AP tests are great tools to make you look good for colleges and to get some credits for college classes. Personally, in high school, I took 11 AP classes and took the exam for each one. This was a mistake. I only ended up getting credit for three to four of these classes.Â
During your sophomore and junior years, you might want to take the exams just to look good for college applications. Though, especially during your senior year, there’s no point in taking an exam if it isn’t actually going to help you earn credits. That’s a waste of money and stress. So, here’s comprehensive advice that I wish I had so that you know which tests will actually be of value to you.Â
AP Literature and AP Language Arts
Here at UCLA, you can’t test out of General Education classes beside Writing 1 and Foreign Language. AP Lang and AP Lit can both get you out of Writing 1. After Writing 1, you’ll have to take a Writing 2 class anyways (you can’t test out of it) so you might as well only take either the AP Lang exam OR the AP Lit exam, they both will give you the same exact credit.  Â
AP Foreign Language
If there is one class I wish I took, it’s AP Spanish. If you take an AP language exam and do well on it, this can save you THREE classes at UCLA. That’s a whole quarter. The foreign language requirement requires you take up to level three in a language, but the AP test excuses you from all of these. Even if it sucks in the moment, taking this AP class will make you SO HAPPY later on.Â
AP Statistics
I was so mad at my mom for making me take AP Stats in high school, but this is the best thing she has ever made me do. Pretty much every major will require Stats 10, a class that all of my friends have complained about, but you can easily test out of this with AP Stats. That way, for all my humanities and social science girlies, you won’t have to TOUCH a calculator in college.Â
social studies / sciences
The rest of the credits will probably depend on your major. For humanities, I would recommend taking AP Psych and an AP social studies class. AP Psych personally got me out of a lower division psychology requirement and APUSH (AP U.S. History) got me out of the economics requirements, but I think that all government/history/economic APs will only ever count for the same class credit. No need to take all the tests, just the one you feel most confident about. For my STEM girlies, I would recommend taking AP Bio or AP Chem, depending on your specialty. I took them and they did nothing for me because I didn’t have any science requirements to begin with. There’s a website with more in-depth information, but personally, I found it very confusing when I was going into UCLA so hopefully this article broke it down a little better for you.Â
This advice is contingent on one thing – UCLA only accepts 4 or 5’s, sometimes 3’s, to get you out of most credits. So, study hard and maybe you’ll end up saving a few thousand dollars on classes at UCLA.