At Cherokee, students who wish to be challenged with advanced coursework have the option to take classes that adhere to the College Board’s Advanced Placement (AP) curriculum. These classes grant many upperclassmen – even some underclassmen – the opportunity to take a college-level course in high school. Given that course selection for the 2024-2025 school year is finished, it’s likely that many of the people reading this article have opted to take an AP course next year. However, by choosing an AP course, you set yourself up to have to answer a question at the beginning of next year: will I, or will I not, take the AP Exam?
The answer to this question depends on several factors, many of which are dependent on individual circumstances.
One of the main reasons to take the AP exam is to gain college credit at a university. Most colleges in the United States award credit for scores of three or higher; this often allows a student to bypass taking certain courses. Most colleges require students to take several “gen-ed” courses – general education classes – that are required for graduation regardless of a person’s major; an AP score might allow someone to dodge having to take (and pay for) these classes. For example, if a math major has a score of five on his AP US History exam, he could opt out of taking a required history class with his credit. This would allow him to take subjects more aligned with his major.
For freshmen, sophomores, and juniors, AP exams have another added benefit: an edge in college admissions. College admissions officers review an applicant’s resume holistically, considering every factor of a person’s academic and extracurricular record. This includes standardized test scores such as the SAT and AP exams. Reporting a score of four or five to an admissions official would demonstrate to them that the applicant has mastered the subject and coursework well. While this is by no means the only factor in their decision, if faced with a decision between two different applicants, one of whom has no scores and one of whom has multiple fours or fives, the admissions officer would likely favor the latter.
Finally, one major benefit of taking AP exams is that they prepare students for the way that college operates. For most classes in college, especially those in STEM, students are expected to learn and master the material largely on their own and demonstrate their understanding on a final exam. Oftentimes final term papers or exams make up the majority of a student’s grade in a class, meaning that a person’s final grade in the class is primarily determined by her performance on a single final exam at the end of the term. By taking AP exams, students get used to the expectation of having to concentrate for hours on end on a single exam, like what is common in the college environment.
However, there are several reasons that a person would not take the AP exams in May. First, the exam does cost $100, which is not exactly cheap. A student who takes multiple exams in one year could easily rack up over half a grand in exam fees, which is not financially possible for many students. It is important to keep in mind that if the exam scores are used to bypass a college course, a student could actually save thousands by not having to pay for certain classes.
Furthermore, AP exams are notoriously difficult, with many exams, such as AP Physics 1 or AP US History, having less than half of test-takers actually pass the exam. AP exams test on material given throughout the entire year, meaning that the material learned in September still must be mastered by the student over 8 months later. For people with heavy extracurricular involvements, it’s difficult to find the time to adequately prepare and review for such a comprehensive exam, especially if that person is taking multiple exams.
Even if a person desires college credit for their AP classes, AP exams are not the only way to get it. Many receive college credit for their AP classes through the RCBC CAP Credit Program, which is a completely different college credit system that is worthy of its own article. In short, the CAP Credit Program enables students to pay a one-time fee to receive credit based on their marking period grades in the class, no final exam required.
Overall, the decision of whether or not to take AP exams for your classes falls to you, and what factors are most important for you to consider as you plan out your future.
