how much homework for 3 ap classes

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How to Do Well in Multiple AP Classes

Last Updated: March 7, 2024 References

This article was co-authored by Jai Flicker . Jai Flicker is an Academic Tutor and the CEO and Founder of Lifeworks Learning Center, a San Francisco Bay Area-based business focused on providing tutoring, parental support, test preparation, college essay writing help, and psychoeducational evaluations to help students transform their attitude toward learning. Jai has over 20 years of experience in the education management industry. He holds a BA in Philosophy from the University of California, San Diego. There are 8 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been viewed 53,595 times.

Taking one AP class is challenging enough, but if you've signed up to take several this upcoming school year, it's going to be even tougher. Be prepared for extra work, developing good time management, and to learn more than you would in any other high school class.

Before the School Year

• Summer homework is also great to brush up on content that you might have learned in an early prerequisite class. For example, most people take Chemistry I before AP Chemistry, so it's good to have a solid foundation on what you've already learned before diving into harder stuff.
• Don't be overwhelmed by the summer homework! It might look like a lot, but if you have a good AP teacher then the homework is very helpful and necessary.

• Review what work you have to do before the school year ends and plan out when you will do it and how long you think it will take. Once you break it down, it will probably look less intimidating.
• Mix up work and play. If you're going to lunch and then the beach one day, commit to reading one chapter in the morning before you leave. Spreading work out like this will make your summer actually feel like summer, not homeschool.

• Barron's, Kaplan, and Princeton Review are a few of the most popular prep books, but some books are better for some subjects than others. Ask around to see which ones may be the best for you and the subjects you're taking.

• Don't forget to enjoy your summer! Don't just work, work, work all summer or else you'll get burned out.

During the School Year

• Remember to study smart (and hard, but especially smart). With so many hard classes, you have to be efficient with your time and that means making every minute as productive as possible.
• Create flashcards to review on the bus, during a free period, etc. It doesn't seem like much, but reinforcing info (especially for classes that require memorizing) is important to learning so much in a quick amount of time.

• Don't pull all nighters either. If all you do is go to school and come home, then maybe you can get away with it for awhile. But if you're dedicated to other activities, especially sports and active things, you'll really drain yourself. A rare all nighter is understandable, but several times a week is inexcusable.

• Allow yourself to hang out with friends every other weekend (if you have other activities during the week that take up your time).
• Use the time during your extra curricular activities to be with friends, like in clubs and sports. There is a lot of socializing in these activities, even if it's not going to movies or the beach.

• Study groups are also helpful for reinforcing things you've already studied. For example, asking and answering questions to review for an upcoming test is more interesting than just shuffling flashcards.

• Vocabulary homework: It helps to use two sources; your textbook, and Quizlet. This is especially true in history classes. Try putting the definition in your own words, because the textbook definition can be long sometimes. For some words, you can put more information so that your definitions don't all look short and copied. For others, use Quizlet because the definitions are usually shorter and more to the point (but put them in your own words!).
• Short answers homework: It helps if you've already read the chapter/taken notes. Go to the page(s) that are related to the question and basically jot it all down (better to type). Once you dump all the information you can reorganize the sentences and words to sound better.
• Math/word problems: Try to see what formulas relate to what information the question gives you. Break the work down so that you don't make mistakes. You can't rush math as well, and doing so may lead to a lower grade and more wasted time trying to fix your mistakes. You can go over your answers that morning or before class starts if you don't have time at home.
• Essays: Decide what you'll talk about in each paragraph and look in your textbook for information that relates to each. Type down all the information. You can spread this out to a chapter a day if that's more convenient. Then go back and make the sentences and words flow better, adding transitions and good vocabulary. Make it concise! Go back into your textbook and double check whether you've missed anything. Get it revised if your teacher takes rough drafts.

Preparing/Taking the AP Exams

• You could cram, at least for one class, for about two weeks, but this will lead to stress and may not be possible if you have stuff to do outside of school. It's much better to spread it out and do a little bit of review every day for a couple of months.
• If you've been struggling with a class all year, start studying for that first. Spread it out to an hour, or even half an hour a day.

