An AP Course is an Advanced Placement® course certified by The College Board as a college-level class taught in high school. Students can earn college credit as well as high school credit for these courses if their scores on the national AP Examinations are high enough to satisfy university requirements. Contact a specific university for information on the amount of credit granted in different subject areas. See the College Board website for AP information.

AP classes are challenging but not impossible. All AP teachers receive extensive training and AP classes use college-level textbooks in order to maintain the level of rigor necessary to pass the national AP Exams. As an incentive for students to take more challenging classes, a 10 point bonus is added to students’ final grades in AP classes. Although Hope presently removes any bonus points given by school systems, it adds back an extra .5 for each AP grade. An 88 in an AP class converts to a 3.5.

AP courses do have homework, like all classes, but AP classes do need more preparation.  Students who have a job and work more than 20 hours a week or who spend more than three hours a day with extracurricular activities will probably have some time management problems.  

Rigor of schedule is now very important to the college admissions process. In order to be competitive with students from across the nation who have transcripts showing many AP courses, students should take as many AP classes as they can. Colleges report that AP courses on a transcript show that the student has initiative, motivation, and time management skills Research shows that students with AP experience have a higher incidence of maintaining a 3.0 or better in college. Research also shows that students with AP experience more often complete college than students who do not.