I suppose the real appeal behind taking these classes is that you manage to gain college credit without having to necessarily pay a whopping thousand grand for it.
Advanced Placement or AP classes are higher-level courses that are supposed to stimulate higher levels of critical thinking in students. At the end of the class, we’re required to give an AP Exam administered by the College Board — if we pass that, huzzah; you’ve earned college credit for that class. I suppose, that’s the real appeal behind taking these classes — you manage to gain college credit without having to necessarily pay a whopping thousand grand for it.
One thing I’ve noticed is that, in a lot of schools, taking AP classes is its own category of classification, its own standard for a group; where we might have the ‘jocks’ and ‘queen bees’ in middle school, in high school you know right away if a kid is in AP or not.
There are some even more competitive high schools out there where every student is, by an unwritten, unmentioned school contract, required to shoulder a full load of AP classes and God forbid if they don’t, it means they’re either a juvenile delinquent or an idiot. But most schools are relatively lenient, and the choice to take AP classes is an especial privilege to students who might also be interested in advancing their knowledge in one particular content area.
Using a test as a benchmark to sum up a year’s learning carries with it many of the same problems the use of standardized tests like the STAAR present. In World History, knowing the differences between two empires was always more important than knowing the intricacies of the different Chinese dynasties because the former was a frequent essay topic on the exam and the latter was not.
And yet, taking regular U.S. History the following year, we were taught a mere rough outline of what the STAAR tested; I found myself missing the opportunity to analyze historical documents, explore history with a depth I had become accustomed to and learning about history for the sake of learning about history. In our AP class we were a team of learners working together; the year after, I was a notebook for the STAAR.
In our AP classes, textbooks were important but nowhere near as important as our discussions and the multitude of other multimodal resources like presentations, games, essays and interactive projects that our teachers used to help us grasp the content.
Transferring from a regular English class to AP English Literature was a dream come true: no longer was I forced to analyze rhyme schemes in Beowulf; instead, we talked about controversy, read the oft-banned Brave New World, conducted personal research had amazing discussions on topics that were sensitive and controversial and by their nature, perfect for discussion.
It’s undeniable that the content presented in these courses is at an advanced level—sometimes to such an extent that it must be wondered whether students that are not taking AP courses are being harmed by such discrepancies in academic rigor and instruction.
Also, courses like AP Language and AP literature truly opened my mind to the wonders of the subject and taught me skills like how to write persuasive essays, how to analyze documents. It’s no surprise that the AP exam and AP content really forces students to utilize their brains and engage in many thinking processes that only help us grow as learners.
Personally, I loved being constantly challenged to surpass myself and my own limitations and I loved the depth of knowledge that I was allowed to pursue in an AP class; I also love that knowledge had both breadth and depth and I feel blessed to have had teachers who understood what an AP course could be. So, while I see definite room for improvement, I believe that AP classes are a blessing to our country’s high school education offerings.