• The price should also motivate you to study harder for the exam. If you don't score high enough, all this work (and money!) won't count as any credit. Even if you took the class just for a challenge, it's pretty upsetting if you don't get some tangible credit for it.

• It's very important to not just practice multiple choice/free response, but go over what you did wrong and why. If you know why, there's a much lower chance you won't get the answer wrong again, and that's what practice is all about.
• Take at least one practice exam before the actual one. Time goes by quickly taking the exam, and you'd be surprised how hard it is to cram in 70 questions into 50 minutes for some exams (that's less than a minute per question). You will also feel more prepared once you sit down on exam day, and that will calm your nerves.

• Consider wearing a watch so you can keep track of how well you're doing time-wise.

• Pat yourself on the back for a good year and how well you conquered a new challenge. Then look forward to a nice, relaxing summer!

Expert Q&A

• Learn from your mistakes. Didn't study as much as you should've? Weren't organized and forget your textbook, so you couldn't finish your essay? Don't wallow on these mishaps, everyone makes mistakes and that doesn't make them failures. You only fail when you stop trying. Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0
• Don't be intimidated, you're not the first (nor the last) student to take several AP classes in one. And you will survive! Thanks Helpful 0 Not Helpful 0

You Might Also Like

• ↑ https://blog.prepscholar.com/which-ap-classes-should-you-take-planning-guide
• ↑ Ted Coopersmith, MBA. Academic Tutor. Expert Interview. 12 May 2021.
• ↑ https://time.com/3964857/ap-summer-homework-tips/
• ↑ https://blog.collegevine.com/6-tips-for-succeeding-in-your-first-ap-ib-class/
• ↑ https://www.ramapo.edu/crw/files/2013/03/20-36.pdf
• ↑ Jai Flicker. Academic Tutor. Expert Interview. 20 May 2020.
• ↑ https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/ap-coordinators/exam-ordering-fees/exam-fees
• ↑ https://www.huffpost.com/entry/all-nighters_b_1501263

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A parent’s guide to AP classes

Students listen during an Advanced Placement American history class at Downtown Magnets High School in Los Angeles in 2013.

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A 4.0 GPA isn’t enough to get into any college you want anymore. Now, there are Advanced Placement classes. Once reserved for the most elite high school students, these college-level classes are finding their way into more schools , and more colleges expect to see them on applicants’ transcripts.

What are AP classes, and what do you and your teen need to know about them? Education Matters spoke to a number of education experts, all of whom are listed at the end of the post. If you have more questions, you can t weet them to us @LATEducation.

What does AP stand for, and what is the point?

The Advanced Placement program was born in the 1950s and is run by the College Board, the huge education nonprofit corporation that also administers the SAT . AP classes are college-level courses, but they’re taught in high school. The goal is to expose students to the rigorous standards they will face in college, to increase college preparedness and to challenge students beyond regular and often beyond honors courses.

There are now almost 40 AP courses offered, though not every school offers every course. The College Board provides schools the curriculum for these classes, and administers AP tests to students each May. If a student scores a 3, 4, or 5 out of 5 on a test, he or she is eligible to receive college credit for that class —and possibly be required to take fewer classes in order to graduate from college.

How is it different from a regular or honors class?

Simply put, AP classes are more difficult than other classes. “It’s at least 30% more [work] than another class,” said James Keipp, the director UCLA’s AP Readiness Program, which offers free support classes to LAUSD students.

AP students are supposed to delve more deeply into topics through research, practical applications and critical thinking. Stanford lecturer Denise Pope gave one example in her book about a healthy balance for high school kids, Overloaded and Underprepared :

“[N]ew AP science courses aim to more closely reflect what goes on in the college science lab and the true process of science and inquiry, including hypothesis testing, experimentation, and analytic reasoning,” the book notes of some of the new frameworks.

