Advanced Placement Tests

The Advanced Placement program is an ongoing, national offering, in which students may begin earning college credits in high school. By providing students a specialized workload, more comparable to corresponding college courses than a typical high school class, the AP program helps students to accelerate their way through not only high school, but also collegiate-level general education programs as well.

Are AP Classes For You?

There are currently over 30 AP courses available across many subjects. Each course is taught by the high school teachers with the highest qualifications using the AP Course Descriptions as a specific outline to guide them through the coursework. Each year in May, the AP Exams are administered. These tests represent the culmination of collegiate-level efforts to determine how well students perform at the next level in that particular area. Students receiving a qualifying score on their AP exams will receive college credits for the corresponding subject before ever earning their high school diploma. Many high schools also weight the effect of an AP course on a student's GPA, making it possible to receive 5 points for an A, rather than 4, which is the standard. Students may also receive 4 points for a B, which would normally be worth 3, or 3 for a C, normally worth 2, etc.

Online Courses vs. Advanced Placement

In some cases, pursuing an online associate degree can be extremely beneficial as they usually cover the first two years of courses that colleges would accept. If you are considering a liberal arts education program that does not require much lab time, you should consider looking into online associate degree programs instead of Advanced Placement as you will be able to save time and money by pursuing this option and the material covered is very similar.

Back to The Academic Resource Center.