Advanced Placement (AP) courses were created by the College Board, an American non-profit organisation which administers exams relevant to university admissions, as a way for secondary-school students to experience a university-level course. The majority of requirements in American state schools are decided on either local or the state level, with individual states, districts and schools formulating their own standards in education. The APs (and other, similar tests) are an exception to this rule which help to establish a nationwide standard for exceptional academic performance.

The AP courses cover a wide variety of subjects, but each one culminates in a major exam in May, the prep for which can be a harrowing experience for many students. Universities are often impressed by students who have taken multiple AP courses and will sometimes offer course credit for them. However, the difficulty of the courses means that they should by no means be taken lightly.

How Do These Classes Work?

In your high school¹, you will sign up for an AP course just as you would for any other class, when you determine next year's course schedule. For example, instead of taking regular American History, you might instead choose to fill that slot in your schedule with AP American History. An AP class can fulfil any course requirements that you have in certain subjects. At some schools, there are certain prerequisites for taking an AP: you may have to have achieved a certain grade in previous classes, passed a test or have been nominated by a teacher. An AP class, due to the difficult nature, is often taught by a more experienced teacher and students have been known to sign up for APs solely on the strength of the teacher's reputation. Your school may require you to take APs, or could conceivably not offer any APs at all. It might also impose a limit on the number of AP credits you can receive, but no limits are imposed by the College Board itself. The College Board designed AP courses to be the highest level of academics available at a typical school. As such, they are often undertaken by older students or those who have previously taken a more basic class in the given subject, but again, that is not always the case.

In the class itself, lessons are taught at a much faster pace than in a non-AP class. The American academic year tends to run from August or September to June and AP classes are generally designed to last a full year. But the exams are in May and the material is meant to be that which would be covered in a single standard university course. The format, like many other high school classes, is sometimes that of a lecture, where the teacher speaks and students take notes, ask questions and do example problems. However, this is not always the case, as science courses, such as Chemistry or Computer Science, also have a hands-on component. Much attention is given to preparation for the final exam and the tests taken in class will bear a great resemblance to the AP test itself. Despite their comparative difficulty, more class time is not generally accorded to APs (though this, of course, can vary school-to-school). Thus, it's necessary to do a considerable amount of studying and reading out of class and come after school if you need individual help from your teacher. There's simply no time in class to attend to such things.

AP classes are considered difficult enough that an 'A' in an AP class can be worth much more than an A in a non-AP class. As such, some schools weight APs differently on the 'grade point average scale'². Depending on the school, a grade of 'A' in an AP class could be worth five points instead of four, so it is possible to have a grade point average of over 4.0, the normal number for a student with straight A's. It should be very easy to find out if your school is one which weights AP classes: your teacher, your guidance counsellor or friends who have already taken the course should know. Note, however, that certain schools or school districts may decide to weight other advanced classes differently as well.

What's This 'Test' Thing About?

As was mentioned earlier, students enrolled in an AP class are required to take a final exam administered by the College Board³. The first two weeks in May have the frightening label of 'AP testing time' and many other activities are put on hold as students revise with their classes and on their own. On the given day, everyone all over the country takes the test at exactly the same time, as there is only one version of the test. For example, the morning session of testing would begin at 8.00am Pacific time, but at 11.00am Eastern time.

This exam is graded on a five-point rubric, and with a high score it is sometimes possible to by-pass required courses at university or even get course credit. However, your score on the test should not affect your grade in the class: though high schools do receive AP scores from the College Board, they most likely will not know the scores of individual students and what data they do have may arrive too late to impact a student's grade. Students' class grades are determined at the teacher's discretion, usually through a combination of the grades the student receives on individual assignments. If you do score well on the test, though, you may be eligible for an AP Scholar Award. If you achieve a score of three on at least three tests, you will receive a certificate and can reference the honour on your university applications. More prestigious awards are also offered for achieving higher scores or for being the top scorer in your state.

