What AP credits would be most use?

[metalhead1023]

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What AP credits could I take that would be used in alot of majors, so that I would be able to use my AP credit and it wont sit there? Also, I mean the required classes for the major not just elective credit.

 

[Crazyday]

Usually you use AP credits for your non-majors, I'm pretty sure.

Majors you usually wanna take all of the pre-reqs at that college to make sure you know all the required material and don't overstep your bounds and get destroyed in the next level course because the AP course was taught differently.

 

[whitesox24]

English, Calculus, and Foreign Language AP's are probably the ones that you could most easily use for college to fulfill gen ed/major requirements.

 

[EyEnStein 07]

Everyone besides the sciences.
You'll get a lot of college credit.
You will probably fill some General Graduation Requirements.
You will save yourself time to focus on classes you will need towards your major/pre-professional planned classes.

 

[StIGMA]

Do you know what the courses count for at the colleges you intend to enroll?

At my college, I knew that a 4 or 5 on AP Bio got me out of a year (2 semesters and 2 labs) of intro bio, so I could just take advanced bio my freshman year (which I wanted to do). I knew a 5 on BC Calc got me credit for 2 semesters of calculus. I knew a 4 or 5 on AP Phys got me one semester of Calc-based physics credit ... so I took all of these courses and scored 5, 5 and 4. If your college doesnt take AP bio credit... dont take it. Medical schools normally take what your school accepts, but be prepared to take more advanced coursework in biological sciences (math/phys normally do not need to have more advanced coursework to meet the req for medical schools).

 

[tennisball80]

AP Spanish or AP French

Language courses.

 

[MilkmanAl]

English, Calculus, and Foreign Language AP's are probably the ones that you could most easily use for college to fulfill gen ed/major requirements.

I second this. These are the AP's that can usually get you 2 classes' worth of credit. Physics and chem can also get 2 courses out of the way.

 

[Maygyver]

I second this. These are the AP's that can usually get you 2 classes' worth of credit. Physics and chem can also get 2 courses out of the way.

I agree. Personally though, I would suggest taking college chemistry. I was surprised by how much it helped me in biology.

 

[MilkmanAl]

I'm with ya there. If nothing else, those chem classes will be easy A's if you've already had AP Chem.

 

[Chocolate Bear]

IMO, Government, History, English, and Psychology would be best. These intro classes are often overblown, boring, tedious, and harder than they need to be if you take them as a freshman at a university. Many students dread them and often do poorly solely because they despise them, skip class, are forced to sit in a 400-seat hall so they can't hear, and they really don't know what to study, outside of reading every word assigned (yeah. right...).

At a community college, these classes are often very different and can actually be valuable, meaningful, and enjoyable. But otherwise, get out of them if possible, and save yourself a semester's worth of annoyance! 👍

 

[Maygyver]

IMO, Government, History, English, and Psychology would be best. These intro classes are often overblown, boring, tedious, and harder than they need to be if you take them as a freshman at a university. Many students dread them and often do poorly solely because they despise them, skip class, are forced to sit in a 400-seat hall so they can't hear, and they really don't know what to study, outside of reading every word assigned (yeah. right...).

At a community college, these classes are often very different and can actually be valuable, meaningful, and enjoyable. But otherwise, get out of them if possible, and save yourself a semester's worth of annoyance! 👍

Totally agree about the History, Gov. one too. Seriously, there is nothing worse than reading 80 pages a night about things you have learned since 5th grade, when you could be studying science courses you enjoy. 🙂

 

[tennisball80]

What are the most useful AP courses that will prepare you well for college ?

What's your opinions ? 🙂

 

[gabeybaby]

this is the same topic as this thread, of which you participated:
http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showthread.php?t=600311

 

[xnfs93hy]

What are the most useful AP courses that will prepare you well for college ?

What's your opinions ? 🙂

AP Calc
AP Bio
AP Chem
AP Physics

are four that come to mind.

 

[cajunchrisbu]

you don't need AP classes. Seriously you can do just fine in college and get into medical school with out all of that added stress. Do yourself a favor and enjoy yourself in high school. If your high school experience was anything like mine it really required no studying at all just kinda showing up and paying attention about half the time. College in general, and especially the pre-med track is busy and hard work. So enjoy being at home just chillin while you have the chance. I took no AP classes in highschool and had only 2 classes my senior year. I took the ACT and all that got into Baylor and went pre-med and just got into LSU-Shreveport.

