Is it worthwhile to take AP tests for classes you don't plan to take in college?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Having good scores is good to put on the college application. Depending on where your student goes he could get credit or maybe even a general ed requirement fulfilled or possibly just some spare units so he could take a light semester. If you student wants to apply to a UK school good scores are fairly necessary.

This sums it up pretty well.

I would say don't take it if you think kid won't do well or it will be obsolete. Mine didn't take Physics 1 test because she didn't get a good grasp of it from covid zoom class and knew she'd eventually take Physics C going into engineering, so Physics 1 just offered her nothing. APUSH can help in many ways (as PP describes above).

Also agree. Most of the schools my kids are interested in won’t give credit (although they might use AP scores for placement, which can be helpful), so they are taking the exams largely to have the scores for college applications. I do agree with the professor PP who notes that it’s good practice to study for a cumulative exam as prep for college finals, but I also think it’s not necessarily worth the stress in subjects where your kid feels really unsteady (e.g. the physics 1 example above). That said…my kid was super-excited to get a 3 on the physics 1 exam after thinking there was no way he could pass. So that was also a nice confidence boost and contributed to his decision to take E&M as a senior.

All of which is to say, for kids who don’t need/won’t get credit (and who won’t be punished for not taking the exam—some schools will withhold the GPA bump, for example), it’s good practice to take them but not necessary, and shouldn’t be the source of incredible stress.