How many APs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Taking 15+ AP classes is ridiculous for the same reason you can't be a president of 5 clubs: you're spreading yourself too thin. It all becomes meaningless. Of course some students choose to sacrifice every hour of free time so they can take AP everything, but it's just a shallow choice, and a wrong one.

Agree. And high schools are doing themselves a disservice by allowing this. Kids feel required to take the most rigorous schedule possible, so they pile on these classes. Schools should limit the number of APs a kid can take and vet the ones they offer to make sure they are legit.

I'm sure someone will argue that their genius needs to be challenged and take countless APs. Just relax. They will be fine. They have the rest of their lives to be super accelerated. And they probably aren't as smart as you think they are.

Some APs nest into a kids interest. For example a visual arts student. Instead on band or theater, they take the AP art sequence. That’s 3 classes right there over 3 years. Micro/Macro are semester classes. I’ve seen AP Gov as a semester class. You start a language sequence in middle school and you can hit AP early in high school.

Point is that the AP count can get up there at a school where classes are available and not all of them are of the same intensity. Sometimes it just happens with a kids course sequence, particularly if they are on advanced tracks.

[Anonymous]

I don’t get how kids can fit so many in. Our schools has 6 class periods. AP runs all yr. You have to take bio, chem, physics before you can take the AP of those.

9- none
10- 3 (AP calc AB, AP US, AP Eng lang) all 5s
11-3 (AP calc BC, AP govt, AP Eng lit)
12- I don’t know yet, but likely AP physics, multivariable calc, dual enrollment for English, another AP for history?

So that would add up to 10 APs. Our school doesn’t offer a lot of the fluff APs (precalc, macro/micro economics, etc)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don’t get how kids can fit so many in. Our schools has 6 class periods. AP runs all yr. You have to take bio, chem, physics before you can take the AP of those.

9- none
10- 3 (AP calc AB, AP US, AP Eng lang) all 5s
11-3 (AP calc BC, AP govt, AP Eng lit)
12- I don’t know yet, but likely AP physics, multivariable calc, dual enrollment for English, another AP for history?

So that would add up to 10 APs. Our school doesn’t offer a lot of the fluff APs (precalc, macro/micro economics, etc)

That's a bit disparaging. Some students go straight to BC, does that make AB 'fluff'. Micro/Macro is a legit class. It may not be the toughest AP, but Econ 101, Psych 101, etc are generally not that difficult at the collegiate level either? AP Gov? You seem to be selectively belittling classes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t get how kids can fit so many in. Our schools has 6 class periods. AP runs all yr. You have to take bio, chem, physics before you can take the AP of those.

9- none
10- 3 (AP calc AB, AP US, AP Eng lang) all 5s
11-3 (AP calc BC, AP govt, AP Eng lit)
12- I don’t know yet, but likely AP physics, multivariable calc, dual enrollment for English, another AP for history?

So that would add up to 10 APs. Our school doesn’t offer a lot of the fluff APs (precalc, macro/micro economics, etc)

That's a bit disparaging. Some students go straight to BC, does that make AB 'fluff'. Micro/Macro is a legit class. It may not be the toughest AP, but Econ 101, Psych 101, etc are generally not that difficult at the collegiate level either? AP Gov? You seem to be selectively belittling classes.

Our school doesn’t allow BC without AB

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t get how kids can fit so many in. Our schools has 6 class periods. AP runs all yr. You have to take bio, chem, physics before you can take the AP of those.

9- none
10- 3 (AP calc AB, AP US, AP Eng lang) all 5s
11-3 (AP calc BC, AP govt, AP Eng lit)
12- I don’t know yet, but likely AP physics, multivariable calc, dual enrollment for English, another AP for history?

So that would add up to 10 APs. Our school doesn’t offer a lot of the fluff APs (precalc, macro/micro economics, etc)

That's a bit disparaging. Some students go straight to BC, does that make AB 'fluff'. Micro/Macro is a legit class. It may not be the toughest AP, but Econ 101, Psych 101, etc are generally not that difficult at the collegiate level either? AP Gov? You seem to be selectively belittling classes.

Our school doesn’t allow BC without AB

Ours doesn’t allow BC with AB first either.

My kid took 3 APs in 9th, 6 in 10th, and now 5 in 11th.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t get how kids can fit so many in. Our schools has 6 class periods. AP runs all yr. You have to take bio, chem, physics before you can take the AP of those.

9- none
10- 3 (AP calc AB, AP US, AP Eng lang) all 5s
11-3 (AP calc BC, AP govt, AP Eng lit)
12- I don’t know yet, but likely AP physics, multivariable calc, dual enrollment for English, another AP for history?