The differences between honors classes and AP classes vary depending on the school. In many cases, honors classes tend to be for freshmen and sophomores, who then take AP classes in those subjects in their junior and senior years. Another difference between honors and AP is that students can earn college credits by passing AP exams.

AP classes affect GPA as well — regular classes usually weight an A in a class as a 4.0. But many high schools and colleges give AP classes an additional point. So it’s possible to have a 5.0 GPA credit from an AP class. Or, a student could get a B in an AP class but still have a 4.0 GPA. Schools often weight honors classes higher than regular classes as well.

How many AP classes should my kid be taking to get into college?

This is one of the most common questions that counselors are asked. The answer varies from student to student, but a student should take AP classes she is interested in, as long as she is still able to get nine hours of sleep after finishing homework and extracurriculars.

For highly selective schools such as Ivy League schools, Stanford, and public universities like UCLA and UC Berkeley, it’s common for accepted applicants to take about eight AP classes throughout high school, though that number can range from five to 13.

There are many colleges, though, that don’t ask for that many AP classes and offer a very good education, even though they’re not in U.S. News & World Report’s top 30 schools. Students can get into a four-year school with just one AP, and in some cases, with none. Students with a high school degree can also attend community college without any AP classes, and then transfer to a four-year school.

Students who haven’t taken many AP classes can also use written portions of college applications to explain why, and to explain other factors that may have affected their high school performance or the classes they took. Grades, rigor of classes, and test scores may be the foundation of college admissions in many cases, but colleges also look at extracurricular activities and essays.

Keep in mind that these answers certainly do not apply to all colleges — there are many kinds of schools, with different admissions criteria.

My kid’s school doesn’t offer that many AP options. What can we do?

First, know that colleges look at a student’s course load in the context of the options available — so if there are only three AP classes offered at the school and your child takes all three, admissions officers will be impressed.

So it’s possible to take few AP courses where few are offered and please admissions officers. But when it comes to educational opportunity and equity, if your child’s school offers far fewer AP classes than other schools, your school may be offering a lower-quality education overall. This gap is a problem that districts are trying to address by adding more AP offerings throughout schools.

High school students can also take classes for free at many community colleges, and one semester of those classes translates to a year of an AP class. This requires planning, though -- you must talk to your school’s counselor to ensure that the school will accept the class, and find a class that’s after school and doesn’t conflict with jobs or extracurriculars.

Of course, there are schools where honors classes are just as challenging and fulfilling as an AP course.

Do you need to take the test, or is the class enough?

In terms of college admissions, schools primarily look at the classes a student takes, and his or her performance in that class. Reporting your AP scores on applications usually is optional, so failing the test or not taking won’t necessarily affect your admissions chances.

The advantage to taking the tests is that they can count for college credits and could allow you to skip some lower-level classes in college, saving money and time. The College Board offers partial fee waivers for the $89 test, and a number of districts use federal funds to cover as much as $84 of the cost.

Is it better to take more AP classes or to get good grades in regular classes?

Colleges want to see students challenge themselves, so counselors would suggest that students take an AP class and get a B, rather than take all regular classes and get straight A’s.

C grades, however, are not acceptable for selective colleges. In those cases it might be better to drop into a regular class.

Some advocates say that all high school students should take at least one AP class whether or not they perform well academically in it, because it exposes them to college-level academics and to an environment in which it’s expected that most students will attend college.

The school says my child is not eligible or can’t take an AP class. What are the restrictions?

In Los Angeles Unified, any student can take an AP class if she chooses to, according to district policy . If your student is being kept out of an AP class that he wants to take, you can go to the school and express your support for your child or ask why he’s being blocked from the class. If that doesn’t work or you are not sure what your district’s rules are, you can go to a school board member or even the superintendent to ask what the district’s policy is regarding AP enrollment.

