AP courses – What are they and why should we take them?

To us, it is clear that an impeccable curriculum leads to a great impression on college. The reason for which,  a highly recommended activity to take in high school is the “AP courses”, but, what are they exactly? And why are they so significant?

AP stands for “advanced placement”, which means these are introductory college-level courses, this helps you get a better understanding and adaptation to classes in college. These courses take from 16-38 weeks to complete.

They are approximately 38 distinct courses to choose from, each depending on what you would like to pursue in college, even though, here in Lux Mundi only 11 are provided, which are:

AP Art History

AP Biology

AP Calculus

AP English & Comp.

AP Environmental Science

AP Human Geography

AP Macroeconomics

AP Microeconomics

AP Psychology

AP Statistics

AP US Government

To sign up you must first communicate your school about it and make sure they have an alliance with the College Board, then proceed to log in to the College Board website and choose the course you would like to take.

On the downside, it is an extra charge on the student academically since it is an extra class and it implies more effort and organization on their behalf to learn and obtain from a 3 to a 5 in the AP exams, since if you don’t pass the test you cannot obtain most of its benefits.

Nevertheless, it has many prodigious advantages, such as giving you from half to a full college credit per course. Remember, “College credits measure the number of applied hours that are recognized for successful completion of a particular course of study”. They also give you a mayor consequential perspective of your objectives.