Deciding on whether to take an Advanced Placement class (AP class) is a struggling question for every high school student. Taking an AP course means you must devote more of your time into the class because it would be much more difficult than a regular course of the same subject, but this also means that you would learn more. Also, at the end of the school year, you will have an AP exam that is graded on a five point scale that can give you college credit based on how well you did.

Our school offers many AP courses, but certain AP courses are limited towards the grade you are in. For example AP U.S. History and AP Language and Composition are only offered to those who are juniors. The majority of Advanced Placement electives are offered to students who are between the years of sophomores to seniors. Some of these Advanced Placement elective courses available are AP Psychology, AP Human Geography, and AP Statistics.

AP Statistics, taught by Mr. Carey, is an Advanced Placement math course available to any student who received at least a C in Trigonometry. Mr. Carey has been teaching AP Statistics in our SHC community for three years. Preparing five AP classes for the exam, Mr. Carey says “I see the AP exams as the guiding content for the class. I’m more concerned about students being able to have a practical application of statistics outside of the classroom than the AP exam. Of course I want them to pass the exam, and it’s an important part of the course, but not the goal.”

As a student who took an Advanced Placement class, I strongly agree with Mr. Carey. I really wanted to learn statistics, and what better place to learn it than in an AP Statistics class. Being able to gain college credit by passing the AP exam was just icing on top, but definitely not the main reason I took an Advanced Placement class. My main focus was to know how to use Statistics not just inside, but also outside of the classroom. Curious if I was the only one feeling this way, I asked one of our seniors, Johnny Koo.

Since Johnny was a senior who had taken many Advanced Placement classes before AP Statistics, I did not know what his response would be, but surprisingly, it was quite similar to mine. “I thought of the AP exam just as I did of any other test. I took the AP Chemistry exam last year, but it didn’t affect my perspective on how I felt towards the AP exams.” Johnny then explained, “I was more concerned about the AP Calculus exam though because it would affect my classes in college.” And as for why he took the class, Johnny said “Even though my major does not rely on Statistics, I still wanted to learn it. Statistics could be used for all sorts of things. And also, it looks good on college transcripts and raises GPAs.”

According to College Board, taking Advanced Placement classes really do look better on college transcripts. “By making the decision to take an AP course, you’re letting colleges and universities know that you have what it takes to succeed in an undergraduate environment.” And if you pass that AP class, you may be able to move directly into upper-level classes in college that focus on what you’re interested on.

Deciding on whether to take an AP class is no longer a struggling question for me. Since taking the class allows me to raise my GPA, learn the subject in a stronger manner, stand out from other college transcripts, which gives me a better chance of getting accepted, and allows me to skip introductory college classes so that I can focus on what truly matters for me, I found my answer, and I hope that I helped you find yours.

If you have any more questions about how AP classes are helpful, ask your counselors and do research at places like at:

https://apstudent.collegeboard.org/exploreap/the-rewards