AP tests

[memphis]

My high school was hardcore. My AP classes were a hell of a lot more challenging and rewarding than generic 101 in college. A lot has to do with self-selection of interested students into AP classes. And a lot has to do with how much more classroom time you get in high school versus in college. At most 10% of people taking Generic 101 in college have an interest and a talent in the specific material. And because the best students have frequently already APed out, the class really can't compete. Lately, there's been a push in high schools to get more and more marginal students to take AP classes, which has brought down scores and the quality of the classes. In many schools, almost nobody passes AP tests. That's a debate I don't want to get into, but the AP tests are high quality, comprehensive, and fairly difficult to pass (much more so than what's required at State U) .  Having had to sit through plenty of crap I already know just to satisfy requirements, I'm all for being able to test out of as many things as possible.

[memphis]

My high school was hardcore. My AP classes were a hell of a lot more challenging and rewarding than generic 101 in college.

Students always know what's best for them.  They always assume that they have a basis of comparison and a rational and informed and mature world-view.  This is as true about my kindergarten-age son as it is about my graduate students.  

I can assure you that your professors, by and large, do not consider your AP courses to be perfect substitutes for the courses that they teach.  There are some exceptions, I'm sure.  I myself taught AP calculus and AP chemistry, for two years, after obtaining an MS and before going back to grad school to obtain a PhD, and for a very long time I liked to think that any AP course I taught was as good as any freshman-level course being taught at universities.  But once I began teaching university-level courses I understood that this was not the case.

If it is your goal to blow through college in three years, either because of familial economic considerations or because you simply do not enjoy school or because you see education as a means to an end rather than an end in itself, then by all means you might consider applying AP coursework toward your BS degree.  But if you are a serious about learning, about making the most of your education, then I advise you not to apply your advanced placement coursework as a substitute for university-level education.

I hope I'm in financial state in which I can encourage my own son to take advantage of his university's offerings, whatever they may be, once he reaches that point in his life.  Certainly I'll encourage him to take as many AP courses as he can handle, but I won't push him to actually take the AP exam, and if he chooses to, I won't push him to try to get credit in college for those exam scores just to save me money.  But parents do differ in their philosophy regarding what they should and shouldn't do, and I wouldn't tell someone else how to raise his children.

But as a university educator, I can assure you that you are much better off appreciating and bragging about that 5 you scored, and hanging on to it, but ultimately enrolling in the curriculum that your university bulletin suggests.

I'm long through with school and I don't have any kids. I'm not a student, so I don't have a dog in this fight. However, you're way romanticizing college as an experience, greatly overestimating the quality of intro level classes at the average university, and completely discounting the outrageous price of college. If you're at Harvard, by all means, seriously consider if you're ready for the advanced class. However, if after passing an AP exam with a 4 or 5, you're at a state school (with a few exceptions, granted) save yourself the frustration of paying a thousand dollars to share what's essentially a remedial class with 100 hung over frat boys, half of whom shouldn't be at college in the first place. It really isn't that glamorous.
Oh and since everybody is bragging.
Eng Lang 4
US History 5
Eng Lang 5
Euro History 4
French 3

[memphis]

Many years ago, my AP Euro DBQ was about the importance of medieval carnivals. They do obscure topics on purpose because they're trying to gauge one's ability to synthesize new information rather than measure what you already know.