Advanced Placement courses, designed to give high school juniors and seniors opportunities to earn college credit, are growing more popular among students as young as high school freshmen. The AP program, comprising these courses and the exams that follow them, is a standardized method for measuring success in various academic areas and has become almost a prerequisite for college admission. In addition, AP credit provides students with the opportunity to take more advanced courses once they reach college, by allowing them to pass out of introductory-level classes.

As the college admission process grows more and more competitive, increasing numbers of underclassmen are taking AP courses. At Choate, some younger students take these courses because of a genuine interest in the subject matter. Taking AP courses earlier often opens other courses to students for study later in their Choate careers, and can allow some students to go abroad during their junior years without interrupting their planned curricula.

No Strict Protocol

According to Registrar Monica St James, Choate does not have any explicit rules banning under-formers from taking AP courses. However, the school does allow 5th and 6th formers interested in an AP course to sign up before opening the class to 3rd and 4th formers, because younger students will have more time to work the course into their schedules later. Some courses require under-formers to obtain permission from the department head. Others, notably as math and language courses, are simply made accessible by the student’s previous study and placement test scores.

In terms of rigour, AP courses are typically not much harder to manage than some of the honors courses students might be taking. Ms St James explained that an honors course may be just as challenging as an AP course in a similar subject and may even prepare students to take the AP exam, but for courses specifically designated AP the College Board specifies exactly what is taught. The teacher must use a certain textbook and have the syllabus approved before the course can be considered AP.

More than 14,000 schools nationwide offer at least one AP course. If a large number of a school’s students take AP courses the school can raise its reputation, especially if these students demonstrate competence on the AP exam. The exam is scored on a 1-5 scale; scores above 3 are considered equivalent to passing college grades. Choate’s peer schools do not deter underclassmen from taking APs with the recommendation of the department, as long as certain course requirements have been met. Policies at peer schools such as Deerfield, Taft, and Loomis Chaffee are similar to those at Choate.

According to its website, Phillips Exeter Academy wants students to take courses based on placement examination results and previous exposure to the material. As Choate does, Exeter encourages its students to consider AP courses in areas of study they will be completing before their senior year such as biology, mathematics, and American history. Andover, which offers a total of 29 AP courses, has had the greatest percentage of its student body achieve grades of 3 or higher in AP Music Theory, AP Physics Mechanics C, and AP Physics Electricity and Magnetism C out of all schools of its size worldwide, according to its website. In 2006, Andover students took 981 AP exams in 33 subjects, and achieved 3s or better on 97%.

Choate routinely boasts high numbers of high scores on AP exams, and an increasing proportion of these come from under-formers. Mr. Doak, an AP Macroeconomics teacher new to Choate this year, said that he had some strong and ambitious sophomores in his class, but that the combination of the pace of the course, the amount of analytical work, and the responsibility of independent preparation was a stretch for them.

Stepping up to the Challenge

Although Mr. Doak recommends that under-formers put off the course until junior year, some of his sophomore students have been able to step up to the pressure. “Sophomores come in understanding that they are going to be a little bit over their heads and are going to have to work hard to achieve in this course. That contributes to their success in AP courses,” he said.

Peter Conforti ’10 says he is interested enough in economics to take the time to think about some of the more difficult concepts by constructing visual mental images. Peter was eager to take a course that could help him understand current events and give him “a better perspective on the world,” in addition to giving him a “leg-up” in the college process. “I want to take advantage of all the Choate has to offer,” he said. “I encourage underclassmen not to be afraid of APs, because they are manageable.”

Nat Pendleton ’10, who is currently taking AP US History, opted to take World History his freshman year to open up more interesting electives for his senior year. He submitted a graded history paper from his 8th grade class and a recommendation from his teacher for department approval. He was later recommended for Use and Abuse of Power, which he took this fall. Nat, who says he has been reading history books since age six, is fascinated by the “obscure little topics and arcane knowledge” and has thought less about what role his advanced history courses will play in the college process. “I just want to have a lot of intellectual fun,” he said.

Angelica Calabrese ’10, who went through a similar process to take AP US History as a new sophomore, said she enjoys the higher level of discussion in the class. She hopes to take AP European History and AP Art History later on. Although history is her most challenging course, she feels that by only taking one AP she got a nice balance of classes this year.Some students find AP courses too taxing. Viraj Gandhi ’10 thought making a good grade in a challenging course as a sophomore would look impressive for college. As a freshman he conferred with Mr. Stanley, Mr. Ford, and department head Mr. Hartsoe about taking AP Economics. The department examined his GPA and approved him for the course. Once the class began, however, Viraj found he was under too much pressure and dropped it. “I wanted to get as much out of this place as possible, but it was driving me crazy,” he said. Viraj plans to take the course again next year and said that another year of academic growth will prepare him to handle the challenge. He is interested in taking Monetary Theory as a senior but is concerned about the “death amount of work” involved with the class.

A Chance to Get Ahead

Mr. Doak commented that the department has denied underclassman the right to take the course in the past. The fall Macro course was closed to sophomores. Those who are taking it this winter will take Micro, the next part of economics, in the spring term as opposed to Advanced Topics, which comes after Micro and helps students review for the economics AP examinations. Doak said he advises students to begin economics as juniors. “By starting in your junior year there is still the ability to exhaust all the econ courses in the curriculum.”

Some students have begun tackling APs as young as freshman year. Ms. St. James commented on freshmen placed in such high level courses: “it might unnerve me, but it does not surprise me.” Freshman Andrew Kim ’11 has gotten a jump-start in mathematics and computer science. He had taken some computer science classes in elementary school and started at the AP level upon entering Choate. His trigonometry teacher Caleb McArthur recommended that he move to the 2nd term of BC calculus, as Andrew had had some trig incorporated into his algebra 2 course. He received a 91 on the exam for term one of BC calculus and was approved to enter the class. He now takes two AP courses with David Quarfoot and says he plans to continue his study of both subjects in 3D Game Design and Linear Algebra next year.

The number of students participating in the AP program continues to grow as younger students take more AP classes. In Washington, the number of students enrolled in AP courses more than doubled between 2001 and 2006, to 37,173.

Adding AP courses to schools is expensive. Textbooks can cost over $100 each; supplies cost around $1500; the exam itself costs $84 per student. Nonetheless, a 2007 study by the University of Texas showed that students who took APs in high school earned better grades in college. Although the AP courses are challenging and the tests are long, some students feel the courses are worth the strain.