For every subject, the exam always features a multiple-choice section and a free response section. The free response might consist of essays on an English or history test, or difficult problems on a maths or science test. Some of the language tests also involve a listening and speaking component. There are always choices: three prompts for essays and on maths and science tests you need only answer a certain number of the available problems.

It's worth keeping in mind that the test doesn't just happen automatically: you will need to register for it through your school and pay the registration fee for each test that you're taking - at time of writing, 82 US Dollars. If you cannot afford to pay the fee(s), the College Board offers a fee reduction programme by which it is possible to pay a little over half the cost instead. Another option is to not pay the fee at all by not taking the test. However, while you may get a very good experience out of the advanced class, your high school and, later, the universities you apply to may not give you credit for having taken an AP course if you haven't taken the test.

The format of the AP course, culminating in the test, has often been criticised. This format requires that teachers 'teach to the test', which really means that there is far less pedagogical independence than in an actual university course, where the professor sets their own final exam. However, it is also argued that the test means that students across the entire United States are being taught to a uniform educational standard. The debate shows no signs of stopping, but it should be noted that many students themselves are dissatisfied with the courses' format.

What Types of APs Can I Take?

The full list consists of 35 courses:

• Art History
• Biology
• Calculus AB
• Calculus BC
• Chemistry
• Computer Science A
• Computer Science AB
• Macroeconomics
• Microeconomics
• English Language
• English Literature
• Environmental Science
• European History
• French Language
• French Literature
• German Language
• Comparative Government & Politics
• US Government & Politics
• Human Geography
• Italian Language and Culture
• Latin Literature
• Latin: Vergil
• Music Theory
• Physics B
• Physics C
• Psychology
• Spanish Language
• Spanish Literature
• Statistics
• Studio Art
• US History
• World History

You will note that for the Physics, Computer Science and Calculus courses, there are two versions of the test available. One is more basic and the other is more challenging, or requires certain background skills that may not be necessary for the easier level. For example, Physics B does not require a knowledge of calculus, while Physics C does. Calculus AB provides certain foundations that it's assumed you already have in Calculus BC. Computer Science AB goes into much more depth than Computer Science A. Sometimes schools will offer one course and then you choose which test to take, or sometimes they will offer a course geared towards one of the different tests.

Obviously, the available courses present a very wide range, and you'd be hard-pressed to find a school that offers even the majority of these courses. At a good school, though, you should be able to have access to a good selection. If your school doesn't have the course you want, it's also possible to learn the material on your own or with the help of a private tutor and then take the test. As long as you take the test, you can receive credit for the course.

The Science APs

These include Physics, Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science, Psychology and Computer Science. The science courses are notoriously difficult - Chemistry and Physics are widely regarded as the most difficult of all the APs and are often undertaken specifically by those who are planning on careers in the sciences, medicine or engineering - though other students who want to get into excellent universities may certainly elect to take these courses as well. In contrast, Biology and Psychology are more often attempted by the general AP-taking population, while Environmental Science and Computer Science tend to appeal to the niche markets of 'tree-huggers' and 'computer nerds'.

Despite the fact that these are all science courses, the majority of which will offer some hands-on learning such as labs or the creation of a computer program, the AP tests themselves do not have practical components. The AP Computer Science test might ask about the theoretical concepts involved with creating a program or about the fine points of programming languages such as Java. Although the test would also ask you about the output of a hypothetical program or how you might construct a program to accomplish a task, it's all done on paper instead of on an actual computer. The Chemistry exam would not have you literally cause a chemical reaction, but you would definitely be required to model such a reaction with a balanced chemical equation, predict the products of the reaction and determine the yield of the products. You would also have to be familiar with certain types of labs and the concepts associated with doing them. In general, science APs function on a theoretical level, asking you to imagine yourself performing the experiment instead of actually performing it. Each test will include a multiple-choice and a free response section, that features more difficult questions and usually including multiple, inter- connected parts.

The Maths APs

Comprising Calculus and Statistics, the maths APs are relatively self-explanatory. The level of calculus or statistics taught in a maths AP is akin to that found in a university course. The Calculus and Statistics tests feature fairly straightforward problems for these branches of mathematics, often involving the interpretation of graphs and word problems that present real-life applications.

