AP stands for Advanced Placement. An AP class is a high school course written to the standard of an introductory university course, following a syllabus published by the College Board, and ending in a standardised exam each May that is scored from 1 to 5. Universities may award credit or placement for those scores.
That is the whole idea. Everything else тАФ which courses exist, who can take them, whether they are worth it тАФ follows from it.
(AI-Math is an independent study tool with no affiliation to the College Board. Course lists and exam formats change; check the official AP course catalogue for the current year.)
How an AP course works
Three things distinguish an AP course from an honours course at the same school:
- A published, externally set curriculum. Each course has a Course and Exam Description (CED) that specifies units, topics, skills and approximate exam weightings. Your teacher does not choose the content.
- An externally marked exam. Taken in May, marked by trained readers, and reported as a single 1тАУ5 score independent of your class grade.
- A course audit. Schools must submit a syllabus for approval before they may label a course "AP" on a transcript.
Your class grade and your exam score are entirely separate. You can earn an A in the class and a 2 on the exam, or a C and a 5. Colleges see the class grade on your transcript; the exam score is reported separately and often optionally.
How many AP courses are there?
Close to forty, and the number moves as courses are added and retired тАФ AP Precalculus was added for 2023-24, and others are in pilot. Grouped roughly:
Maths and computer science. Precalculus, Calculus AB, Calculus BC, Statistics, Computer Science A, Computer Science Principles.
Sciences. Biology, Chemistry, Environmental Science, Physics 1, Physics 2, Physics C: Mechanics, Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism.
History and social sciences. United States History, World History: Modern, European History, US Government and Politics, Comparative Government and Politics, Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, Psychology, Human Geography, African American Studies.
English. English Language and Composition, English Literature and Composition.
World languages and cultures. Spanish Language, Spanish Literature, French, German, Italian, Chinese, Japanese, Latin.
Arts. Art History, Music Theory, Art and Design (2-D, 3-D and Drawing portfolios).
AP Capstone. Seminar and Research тАФ two research and writing courses that, combined with four other AP exams, earn the AP Capstone Diploma.
No school offers all of them. A typical American high school offers somewhere between 8 and 25, and admissions readers assess your choices against what your school actually offered, not against the full catalogue.
The most popular AP courses
By volume, the largest exams are consistently AP English Language, AP United States History, AP Psychology, AP US Government, AP Calculus AB and AP World History. That matters practically: popular courses have far more published practice material, more teachers who have taught them for years, and more classmates to study with. A less common course can be a good choice, but you will be more on your own.
What are the real benefits?
Course rigour in admissions. The most reliable benefit. Selective universities look at whether you took the most demanding courses available to you. This applies whether or not you ever sit the exam.
Genuine preparation. A well-taught AP course is a real rehearsal for university pace and workload. Students who arrive having written a timed AP essay or worked through a full calculus syllabus are measurably less surprised in their first semester.
Credit and placement. Sometimes substantial, sometimes nothing, entirely dependent on where you enrol. We cover how this actually works in Do AP classes count as college credit?
Weighted GPA. Most US high schools add 1.0 to AP course grades on a weighted scale, though policies vary and some universities recalculate GPA without weighting.
Free exploration. An AP course is the cheapest way to find out whether you like a subject before committing a university application to it. Discovering in eleventh grade that you dislike chemistry is a good outcome.
The honest drawbacks
Workload compounds non-linearly. Three AP courses is not three times one. Deadlines cluster, and May is a wall.
Breadth over depth. AP courses are constrained by an exam. Some are magnificent; some are a forced march through a syllabus that leaves no time for the interesting parts of the subject.
Cost. Each exam carries a fee. Fee reductions exist for eligible students and many US states and districts subsidise or fully cover exams тАФ worth asking your counsellor about explicitly, because it is often not advertised.
The GPA trap. Taking easy APs purely to inflate a weighted GPA is transparent to admissions readers and displaces courses that would have taught you something.
How do I get into AP classes?
Enrolment is governed by your school, not the College Board, and the process is usually:
- Check the prerequisites. Most maths and science APs require specified prior courses and sometimes a minimum grade. AP Calculus normally requires precalculus; AP Chemistry normally requires first-year chemistry and a maths co-requisite.
- Ask during course selection. This usually happens in late winter for the following year. Missing the window is the most common reason students do not get a seat.
- Get a teacher recommendation if required. Some schools gate AP enrolment behind current-teacher approval.
- Appeal if you are declined. Many schools have an open-enrolment or waiver policy that lets a motivated student in over a recommendation, sometimes with a parent signature. Ask.
- Self-study if the course does not exist at your school. You can register to take almost any AP exam through a school that administers it, even without taking the class, though you must arrange this well before the registration deadline. Ask your counsellor early тАФ the deadline is months before the exam.
Can you take AP classes in college?
No, and the question usually means something else. AP is a high school programme; university courses are simply university courses. What you can do is use AP scores at college for credit or placement. If you are already enrolled at a university, sitting an AP exam has no value.
How many should you take?
There is no correct number, but there is a useful principle: take the most demanding schedule you can handle while still doing well in it and having a life outside class. A student with four APs, strong grades, and a serious extracurricular commitment presents better than one with eight APs, mixed grades, and nothing else. Colleges evaluate rigour in the context of what your school offers, and no admissions office has a threshold count.
If you are aiming at a quantitative field, the sequence that repays effort most is precalculus into AP Calculus into AP Statistics or Physics C. Build the algebra fluency underneath it first тАФ most AP maths difficulty is really algebra difficulty, and tools like our equation solver and factoring calculator are for exactly that gap.
Related: Hardest AP classes ranked by difficulty and How to prepare for AP exams