Advance Placement: The Perks, the Pursuit, the Prize

Taking advance placement classes, also known as AP, is a very important decision during your high school career. Before a person makes this choice, they need to understand the benefits, and what an advance placement class is. An advance placement class is a large commitment, it is a college level class, and will provide college level work. These classes will be hard work, whether you take one or five, it will be a challenge, and one needs to be prepared. Before taking an AP class, they must first be chosen. Collegeboard offers over thirty advance placement classes, ranging from art history, calculus, and psychology. There is an AP class that fits every student interests. The best advice when picking a class, is that if you have the option to pick a class, pick an AP class that you will enjoy, not just a class that you will suffer through. By choosing a class you enjoy, the person will do much better in the class, and have fun while learning. There are many advantages to taking advance placement classes. In some schools, there is a GPA ( Grade Point Average) boost from taking and AP class, usually a .04 boost. Also, when applying to colleges, they have their own weighting system, that gives advantages to those who have taken more AP classes. When taking an AP class, a person receives the best educational experience, while being taught in an advance placement class, a student will go in depth to the subject matter of a course, and learn material that they never could in a lower level class. As I said before, there is a certain amount of work in an advance placement class, there will be homework almost every night. It is best that when you take an advance placement class, that you have a good schedule, which is organized, and procrastination will be your biggest enemy with an AP class, procrastination may tempt you, but one must resist the urge to wait. This may seem like a lot, but finally you will reach the end of the year, where all of your education will be tested in the form of a Collegeboard AP test, it is best to get a review book for this, and begin reviewing a couple weeks before. Now after the test is taken, it becomes a waiting game, scores will arrive in July. This is where the prize is seen, if you truly tried on the AP test, and learned that year, then there will indeed be a prize. This prize will be a three, four, or five on the advance placement test. By attaining one of these scores, you may be able to attain college level credit for that class from many colleges. Not only do advance placement classes look good on a schedule, but with hard work they can also give you college credit, making your college experience a much easier one. The best advice I can give, is that if you are committed, and ready to take on a challenge, than an advance placement class is the best way to go.