Earning College Credit Through AP Exams

Key Infor­ma­tion:

• AP exams can help save mon­ey, with each exam cost­ing around $97, com­pared to over $1,150 for a typ­i­cal col­lege course.
• AP exams allow stu­dents to skip intro­duc­to­ry col­lege cours­es, offer­ing both time and finan­cial sav­ings on their degree.
• Col­leges have dif­fer­ent AP cred­it poli­cies, with some requir­ing a min­i­mum score of 3, while oth­ers may only accept scores of 4 or 5.
• AP exams pro­vide flex­i­bil­i­ty, allow­ing stu­dents to explore dou­ble majors or minors, grad­u­ate ear­li­er, or take elec­tive courses.

Accord­ing to the Edu­ca­tion Data Ini­tia­tive, the cost of col­lege at pub­lic four-year schools has increased by 179.2% over the past 20 years.

Earn­ing col­lege cred­it through AP exams is one of the best ways to reduce the amount you need to pay for col­lege. AP or Advanced Place­ment tests allow you to skip basic cours­es and move on to more advanced ones. They can save you both time and mon­ey on your degree.

In this arti­cle, we will talk about tak­ing AP exams for col­lege cred­it. We will dis­cuss the process and ben­e­fits of earn­ing col­lege cred­it through AP exams. We will also bust some myths and help you find col­leges with the most favor­able AP cred­it policies.

Relat­ed:

• Best Self-Paced Online Colleges
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• Intro­duc­tion to Com­pe­ten­cy-Based Education
• Online Two-Year Bachelor’s Degrees: What You Need to Know
• The Val­ue of Accel­er­at­ed Bachelor’s Degrees for High School Students

What Are AP Exams?

AP class­es are col­lege-lev­el cours­es you can take while in high school, giv­ing you a head start on your col­lege edu­ca­tion. Earn­ing col­lege cred­it through AP exams start­ed in 1952 to help Amer­i­can stu­dents stay com­pet­i­tive with their peers world­wide. Cre­at­ed by the Col­lege Board (which also runs the SAT), the pro­gram helps stu­dents show they’re ready for col­lege and gives them an edge in the col­lege admis­sions process.

AP pro­grams then had just 11 sub­jects and a few hun­dred stu­dents. Today, there are 38 sub­jects, and over two mil­lion stu­dents take at least one AP class each year. AP class­es are tougher than reg­u­lar hon­ors cours­es and are designed to give you a real taste of col­lege-lev­el work.

AP class­es are used as a key to get­ting into top col­leges. For exam­ple, by the ear­ly 1960s, Har­vard noticed that half of their incom­ing stu­dents had tak­en AP class­es. AP cours­es were so pres­ti­gious then that hav­ing them on your record was almost as impres­sive as get­ting a top SAT score.

The AP pro­gram ini­tial­ly helped main­ly stu­dents from wealthy, pre­dom­i­nant­ly white schools, as many high schools did­n’t offer AP class­es. By 1969, only 14% of high schools had AP students.

Over time, the pro­gram grew rapid­ly. The num­ber of stu­dents tak­ing AP exams rose from 75,600 in the mid-1970s to 2.6 mil­lion in 2016, with more stu­dents of col­or par­tic­i­pat­ing as well.

How AP Exams Translate to College Credit

When deter­min­ing how to use AP exams for col­lege cred­it, it’s impor­tant to note that not all col­leges give the same weight to AP cred­its. Every col­lege has its own rules. Some schools may accept AP scores for cred­it, while oth­ers might use them more for place­ment or not rec­og­nize them at all.

Before dis­cussing the ben­e­fits of AP exams for col­lege cred­it, let’s first look at how AP exams gen­er­al­ly trans­late into col­lege cred­it. The details can vary a lot from one col­lege to another:

Scoring System

AP exams use the 1 to 5 scor­ing range, with 5 being the high­est. Usu­al­ly, a score of 3 is the min­i­mum need­ed for col­lege cred­it, but it varies by school. A 4 shows strong per­for­mance and often gets more cred­it, while a 5, indi­cat­ing excel­lent grasp, usu­al­ly earns the most cred­it and advanced placement.

Credit Policies

AP cred­it poli­cies at col­leges vast­ly dif­fer. Some schools might give cred­it for a score of 3, while oth­ers might require a score of 4 or 5. Addi­tion­al­ly, the amount of cred­it and the spe­cif­ic cours­es you can skip depend on the col­lege’s policy.

Let’s take a quick look at dif­fer­ent schools and their AP cred­it policies.

• Har­vard Col­lege: Requires a score of 5 for AP cred­it, and stu­dents must earn at least 32 cred­its through AP exams to acti­vate Advanced Standing.
• Mass­a­chu­setts Insti­tute of Tech­nol­o­gy: Awards cred­it only for cer­tain sub­jects with a score of 5, and stu­dents may need to pass an addi­tion­al Advanced Stand­ing Exam.
• North­west­ern Uni­ver­si­ty: Accepts scores from 3 to 5 depend­ing on the sub­ject, with each under­grad­u­ate school deter­min­ing how the cred­it applies.
• Uni­ver­si­ty of Notre Dame: Accepts scores of 4 to 5, with an excep­tion for a score of 3 on Latin.
• George­town Uni­ver­si­ty: Accepts AP scores of 4 to 5, with spe­cif­ic poli­cies for each subject.