Calculus is considered to be a much more difficult course than Statistics. As such, a student in their final year of high school, taking a maths AP in order to provide a boost for college admissions, might only choose Calculus if their skills tended towards the mathematical. Otherwise, for those who are less mathematically gifted, Statistics would be the better option.

The English/Language APs

These include English Literature/Language, French Literature/Language, German Language, Italian Language and Culture, Latin Literature/Vergil⁴ and Spanish Language/Literature. Both Japanese and Chinese Language and Culture are due to be added to the list in 2007. The English courses are taken quite frequently by university-bound students, but the foreign language courses are generally only attempted by those who have been studying the language for some time and are considered proficient.

The difference between the 'Language' and 'Literature' courses (and thus, tests) is one of approach: in a 'Language' course the focus would be on how the language in question works, while a 'Literature' course places its emphasis on works of literature written in the relevant language. AP English Language involves literary styles and style elements such as 'metaphor' or 'hyperbole'⁵. A 'Language' course in a foreign language, on the other hand, would involve listening to and speaking the language in a modern context, even occasionally featuring extra-curricular immersion programmes - for example, an AP French Language class might offer the option for students to take a trip to France in order to practice their speaking skills⁶. The tests for foreign 'Language' courses all involve speaking components, in which a student would listen to a recording and respond in the relevant language.

On the other hand, 'Literature' courses (as may seem obvious from the word) are surveys of the relevant works in a given language. For the test, one would have to, in addition to answering multiple-choice questions, write an essay involving the analysis of a piece or pieces of literature on the course's reading list. There is also often a 'free choice' prompt, for which you can pick any pieces relevant to the course to analyse. The one anomaly in the selection of 'Literature' courses is the Latin Vergil course, which centres entirely around the epic poem Aeneid. The candidate would have to answer questions about Latin vocabulary or grammar taken from the poem, translate a passage and then analyse it. Analysis of literature in a foreign language is considered by AP-takers to be especially difficult: not only do you have to understand all the words in a language that you do not speak every day, you also have to comment on abstract concepts like metaphor that do not come easily even in the mother tongue.

The structure of the foreign language AP courses, particularly those pertaining to 'living' languages⁷, has come under fire from some language teachers because they are not seen as achieving the objectives of foreign language classes - to be able to live and interact in today's global world. It is certainly the case that more elementary foreign language classes in America are always taught with a practical application: vocabulary consists of what you might need to order in a restaurant or understand the commentary of a sports match, and grammar is kept to the minimum necessary to speak in a way that is intelligible and correct to native speakers. On the other hand, AP 'Language' courses are very much focused on grammar and elements of the language considered to be impractical. It is the wish of many foreign language teachers that the students should not be seen as wasting their time in AP classes.

The History and Social Studies APs

Comprising Macro- and Micro-economics, European History, Comparative Government and Politics, US Government and Politics, Human Geography, US History and World History, the history APs are generally thought to be the easier selection. It is very easy to glean some background knowledge about American and world politics simply by living in the United States and reading the newspaper occasionally. In addition, European History is known to be the exam graded on the easiest level and thus is the AP most frequently offered to younger students. In addition, the economics, geography and politics courses are seen as being very practical for future study or careers and so are taken by a wide range of people.

The more traditional history tests (US, European and World History) are unique in that they include an additional section: the document-based question (DBQ). In a DBQ you are given a prompt, some background information and about 12 excerpts from primary sources, around which you must construct an essay. This is in contrast to the standard AP essay, in which you are working without any access to sources or information other than that which you have memorised. Some regard the DBQ as more difficult than a traditional essay, though some find it easier - it all depends on what sort of test-taking is more suited to how your mind works.

The Arts APs

Art History, Music Theory and Studio Art have been grouped together for convenience, as they do not belong to any of the four 'core' subjects (Maths, Science, English/Language or History). Though Art History is technically a History course, the fact that it requires a sound knowledge of art means that it is often taken by people already interested in the visual arts. Likewise, Music Theory is invariably undertaken by those who are already musicians and Studio Art by talented, artistic students. In fact, admission to Studio Art is often based upon a portfolio submitted by the prospective student.