So that would add up to 10 APs. Our school doesn’t offer a lot of the fluff APs (precalc, macro/micro economics, etc)

That's a bit disparaging. Some students go straight to BC, does that make AB 'fluff'. Micro/Macro is a legit class. It may not be the toughest AP, but Econ 101, Psych 101, etc are generally not that difficult at the collegiate level either? AP Gov? You seem to be selectively belittling classes.

Our school doesn’t allow BC without AB

Ours doesn’t allow BC with AB first either.

My kid took 3 APs in 9th, 6 in 10th, and now 5 in 11th.

How is it even possible to take 6 APs in 10 th

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t get how kids can fit so many in. Our schools has 6 class periods. AP runs all yr. You have to take bio, chem, physics before you can take the AP of those.

9- none
10- 3 (AP calc AB, AP US, AP Eng lang) all 5s
11-3 (AP calc BC, AP govt, AP Eng lit)
12- I don’t know yet, but likely AP physics, multivariable calc, dual enrollment for English, another AP for history?

So that would add up to 10 APs. Our school doesn’t offer a lot of the fluff APs (precalc, macro/micro economics, etc)

That's a bit disparaging. Some students go straight to BC, does that make AB 'fluff'. Micro/Macro is a legit class. It may not be the toughest AP, but Econ 101, Psych 101, etc are generally not that difficult at the collegiate level either? AP Gov? You seem to be selectively belittling classes.

Our school doesn’t allow BC without AB

Same as our school but if students did really well in Calc AB, they can take MV Calc instead of BC.

[Anonymous]

Wrong question, OP.

It's not "how many" APs or highest-rigor courses to take? but "which" APs or highest-rigor courses to take?

Number doesn't matter. Depth/rigor does. In AP-world, these are some of the top rigor classes:

AP Lit
AP US History
AP Calculus BC
AP Calculus AB
AP Physics Mechanics
AP Chem
AP Bio
AP French

Rigor is different than AP test pass rate (sometimes that's a function of how young the students are when they take the AP Test) or the type of student that takes that class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS took 7 total and is in his 2nd yr at Princeton.

What you took and why and how that impacted you is so much more important than racking up 12-13 APs.

+1. Mine took 8, at a high school that offers many, and is at a T10.

I find this forum consistently overestimates the number of APs needed to be competitive. College admissions is not a race to the most APs.

That’s because not all AP courses are the same difficulty. AP Calculus BC, Physics (2), Chemistry, English (2), History (2) are all 8 classes but are the most rigorous one can take.

If you’re going after the number you’ll do the easier ones like Human geography, precalculus, Calculus AB that don’t matter much.

There is AP pre-calculus? WTF? What a joke. If I were in admissions at a top school I would immediately ding someone with this on their transcript for having the nerve to consider submitting it.

The other side of that coin is someone saying they'd ding the applicant who didn't submit the score, under the assumption that they must have scored low.

The fact that people are being suckered into taking an AP exam after taking pre-calc is a joke. It is a regular HS class. It is not "AP." Are we going to start having AP Finger Painting for kids in nursery school? An AP exam is theoretically meant to demonstrate mastery of college level work. Pre-calc is not college level. It is a pre-req for college level. I know that most of our discussions here are about top schools for which many kids take calc in HS, but even very average students take pre-calc in HS.

Context matters.

In smaller rural counties, Calculus might not be available *at all* from the public HS. At such HSs, AP Precalc with an AP test score is literally the most math any student can do.

AP precalc is for student who have no intention of taking calculus ever. It means nothing to any college admissions decision; it's.useful for students pursuing a non-competitive college degree to graduate sooner and with less math, and for motivating/inspiring students who fear they can't succeed in the least demanding colleges.

AP Precalc officially isn't even a full year class -- it instructs schools to fill in the course with whatever fits their school's overall curriculum. Honors precalc is more math than a strictly AP class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Taking 15+ AP classes is ridiculous for the same reason you can't be a president of 5 clubs: you're spreading yourself too thin. It all becomes meaningless. Of course some students choose to sacrifice every hour of free time so they can take AP everything, but it's just a shallow choice, and a wrong one.

I agree that aiming for a higher number makes no sense. If I were an AO and it looked like you took AP everything, I would think you might have your priorities in the wrong place. It doesn't really matter the number of APs you take after the most rigorous ones are covered. If you want to be a physics major, best to have physics C if your school offers it, but then after that I cannot see colleges being impressed that you took APES or human geography or psych on top of that. There are only so many core APs that will really make sense for someone's major choice. Even if you are aiming to come across as a well rounded student, just make sure you have some rigorous ones covered in both humanities and math/science instead of trying to cram every single one in your schedule.

Some APs are half-year ( (Econ, Physics C), and some APs are multiple despite not being worth multiple credit at college (English Language and Lit, Precalc and Calc, CS P and A, Physics 1/2 and C), except as Gen Ed electives which no one needs that many free credits of. Sure you don't "15" or whatever, but you pick them up automatically en route to the capstone APs in a subject.

