Academic Counseling (AP Classes)

The Advanced Placement (AP) program is a cooperative educational endeavor between secondary schools and colleges and universities.  The AP program offers college-level courses and exams that give high school students the opportunity to receive advanced placement and/or credit in college.  The purpose of the AP program offers students the opportunity to develop higher level thinking skills through an immersion in rigorous content, an accelerated pace, and performance assessment at the synthesis and evaluative levels.

Students must take an AP Exam for the course content they are enrolled in and receive a score of 3 or higher to receive college credit.

Approximately 1200 institutions of higher learning award credit based on a student's AP examination scores.  AP examinations are structured to measure depth of knowledge, completeness of thought, and synthesis of ideas.  Each AP exam contains both multiple choice and free response questions that require essay writing, problem solving, and other skills.  Each exam receives an overall score based on a five point scale, with college credit usually given for scores of 3 or higher:

Scale:

5 - Extremely well qualified
4 - Well qualified
3 - Qualified
2 - Possibly qualified
1 - No recommendation

AP exams are administered each year during the first two weeks of May.  AP Grade Reports are sent in July to each student's home address, high school, and if the student has requested, to designated colleges.

Each college and university decides how much credit to award for AP scores.  This information can be found by using the AP Credit Policy search at www.collegeboard.com/ap/creditpolicy