Trying to decide whether I should take an AP Exam...Answered
I am currently taking an AP World History class, and I am trying to decide if I should take the AP Exam or not. I took AP US History last year and got a 4 on the exam, which gets me college credit at many colleges. Lots of the colleges I've looked at won't give me additional credit if I got scored well on the AP World History exam since I already did well enough on the APUSH exam. However, if I want to get into selective colleges, I am wondering if I should take the AP World History exam anyway to try to get a 5 or other reasons. I would appreciate any advice!
Thanks!
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3 answers
My AP World teacher always said that it looked worse to colleges if you take the class without taking the exam. There’s little harm in trying! You already know you can score well on an AP history exam, and you have the DBQ, LEQ, and SAQ basics down, so, in my opinion, it comes down to whether or not you’re willing to pay for the exam. Like I said, it’s worth a shot! Unfortunately, we aren’t deep enough into the school year to really be able to tell if we understand the entire course and do well while being tested over millennia, so that would be my one reservation.
I would take it because doing poorly wont hurt. obviously if you score well you'll get college credit and it will look good on an application and if you don't score well it doesn't effect you at all.
Since you're already taking the course, there's no harm in taking the exam. A good score on the exam will give you an edge in admissions compared to someone with less APs or someone with a lower score on the AP Word History exam.
I think you have a misconception about the credit part. If a university accepts both APUSH and AP World History and you meet the requirements for both, you can get credits for both because they correspond to different university courses. The only thing is that US History might be a part of the core curriculum (courses required for graduation irrespective of major) at certain places while World History is not "required". In that case, you can take credit for World History as an "elective" if you want to.
Hope this helps!
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