Benefits of Earning College Credit Through AP Exams

Cost Savings

The top ben­e­fit of AP exams col­lege sav­ings is in the mon­e­tary aspect.

In 2023, an AP Exam cost $97 on aver­age (or $145 for AP Sem­i­nar and Research), com­pared to over $1,150 for a typ­i­cal col­lege class. This means AP class­es can offer sub­stan­tial cost sav­ings. A $35 dis­count per AP Exam is avail­able for those with finan­cial needs, so be sure to ask your AP coor­di­na­tor for help.

Time Savings

Using AP cred­its to light­en your course load might help you grad­u­ate soon­er. It can also save you mon­ey on liv­ing expens­es, espe­cial­ly if you’re pay­ing for cam­pus hous­ing or oth­er costs.

Academic Preparation

AP high school cours­es pre­pare you for col­lege by mim­ic­k­ing the dif­fi­cul­ty of col­lege class­es. Doing well in these cours­es often means you’ll excel in col­lege, and many schools offer cred­it or advanced place­ment for good AP scores, sav­ing you both time and money.

Flexibility

Earn­ing col­lege cred­it for high school AP exams also gives you more flex­i­bil­i­ty in col­lege. It lets you explore minors, spe­cial­iza­tions, dou­ble degrees, study abroad, or extra electives.

Top Strategies for Maximizing AP Exam Success

Select the Right AP Courses

With var­i­ous options, AP course selec­tion for col­lege can be chal­leng­ing. Start by think­ing about what inter­ests you, where you’re strong aca­d­e­m­i­cal­ly, and your future goals. Choose sub­jects you enjoy, match them to your strengths, and con­sid­er how they fit with your col­lege or career plans. Also, be hon­est about how many AP class­es you can han­dle, along with every­thing else.

Develop Effective Study Habits

AP class­es will chal­lenge you; they come with a lot of study­ing and exam pres­sure. Here are two prac­ti­cal AP exam strate­gies for success:

1. Make a Study Sched­ule: Set up a reg­u­lar study time that fits your peak focus hours—some work best in the after­noon, oth­ers at night. Spread out study­ing for mul­ti­ple AP exams across dif­fer­ent days to cov­er each sub­ject thoroughly.
2. Iden­ti­fy Focus Areas: Start by review­ing old class mate­ri­als to find strengths and weak­ness­es, then check the AP exam descrip­tions to catch any con­tent gaps not cov­ered in class.

Utilize Resources

Sup­ple­ment with AP review books, free online tools like Khan Acad­e­my, and help­ful pod­casts or YouTube chan­nels. You should also take 2–3 prac­tice tests to get famil­iar with the AP exam for­mat and use resources from AP Class­room for prac­tice ques­tions. If need­ed, con­sid­er a tutor for per­son­al­ized help.

Common Myths About AP Exams and College Credit

Myth 1: AP exams are only for the best students.

AP exams can be chal­leng­ing, but they’re not exclu­sive­ly for stu­dents at the top of their class. They’re great for any­one who wants to explore sub­jects they’re pas­sion­ate about or get a jump on col­lege-lev­el work.

Myth 2: All colleges accept AP credits the same way.

Accep­tance of AP cred­its varies per col­lege. Some col­leges may give you course cred­it for AP scores, oth­ers might use them for place­ment, and oth­ers might not con­sid­er them.

Myth 3: Taking too many AP exams is overwhelming and not beneficial.

This can be true. Before sign­ing up for mul­ti­ple AP cours­es, con­sid­er if you can man­age the stress and fit the work­load into your sched­ule. If you think you can han­dle it, go for it.

How to Find Colleges with Favorable AP Credit Policies

Here’s a quick step-by-step on how to find col­leges with gen­er­ous AP cred­it policies:

1. Start by check­ing each col­lege’s offi­cial web­site for their AP cred­it trans­fer policy.
2. Look for a detailed list of AP exams and the cor­re­spond­ing cred­its awarded.
3. Use tools like the Col­lege Board­’s AP Cred­it Pol­i­cy Search and com­pare how dif­fer­ent col­leges accept AP credits.
4. Con­sid­er con­tact­ing admis­sions offices for clar­i­fi­ca­tion and review­ing stu­dent forums or col­lege guide­books for insights.

Under­stand­ing AP scores for col­lege cred­it for every insti­tu­tion you’re eye­ing for is very impor­tant. It allows you to max­i­mize your cred­its, plan your course load, and avoid re-tak­ing courses.

Conclusion

Earn­ing col­lege cred­it through AP exams is great for not only sav­ing time and mon­ey but also men­tal­ly prepar­ing for the rig­ors of col­lege-lev­el course­work. These exams are chal­leng­ing and com­pet­i­tive; they require a lot of study time and com­mit­ment. Before pur­su­ing an AP class, ensure you’ve eval­u­at­ed your goals and cur­rent study schedule.