So, why even bother with AP courses? High School is hellish enough with adding more work, so what’s the point?
Short answer: money. AP exams are scored out of 5. Get a 3 or above and your exam is a voucher for university fees.
Undergraduate courses are not that tough, but they’re there to ensure students come out of their respective universities with a relatively-broad command of some of the basic subjects. Your freshman year will be spent doing history, English, a foreign language, maybe some music and definitely history.
You can do that history course in college and pay $10,000+ for the course itself, in addition to the rent, books, food, parking, travel and life expenses that come with it over three months.
OR you can get it out of the way before 10th grade and either save that money or use that time productively whilst in college, because you’ll have a MUCH lighter workload.
Fringe benefits are pretty nice too: AP classes are challenging, fun, eye-opening and you get to hang out with other nerds who dig the same thing as you do.
Speaking of which, I’ll close with a word of caution: Do NOT take an AP course because you feel you have to. These are not robotic, entrance exams and require thought, discipline and passion. In short, all of the qualities that universities want their students to leave with. If you love something and there’s an AP course that matches? Do it. If you just want to save money at college?
Goya beans and open a window.
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