Moral of the story....save yourself the stress and just enjoy your last bit of childhood before you go to college and grow up!

hope this helps, feel free to PM me if you have questions

 

[Maygyver]

you don't need AP classes. Seriously you can do just fine in college and get into medical school with out all of that added stress. Do yourself a favor and enjoy yourself in high school. If your high school experience was anything like mine it really required no studying at all just kinda showing up and paying attention about half the time. College in general, and especially the pre-med track is busy and hard work. So enjoy being at home just chillin while you have the chance. I took no AP classes in highschool and had only 2 classes my senior year. I took the ACT and all that got into Baylor and went pre-med and just got into LSU-Shreveport.

Moral of the story....save yourself the stress and just enjoy your last bit of childhood before you go to college and grow up!

hope this helps, feel free to PM me if you have questions

I really disagree with this post. You can take APs and still have a life. They aren't really close to college caliber classes, but the closest you will find in high school.
I did 6 AP courses my Senior year and still didn't study more than an hour a night for all of them combined. I would highly suggest taking them. Take AP Bio, but I wouldn't recommend tanking the AP bio exam though. Do AP "foreign language" and take the exam to test out of foreign language credits. Do AP BC calc and test out of some calc. If you have spare room, do AP chem but don't take the exam. Oh yeah, do AP gov/history too and try to test out of the most boring college subject, history.

 

[cajunchrisbu]

Or you could not take AP classes, not have to freak out over the AP test, take those boring but super easy intro college courses and get a good GPA boast early. Most of my friends here took AP classes in high school, I didn't.... we have had to take all the same courses and have done equally as well in them.

I could have tested out of all four French semesters because I have grown up speaking Arcadian French at home and am fluent...but i didn't so I could get A's in those classes and boast my GPA.

Its all a matter of perspective... more work early for little reward or more work later for bigger pay off.

 

[MilkmanAl]

Or you could take AP's, not sweat the AP exams (which aren't really a big deal anyway) and take the classes again in college and still get those A's. You're also neglecting that some people - like me - didn't/don't want to be mired in a bunch of boring introductory classes just to get easy grades.

 

[Caesar]

If you are taking the exams things like Psych, english, and languages are nice because they relieve some gen ed coursework in college. History is good too for the same reason. I wouldn't really take any that would be for your major as you are better served taking the course in college IMO. I took AP Physio and Chem and didn't take the AP test, they just interested me.

 

[Caesar]

also merging with similar thread.

 

[RySerr21]

One of the AP tests/classess that helped me the most was AP Stats. It turns out that the med school I will be going to requires that you take college statistics, which I never took. Thankfully, my 4 on the AP Stats test was accepted by my college and is on my transcript and is therefore accepted by my medical school. That just saved me an entire summer of taking a class that I have no interest in taking.

Moral of the story: Take AP classes, pass the AP tests. You never know how it is going to help you out in the end. If anything, it will just give you extra units, so you wont have to worry if you need to drop a class or want to take it easier one semester when you are studying for the MCAT.

 

[tennisball80]

Or you could take AP's, not sweat the AP exams (which aren't really a big deal anyway) and take the classes again in college and still get those A's. You're also neglecting that some people - like me - didn't/don't want to be mired in a bunch of boring introductory classes just to get easy grades.

Yea thats what I am planning to do. Learn the knowlege ahead time and get A's on the preqreqs !

 

[Vicviper]

I found my 4 in AP Bio to be completely useless since I am a bio major, but what I learned in the class was extremely helpful for my later bio classes. AP Lit was great for getting out of english, and I thought AP Gov was a piece of cake, most of the people finished half an hour early when I took it - plus it got me out of taking Poly Sci in college.

 

[huskerdye]

I've heard that physics is a pretty good AP class, I don't have much experience with AP.. Since my school doesn't offer AP, foreign language can also help fulfill college credit.

 

[djyujin]

I think AP classes and IB classes are great, only because you want to challenge yourself early on in high school so that you are able to handle a more rigorous courseload in college. If it wasn't for my IB Science and IB Humanities courses, I don't think I would have been as well prepared as I was for college. Just my $.02.

 

[Maygyver]

I've heard that physics is a pretty good AP class, I don't have much experience with AP.. Since my school doesn't offer AP, foreign language can also help fulfill college credit.