The Art History AP test follows the format of the other history tests (multiple-choice plus essay), but Music Theory and Studio Art are a little more unorthodox. In Music Theory, in addition to answering multiple-choice questions, you might be asked to write a given scale or cord progression, or even a short composition. There is also a recorded sight-singing component: you are given an unfamiliar melody and a note to start on and must sing the notes into a tape recorder. For the Studio Art test, you might have to draw an accurate sketch of a real object or employ artistic concepts such as perspective or shading in the creation of another sketch. These two APs are intended, by and large, for those who already have talent to gain credit for them and the beginner is discouraged from taking the courses.

Who Takes APs - and What Do They Think?

The students who choose to take APs are by and large the higher achievers and more academically motivated, those who are trying to get into good universities and those who are interested in learning more than can be offered in a non-AP class. In many schools, there's a clique of students of this type. They can tend to be somewhat elitist, very competitive about grades and devoted to quizbowl, maths team, etc. While AP addicts, those who take as many APs as their schedule will allow, do tend to conform to this stereotype, there are many more students who will take one or two APs throughout high school for the extra challenge, for university admissions or just to see what it's like. Sometimes a student might take an AP because they happen to know they can do well in it, for example, a student gifted in art might take Studio Art as their only AP, or a student fluent in French might decide to take French Language. Often, the more popular courses tend to be those thought to be easier. For example, in a school that offers both, European History might have a higher enrollment than Physics, due to the fact that the former is considered to be considerably more straightforward.

Some students love the challenge of APs; some loathe the extra work. While we cannot hope to be comprehensive of all opinions, here is one Researcher's point of view:

I love taking APs because the subject material is more interesting and the other class members seem to often be more motivated and the teacher more experienced. But the classes seem to lose their sense of coolness sometimes when you've got the test hanging over your head. Teaching to the test is the most depressing thing ever to come out of school, and AP courses in particular.

Can I Still Take APs If I'm Home-schooled or Don't Live in the US?

If you're home-schooled and live in the US, there's absolutely no problem. You'll need to contact AP Services, who will tell you who you should contact in your area about taking the tests. You should be able to find a school in your area that is willing to administer the tests to home-schooled students. That school's AP Coordinator will become responsible for ordering your test materials.

Though APs are not generally offered outside of the United States or American international schools, universities all over the world will recognise AP test grades and take them into account in the admissions process. Many universities in countries like Canada, Australia and the UK offer to do so, as do some universities in Taiwan, Uruguay and the Czech Republic.

However, if you're looking for a programme that can be continued and is recognised just about anywhere, the International Baccalaureate Organisation (IB) offers a set of demanding curricula for children ages three to 19 years. IB programmes are offered at schools throughout the world - including in the US in place of APs - and are highly regarded by institutions of higher learning.

Another option at some American schools that don't offer APs⁸ is to take community college courses that are offered through the school. These are generally run by the state education department, not the individual college, in order to provide consistency with the high school curriculum. However, as is the case with AP courses, you may not be able to get university credit for taking these classes.

So, Should I Bother?

A lot of high school students take AP courses because they believe that doing so can give them university course credit or get them out of required courses. However, this is only true in some universities. Many of the upper-tier universities do not give credit for APs, and many of the students who take advanced courses like APs would like to apply to some of the more prestigious universities.

On the other hand, the fact that you as a university applicant have taken APs - especially if you have done well on the tests - can be impressive to university admissions people. In addition, if your school is one that applies the weighted GPA to AP courses, your classmates and teachers might be very impressed by a GPA over 4.0.

Of course, doing something just to get into a good school is not the only reason you should undertake it, especially if you're not going to enjoy yourself or if you're anticipating a large amount of difficulty with the material. If you're willing to take the time to study and are interested enough in the material, then it's worth going ahead and taking an AP. It can give you an interesting experience that you might not otherwise get in your high school career.