Policies such as grade requirements, teacher recommendations and entry exams have historically prevented many black and Latino students, and low-income students, from taking AP classes. Now the College Board and school districts are recognizing that, and districts around the country are flipping access so that any student can choose to take an AP class — that’s the policy in both Los Angeles and Long Beach unified school districts.

However, this policy doesn’t always make it down to the campus level. Counselors and teachers may still tell a student that she shouldn’t take an AP class, based on her past grades and test scores. If that’s the case, a parent can talk to the teacher or counselor to enroll the student in the class, and to have a conversation about the supports necessary to make sure the student succeeds. The U.S. Department of Education is investigating schools where the population of AP students is different from the overall population.

My kid is up until 3 a.m. doing homework for AP’s every night. What do I do?

Look into tutors, and/or drop a class.

As AP classes become the norm for many students, it’s easy to forget that they are, indeed, college-level courses. Few college students take five courses at a time, so it’s perhaps unreasonable to expect a high school student to do the same. Before choosing classes, ask teachers how much homework students can expect on average, and plan out each day accordingly. Ideally, there should be enough time for school, homework, any extracurriculars or work commitments, and nine (yes, nine) hours of sleep.

At the beginning of the year when schedules are still flexible, students should think hard about whether they can manage the courseload. If during the year students are feeling the mental and physical toll of too many AP classes, they can try to drop one or more and take the ones that they are most interested in, or the subjects in which they do best.

I can’t afford tutoring. How can I make sure my kid succeeds in APs? What community resources are there for my kid?

There are a number of programs for students in AP courses. For example, UCLA’s AP Readiness Program offers four-hour sessions one Saturday a month, free to all LAUSD students who are not in independent charter schools. The district also provides transportation. For other students, they cost $320 for the entire year. Parents who are interested can talk to their student’s AP teacher about organizing a group to get a better rate, or can ask the school to cover the cost.

Community colleges also often have free tutoring programs for high school students, as do local groups such as the ones listed on this L.A. County database .

To get these questions and answers, Education Matters interviewed the following people:

Audrey Kahane, a private college counselor

Kathryn Favaro, a college counselor and founder of California College Prep

Tyrone Howard, UCLA education professor

Denise Pope, Stanford senior lecturer and co-founder of Challenge Success

James Keipp, director of UCLA AP Readiness Program

Christina Theokas, director of research at Education Trust

Reach Sonali Kohli on Twitter @Sonali_Kohli or by email at [email protected].

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March 28, 2024

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Sonali Kohli is a former Los Angeles Times reporter. A product of Southern California, she grew up in Diamond Bar and graduated from UCLA. She worked as a metro reporter for the Orange County Register and as a reporter covering education and diversity for Quartz before joining The Times in 2015.

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Three Penny Press

Students spend three times longer on homework than average, survey reveals

Sonya Kulkarni and Pallavi Gorantla | Jan 9, 2022

Graphic by Sonya Kulkarni

The National Education Association and the National Parent Teacher Association have suggested that a healthy number of hours that students should be spending can be determined by the “10-minute rule.” This means that each grade level should have a maximum homework time incrementing by 10 minutes depending on their grade level (for instance, ninth-graders would have 90 minutes of homework, 10th-graders should have 100 minutes, and so on).

As ‘finals week’ rapidly approaches, students not only devote effort to attaining their desired exam scores but make a last attempt to keep or change the grade they have for semester one by making up homework assignments.

High schoolers reported doing an average of 2.7 hours of homework per weeknight, according to a study by the Washington Post from 2018 to 2020 of over 50,000 individuals. A survey of approximately 200 Bellaire High School students revealed that some students spend over three times this number.

The demographics of this survey included 34 freshmen, 43 sophomores, 54 juniors and 54 seniors on average.

When asked how many hours students spent on homework in a day on average, answers ranged from zero to more than nine with an average of about four hours. In contrast, polled students said that about one hour of homework would constitute a healthy number of hours.

Junior Claire Zhang said she feels academically pressured in her AP schedule, but not necessarily by the classes.

“The class environment in AP classes can feel pressuring because everyone is always working hard and it makes it difficult to keep up sometimes.” Zhang said.