In a school with 7 or 8 courses per year, a basic 1+2+3+4 progression, with APs in the 5 core academic subjects, and some giving 2 AP scores in one year of class, gets you to 10-15.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t get how kids can fit so many in. Our schools has 6 class periods. AP runs all yr. You have to take bio, chem, physics before you can take the AP of those.

9- none
10- 3 (AP calc AB, AP US, AP Eng lang) all 5s
11-3 (AP calc BC, AP govt, AP Eng lit)
12- I don’t know yet, but likely AP physics, multivariable calc, dual enrollment for English, another AP for history?

So that would add up to 10 APs. Our school doesn’t offer a lot of the fluff APs (precalc, macro/micro economics, etc)

That's a bit disparaging. Some students go straight to BC, does that make AB 'fluff'. Micro/Macro is a legit class. It may not be the toughest AP, but Econ 101, Psych 101, etc are generally not that difficult at the collegiate level either? AP Gov? You seem to be selectively belittling classes.

Our school doesn’t allow BC without AB

Same as our school but if students did really well in Calc AB, they can take MV Calc instead of BC.

At ours, a student can go straight to BC with approval. A student could also do AB -> BC and then there is a AB -> BC Advanced option that does quick review of AB topics and tacks on post-BC material later in the class

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS took 7 total and is in his 2nd yr at Princeton.

What you took and why and how that impacted you is so much more important than racking up 12-13 APs.

+1. Mine took 8, at a high school that offers many, and is at a T10.

I find this forum consistently overestimates the number of APs needed to be competitive. College admissions is not a race to the most APs.

That’s because not all AP courses are the same difficulty. AP Calculus BC, Physics (2), Chemistry, English (2), History (2) are all 8 classes but are the most rigorous one can take.

If you’re going after the number you’ll do the easier ones like Human geography, precalculus, Calculus AB that don’t matter much.

There is AP pre-calculus? WTF? What a joke. If I were in admissions at a top school I would immediately ding someone with this on their transcript for having the nerve to consider submitting it.

The other side of that coin is someone saying they'd ding the applicant who didn't submit the score, under the assumption that they must have scored low.

The fact that people are being suckered into taking an AP exam after taking pre-calc is a joke. It is a regular HS class. It is not "AP." Are we going to start having AP Finger Painting for kids in nursery school? An AP exam is theoretically meant to demonstrate mastery of college level work. Pre-calc is not college level. It is a pre-req for college level. I know that most of our discussions here are about top schools for which many kids take calc in HS, but even very average students take pre-calc in HS.

Context matters.

In smaller rural counties, Calculus might not be available *at all* from the public HS. At such HSs, AP Precalc with an AP test score is literally the most math any student can do.

AP precalc is for student who have no intention of taking calculus ever. It means nothing to any college admissions decision; it's.useful for students pursuing a non-competitive college degree to graduate sooner and with less math, and for motivating/inspiring students who fear they can't succeed in the least demanding colleges.

AP Precalc officially isn't even a full year class -- it instructs schools to fill in the course with whatever fits their school's overall curriculum. Honors precalc is more math than a strictly AP class.

Thats incorrect. Some schools only have Calc AB. Calc is only offered in ~50% of high schools. Its was quite awhile ago, but I took AP Calc. Turns out is was AB. I figured that out when I blew through my high school material in my first semester in college. ha ha Graduated with engineering degree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t get how kids can fit so many in. Our schools has 6 class periods. AP runs all yr. You have to take bio, chem, physics before you can take the AP of those.

9- none
10- 3 (AP calc AB, AP US, AP Eng lang) all 5s
11-3 (AP calc BC, AP govt, AP Eng lit)
12- I don’t know yet, but likely AP physics, multivariable calc, dual enrollment for English, another AP for history?

So that would add up to 10 APs. Our school doesn’t offer a lot of the fluff APs (precalc, macro/micro economics, etc)

That's a bit disparaging. Some students go straight to BC, does that make AB 'fluff'. Micro/Macro is a legit class. It may not be the toughest AP, but Econ 101, Psych 101, etc are generally not that difficult at the collegiate level either? AP Gov? You seem to be selectively belittling classes.

Our school doesn’t allow BC without AB

Ours doesn’t allow BC with AB first either.

My kid took 3 APs in 9th, 6 in 10th, and now 5 in 11th.

How is it even possible to take 6 APs in 10 th

Science, calc, history, English, micro, macro

[Anonymous]

^ sorry misread Precalc reference

[Anonymous]

For my DD (Self study)


9: Physc (5), Bio (3), World History (5)
10: AP English (5), Marco Econ (4), Chem (4)
11: AP Calc BC (5), AP Physics 1 (5)
12: Didn't take APs this year. Instead she focused on personal projects and SAT.