material.)

Same with Econ. I've had kids not understand very basic concepts and have asked if they had the prereq for my course (micro) and they said they took it AP.

Of course, these are anecdotes. But if the course will be an important prereq or important to the major generally, don't assume that a 5 means they know the material well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:some colleges are just easier or more difficult than others. its survival of the fittest for public schools ie UCLA/GaTech ... smaller private schools might be more lenient/easier. test optional as created an environment where kids not ready being accepted into STEM and their course grades being "fake". the whole college experience is nothing but exams.

Agree with the bolded portion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Something sounds off here.

Is your child a math or science major?

Colleges usually don’t allow AP courses to replace science/math major gateway classes. Maybe Calc 1, but no others.

An AP class is not equivalent to a 2 semester gateway course in college. They don’t pretend to be, either. AP courses are like a one semester general education course in college.

Not true. My kid is at a T40, engineering major and took credit for Calc 1&2, Chem 101/102 and Physics C Mech. All 4 of their final choices would allow them to use their AP credits. (all were in the 30-60 range).

[Anonymous]

My kid used AP credits to cover the majority of her Gen Ed requirements, which is saving us a ton of money. She did choose to retake the class most relevant to her major even though she passed the AP exam. For her, that was a good decision. Overall, I am a huge fan of AP classes. The ones in your area of major will give you a head start when you retake those classes (which are often weed-out courses), and the ones not in your area of major will save you money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Something sounds off here.

Is your child a math or science major?

Colleges usually don’t allow AP courses to replace science/math major gateway classes. Maybe Calc 1, but no others.

An AP class is not equivalent to a 2 semester gateway course in college. They don’t pretend to be, either. AP courses are like a one semester general education course in college.

Not true. My kid is at a T40, engineering major and took credit for Calc 1&2, Chem 101/102 and Physics C Mech. All 4 of their final choices would allow them to use their AP credits. (all were in the 30-60 range).

Agreed. At UVA you can apply AP credits to get out of intro biology and intro chemistry for bio or chem majors or premeds (but, again, I wouldn't recommend it).

[Anonymous]

I think the scam element of the AP thing is the idea that they're a 1:1 replacement or equivalent to college courses. They aren't. They're great college-prep courses though and definitely among the most rigorous offerings a high school student can pursue while in high school.

I think we need to shift the narrative from AP courses around seeing it as a way to get through college faster and more as a way of getting COLLEGE-READY faster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid used AP credits to cover the majority of her Gen Ed requirements, which is saving us a ton of money. She did choose to retake the class most relevant to her major even though she passed the AP exam. For her, that was a good decision. Overall, I am a huge fan of AP classes. The ones in your area of major will give you a head start when you retake those classes (which are often weed-out courses), and the ones not in your area of major will save you money.

This is a good approach if your child wants a "European style" college experience where all courses are in major/minor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Something sounds off here.

Is your child a math or science major?

Colleges usually don’t allow AP courses to replace science/math major gateway classes. Maybe Calc 1, but no others.

An AP class is not equivalent to a 2 semester gateway course in college. They don’t pretend to be, either. AP courses are like a one semester general education course in college.

Your reading comprehension off. OP is upset that the AP courses, the gen ed intro prereqs, did not suffice to prepare the student for the follow-on courses.

This might be due to weak AP courses, or due to inability to cope with the lifestyle change of going to college while maintaining academic momentum.

[Anonymous]

Va tech has very generous AP credits - too generous since a 3 gets you credit in many cases, even if a ten major. I think the main exception is for a physics major, but most other stems, including engineering, will let you use AP credit with a 3 in the course. Was very surprised with how lenient they were - wondering how those kids fare who used the AP credits…