A total of 93 students reported that the minimum grade they would be satisfied with receiving in a class would be an A. This was followed by 81 students, who responded that a B would be the minimum acceptable grade. 19 students responded with a C and four responded with a D.

“I am happy with the classes I take, but sometimes it can be very stressful to try to keep up,” freshman Allyson Nguyen said. “I feel academically pressured to keep an A in my classes.”

Up to 152 students said that grades are extremely important to them, while 32 said they generally are more apathetic about their academic performance.

Last year, nine valedictorians graduated from Bellaire. They each achieved a grade point average of 5.0. HISD has never seen this amount of valedictorians in one school, and as of now there are 14 valedictorians.

“I feel that it does degrade the title of valedictorian because as long as a student knows how to plan their schedule accordingly and make good grades in the classes, then anyone can be valedictorian,” Zhang said.

Bellaire offers classes like physical education and health in the summer. These summer classes allow students to skip the 4.0 class and not put it on their transcript. Some electives also have a 5.0 grade point average like debate.

Close to 200 students were polled about Bellaire having multiple valedictorians. They primarily answered that they were in favor of Bellaire having multiple valedictorians, which has recently attracted significant acclaim .

Senior Katherine Chen is one of the 14 valedictorians graduating this year and said that she views the class of 2022 as having an extraordinary amount of extremely hardworking individuals.

“I think it was expected since freshman year since most of us knew about the others and were just focused on doing our personal best,” Chen said.

Chen said that each valedictorian achieved the honor on their own and deserves it.

“I’m honestly very happy for the other valedictorians and happy that Bellaire is such a good school,” Chen said. “I don’t feel any less special with 13 other valedictorians.”

Nguyen said that having multiple valedictorians shows just how competitive the school is.

“It’s impressive, yet scary to think about competing against my classmates,” Nguyen said.

Offering 30 AP classes and boasting a significant number of merit-based scholars Bellaire can be considered a competitive school.

“I feel academically challenged but not pressured,” Chen said. “Every class I take helps push me beyond my comfort zone but is not too much to handle.”

Students have the opportunity to have off-periods if they’ve met all their credits and are able to maintain a high level of academic performance. But for freshmen like Nguyen, off periods are considered a privilege. Nguyen said she usually has an hour to five hours worth of work everyday.

“Depending on the day, there can be a lot of work, especially with extra curriculars,” Nguyen said. “Although, I am a freshman, so I feel like it’s not as bad in comparison to higher grades.”

According to the survey of Bellaire students, when asked to evaluate their agreement with the statement “students who get better grades tend to be smarter overall than students who get worse grades,” responders largely disagreed.

Zhang said that for students on the cusp of applying to college, it can sometimes be hard to ignore the mental pressure to attain good grades.

“As a junior, it’s really easy to get extremely anxious about your GPA,” Zhang said. “It’s also a very common but toxic practice to determine your self-worth through your grades but I think that we just need to remember that our mental health should also come first. Sometimes, it’s just not the right day for everyone and one test doesn’t determine our smartness.”

HUMANS OF BELLAIRE – JuanDiego Cerda

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Anonymous • Nov 21, 2023 at 10:32 am

It’s not really helping me understand how much.

josh • May 9, 2023 at 9:58 am

Kassie • May 6, 2022 at 12:29 pm

Im using this for an English report. This is great because on of my sources needed to be from another student. Homework drives me insane. Im glad this is very updated too!!

Kaylee Swaim • Jan 25, 2023 at 9:21 pm

I am also using this for an English report. I have to do an argumentative essay about banning homework in schools and this helps sooo much!

Izzy McAvaney • Mar 15, 2023 at 6:43 pm

I am ALSO using this for an English report on cutting down school days, homework drives me insane!!

E. Elliott • Apr 25, 2022 at 6:42 pm

I’m from Louisiana and am actually using this for an English Essay thanks for the information it was very informative.

