What AP classes/tests have you taken?

[muon2]

I took no AP courses, and my HS didn't offer them. Some nearby schools did, but my district was of the opinion that most college-bound students would be better served by spending more time really understanding the basics of math (trig and pre-calc) and english (reading and composition), so they offered high-quality teachers in those subjects. For the occasional student who really would benefit by college-level material in HS, they provided a teacher for directed independent study. At my five-year reunion we talked about how college went, and overwhelmingly my classmates talked about how well they did compared to their college peers due to the extra preparation.

Now I know times have changed, and there's a much higher premium on being able to enter college with some credits complete. That's especially true for selective schools. But as someone who has taught for more than two decades at a large public university, I can say I have encountered too many students who used AP to skip an introductory course or two, but show serious defects in their understanding of fundamentals.

[muon2]

This has been the trend for more than a decade now. AP is not only viewed as not rigorous enough by top colleges, but they do not want to lose the money by giving away all this credit and excusing people from taking classes and being there for a shorter period of time. Schools also want to be able to ensure an even, fair curriculum experience for all students, and many high schools do not and cannot have robust AP programs.

There is a key inconsistency happening at the selective schools here. As fenrir points out it's not uncommon for a selective school to require a 5 or even not grant credit at all. Yet they will often offer their own placement tests into sequential courses like math, science, and foreign language. Many of them will then offer credit for the prerequisite that was skipped upon completion of the later courses in the sequence.

Here's the twist. It's isn't that hard for a student who gets a 3 on the AP to get placement through the schools internal placement test. If they grant credit retroactively they have essentially done what AP designed the test to do - make a 3 equivalent to a C from a state university for purposes of transfer. The selective school has made themselves feel superior, but really haven't done anything different than simply accepting the AP score in the first place.