Everyone knows that to get into a decent college, you have to take AP courses in high school. But do you really?
Most high schoolers aim to take a few AP classes, before they graduate, in order to earn college credits, take higher level courses for their transcript, and to learn something new (I’m just kidding, let’s be real …. nobody takes an AP class to learn something new).
In 2017, 1.17 million high school students took AP classes. Just a year before, this number was 1.14 million — 0.03 million more students took AP classes, in the span of one year. Looking at this number over a span of a decade, only 23.9 percent students participated in AP classes in 2007, while 37.7 percent students took AP courses in 2017. This is a major jump; but what inspired this dramatic increase?
Some would argue, ‘the fast-paced and highly competitive world we live in today’, resulted in students becoming competitive, earlier in their education. While this may be true, I think some student are caught up in a blinding mind set of society.
The idea that AP classes must be taken to make one’s transcript stand out, or that you need it for college credits, has been engrained into our thought process. Sadly, some people follow this mentality, without giving it much thought.
So what’s the point of AP classes? Is it all just a scam?
CollegeBoard is a business that scams students out of hundreds of dollars, each year. Students must pay to take AP exams, take the SAT, send scores to colleges, and to rush order scores in case they won’t arrive in time. While this may seem worth it — if you can get equivalent college credits — some students are devastated to find that their future college may not even accept these credits. In this case, students find themselves wasting hundreds of dollars.
So what do you think? Is it worth taking an AP class, just because everyone is doing it?
Looking at AP classes from a different point of view, most students categorize AP as the ‘smart-student classes’, while honors and academic-level classes are seen as a lower standard. But how true does this hold? I would say, it all depends on the teacher.
Because AP classes are known for their rigorous course load, some teachers teach-to-the-test. They only cover the material found on the exam, and forego the rest. As a result, some may argue that the class is easier than a real college course — or maybe even easier than an equivalent high school honors course. In comparison, some teachers pack students with course work — giving them the real college-level-course experience. Depending on one’s teacher, they may have found their AP level class to be a ‘breeze’ or found themselves struggling with the amount of work.
Again, this lack of consistency, causes a disparity within courses. Two students taking the exact same course, may have had two completely different experiences.
So, are AP classes a true equivalent of a college course? Is it fair that some teachers prepare students for real college courses, while the others give them a free-pass with an ‘AP’ title?