Throughout high school, some people will take up to 18 AP classes and some may take none. What is the correct way to approach these choices?

AP classes offer students a way to expose themselves to college-level courses in high school. They can earn college credit if they pass the exam at the end of the year, which could ultimately save them money. (However, acceptance of AP credit varies among colleges and within subject areas because colleges and universities have different requirements.)

When did AP start?

According to the College Board, AP classes were started because there was a large gap between secondary and higher education in the early 20th century. The Ford Foundation created the Fund for the Advancement of Education. The foundation supported two studies where secondary schools and colleges worked together and “formulated a plan for developing college level curricula and standards that could be instituted at the high school level.”

This led to a pilot program in 1952 with 11 AP courses, and by 1955, “the College Board was invited to step in and take over administration of the program, named the College Board Advanced Placement Program.”

What about at SFHS?

Although there are 20 AP courses offered at Santa Fe High, students are not required to take any.

Mr. Eadie, the school’s AP coordinator, says that in order to administer AP exams at the school, a participation form needs to be completed and each teacher needs to be authorized by the College Board to teach that course. (Although he does not know when the AP program was begun at Santa Fe High, he says it was well before 1996, when he started teaching here.)

Two years ago, Santa Fe Public Schools was honored to be on the AP Honor Roll, a distinction awarded to school districts that increase AP access to underrepresented students while simultaneously maintaining or increasing the percentage of students earning AP exam scores of 3 or higher, according to the College Board.

What are these classes like?

AP classes can sometimes feel like a different realm because they are usually filled with students who have high expectations of themselves and want to try their best. AP Computer Science teacher Brian Smith explains, “In general, [the students who take AP classes] tend to be folks who are more driven, motivated, and are wanting to apply to more selective colleges.”

Roya Ahmadi-Moghadam, a Santa Fe High sophomore, says the social scene alone in AP classes makes them worth taking: “The people in these classes are at a higher level and are easier to work with.”

These classes show that students are willing to push themselves, which is now essential in the college application process. As stated in a “College Raptor” article about academic rigor, “The average will not wow [colleges]… They want to see you pushing yourself. They want to see you stepping out of your comfort zone and working hard to accomplish good grades.”

In addition to making an applicant look more impressive than the average student, AP classes can boost a student’s GPA since grades of A, B, and C are weighted. This means that although a student might have earned a C in a class, and a C will be listed on his or her transcript, a B is actually figured into the GPA.

What are the downsides?

Regardless of the advantages of the AP program, some use these classes only to embellish their transcripts, not because they are actually interested in the subjects they’re studying.

Roya continues by stating that she “feels obligated” to take AP classes, especially because of the lack of honors classes here at Santa Fe High. There is no in between.

Money plays a role in AP courses because of the cost of the exam at the end of the year. At $93 dollars per exam, this is a burden for many families, though there are funds to help some students who have trouble paying. (In addition, students who receive free or reduced-price lunches pay only $3 per exam.)

It is often forgotten that AP classes are college-level courses, and while a number of high school students take four or five at a time, most college students are not required to take this many classes at once, as Sonali Kohli explains in a “Los Angeles Times” article: “Ideally, there should be enough time for school, homework, any extracurriculars or work commitments, and nine (yes, nine) hours of sleep.”

Adequate sleep and free time are often difficult for students who pile on the AP courses. Some schools limit the number of AP classes a student can take at one time to deter students from being overly stressed and not having enough time for everything they have to do.

Santa Fe High sophomore Arrika Duran explains that while an AP class might prepare students for college, “It adds to the stress level of everyday life because of the extra workload.”

However, Mr. Eadie says, “I don’t deny that AP increases stress levels for high school students. But isn’t stress part of life? And ultimately what makes AP so distinct is its students’ dedication to taking responsibility and interest in their education and their future, which includes dealing with stress and facing challenges.”

Do they really help students?

Other students feel pressured to take AP classes even if they are not ready or prepared for them. An article in the “New York Times” uses the AP Biology exam as an example and gives data showing that the number of students taking the exam has more than doubled since 1977, but with that, the score average has decreased from 3.18 to 2.63 (on a scale of 1 to 5).

This seems to be the case with many other AP exams as well. John Tierney, a former professor of American government at Boston College writing in “The Atlantic,” says, “Studies show that increasing numbers of the students who take [AP classes] are marginal at best, resulting in growing failure rates on the exams.” These “marginal” students are a disadvantage to the students who have the skills to take an advanced class.

There is also evidence that students who take AP classes in high school are more likely to to succeed in college, but as the “Washington Post” states, “It should come as no surprise that the same motivated, hardworking, and advanced students who take AP classes in high school are still motivated, hardworking, successful students when they get to the university.”

The fast pace at which AP courses are taught can be seen as both a blessing and a curse. The pace helps prepare students for what is expected in college, but it strains them and the teacher because there is such a vast amount of material to cover in a short amount of time.

Santa Fe High junior Theo Goujon says, “As a student I understand that it is hard for teachers to cover everything that needs to be covered before the AP exam,” but he believes that it is necessary for teachers to cover key points that they sometimes do not.

Tierney also criticizes the speed of AP classes: “The courses cover too much material and do so too quickly and superficially. In short, AP courses are a forced march through a preordained subject, leaving no time for a high-school teacher to take her or his students down some path of mutual interest. The AP classroom is where intellectual curiosity goes to die.”

Tierney also refutes the argument that AP courses give students a taste of what college classes are like. “The high-school AP course didn’t begin to hold a candle to any of my college courses,” he writes. “My colleagues said the same was true in their subjects.”

On the other hand, Mr. Smith believes the opposite, stating that the AP classes he took in high school were very similar to the classes he took in college, apart from the fact that the college courses were condensed into one semester.
There are advantages and disadvantages to taking AP classes, and while they may be excellent for some students, they may not necessarily be the right option for every student.