I think AP physics sort of depends on your school. I know at mine it was impossible to cover all of the elements of the exam in one physics because it covers so many different components. It was definitely very useful though for knowing the material for physics college courses, but I don't know anyone that took the actual exam. Therefore, it depends on if you want to do APs for testing out of college classes or just to solidify your base and get some easy As.

 

[huskerdye]

I think AP physics sort of depends on your school. I know at mine it was impossible to cover all of the elements of the exam in one physics because it covers so many different components. It was definitely very useful though for knowing the material for physics college courses, but I don't know anyone that took the actual exam. Therefore, it depends on if you want to do APs for testing out of college classes or just to solidify your base and get some easy As.

I agree that it depends on the school, I think you need to have a good physics teacher to actually learn something.. My physics teacher (imo) was horrible.. For example our section on force consisted of watching Armageddon, The Day After Tomorrow, and Apollo 13.. I have no idea what those have to do with force, but we received 100 points in participation every day and got a 200/200 on a test nobody took.

 

[Maygyver]

I agree that it depends on the school, I think you need to have a good physics teacher to actually learn something.. My physics teacher (imo) was horrible.. For example our section on force consisted of watching Armageddon, The Day After Tomorrow, and Apollo 13.. I have no idea what those have to do with force, but we received 100 points in participation every day and got a 200/200 on a test nobody took.

Sounds like my chemistry experience. One day the teacher came in and said "I've had a rough day, let's just watch CSI" Needless to say, she wasn't at the school the next year.

 

[huskerdye]

Sounds like my chemistry experience. One day the teacher came in and said "I've had a rough day, let's just watch CSI" Needless to say, she wasn't at the school the next year.

Haha yeah, my high school science classes have all been basically pointless. Except, possibly, Anatomy.. I learned the Skull..

I won't be too surprised if this guy isn't here next year.. He does the same thing, if he's sick we get a free day, if he has stuff to do we get a free day, we watch mythbusters at least once a week and my school is on block scheduling, I honestly have learned a single thing.. Except how to shoot a rocket propelled by air into a trash can.. And that was mostly guesswork, I guess this isn't AP though..

 

[Maygyver]

Haha yeah, my high school science classes have all been basically pointless. Except, possibly, Anatomy.. I learned the Skull..

I won't be too surprised if this guy isn't here next year.. He does the same thing, if he's sick we get a free day, if he has stuff to do we get a free day, we watch mythbusters at least once a week and my school is on block scheduling, I honestly have learned a single thing.. Except how to shoot a rocket propelled by air into a trash can.. And that was mostly guesswork, I guess this isn't AP though..

Hah yeah, I forgot, she totally brought her kid into work one day. I was on block schedule too. I kind of liked it. I was so afraid of chemistry in college but turned out really enjoying it. My school didn't make you do regular physics and then AP, so I just did AP.

 

[Crazyday]

I think AP physics sort of depends on your school. I know at mine it was impossible to cover all of the elements of the exam in one physics because it covers so many different components. It was definitely very useful though for knowing the material for physics college courses, but I don't know anyone that took the actual exam. Therefore, it depends on if you want to do APs for testing out of college classes or just to solidify your base and get some easy As.

Physics 1 kicked my ass. Physics 2 is currently kicking my ass (and we haven't even really started the physics 2 stuff yet, still reviewing phys 1; it's technically AP Physics B). I couldn't imagine any physics course being an easy A, let alone AP Physics C.

All of the science at my school are ball busters. I don't know about Earth Science because I haven't taken it, but right now I'm in AP Biology, Advanced Chem, and Physics II and each one of them is killing me separately (physics more than the others because I particularly hate physics and suck at it).

 

[Maygyver]

Physics 1 kicked my ass. Physics 2 is currently kicking my ass (and we haven't even really started the physics 2 stuff yet, still reviewing phys 1; it's technically AP Physics B). I couldn't imagine any physics course being an easy A, let alone AP Physics C.

All of the science at my school are ball busters. I don't know about Earth Science because I haven't taken it, but right now I'm in AP Biology, Advanced Chem, and Physics II and each one of them is killing me separately (physics more than the others because I particularly hate physics and suck at it).

Sorry, I think you misunderstood, the physics classes I am talking about are my college physics classes. I agree that Physics is actually a pretty tough high school course that really makes college physics so much easier.

 

[Crazyday]

Sorry, I think you misunderstood, the physics classes I am talking about are my college physics classes. I agree that Physics is actually a pretty tough high school course that really makes college physics so much easier.

Ah I see now