Nabila Wilson • Jan 10, 2022 at 6:56 pm

Interesting with the polls! I didn’t realize about 14 valedictorians, that’s crazy.

How much homework do you have on average each night?

<p>I personally study and do homework for 3 hours minimum every night. I’m taking ap hug, ap english 12, ap studio art, h chemistry, h-precal, and spanish 2. And while im only taking 3 ap classes, i feel that i have enough work on my shoulders. But how much does everyone else have? I feel like no one else studies as much as i do. So how many hours a night do you spend on homework?</p>

<p>3 APs, 2 HNs, 1 regular Avg time on Homework: 30 Mins…</p>

<p>4 APs: 20ish minutes. I do stats/calculus/art history in school. don’t have time to finish english.</p>

<p>2 AP’s 4 Honors ~1 hour. Spend too much time on CC lol…</p>

<p>5 AP’s 1 Honor 1 Gym =D ~1.5-3 Hours depending on the day. </p>

<p>Not all that bad really!</p>

<p>3 AP’s, possibly self studying 5. Estimated time of homework per day: None. I will start doing the homework more soon and reading the notes more.</p>

<p>It really depends for me. Tonight I only had 15 mins of calculus. Some nights I am crammed with easily three hours of work. I would say the average HW I have a night is about 2ish hours, with a good bit on the weekends. With books added in (not text books, but books for classes) it easily rounds out to 2.5 hours a night. Pretty killer with sports and clubs.</p>

<p>5 AP classes, Journalism 3 (yearbook)</p>

<p>hm…3 APs last year but I never did my AP calc homework or BSed it, and I dont know what the hell happened but I got a 5. I used to have about 1 to 2 hours of homework per night in AP bio and english, not bad. Lets just say all my other classes were negligible.</p>

<p>This year, all my APs are 2nd semester and 4 of them so lets see how it goes…I have a feeling its going to be rape.</p>

<p>the cool thing about my homework is that the regular classes have way more homework than the AP or HN classes. This kid is in the same math level as me, taking regular, has an avg of 40 questions for homework and his test r worth 75 percent of his grade. my test percent is 20 percent and ill be surprise if i even have math homework :)</p>

<p>anyone else like that? haha. poor regulars.</p>

<p>4 APs, span 3, band </p>

<p>About 2-4 hours per night.</p>

<p>I have 6 APs and the time I spend on hw totally depends. </p>

<p>As for tonight, I spent 5+ hours on Environmental Science (not kidding). I wrote 4 article reviews, 3 passage reviews, and semi-read my textbook chapter and did the chapter homework. That was a great experience. Now I am going to start my Economics… </p>

<p>And socalsoccerdude, my AP class tests are 75%, and regulars are 40% (?). I don’t get to laugh at the regulars.</p>

<p>3 APs: We don’t frequently have homework for chemistry or physics (& if we do, it’s usually short enough to finish in class). As for US history, it’s quite manageable (<1 hr) if you can tell which assignments you can skimp on and which assignments are vital for understanding the material.</p>

<p>Most of my homework actually comes from precalculus (honors, not AP, of course). The teacher assigns homework every night, and the problems are easy but unfortunately multitudinous. =&lt;/p>

<p>5 AP’s, 2 Honors …</p>

<p>I’d say it varies from 30 mins to 2 hours. </p>

<p>Averages:</p>

<p>AP Calc - 10 mins daily. AP Spanish - minimum, usually finish HW at school… Anat & Phys - I’d say 20 mins every other day. AP English - Really ranges. From nothing to 2 hours. AP Enviro Sci - From nothing to 45 mins. Solar Energy - nothing much; projects mainly done in school. AP US History - From nothing to 1 hour.</p>

<p>Should have about 4 hours daily…but I NEVER do written homework until about 2 minutes before it’s due unless its an essay. Cram my studying the night before so some nights I have none, others I have as much as 5 or 6 hours.</p>

<p>Minimum 2 hours, but on average about 5 hours a night. 4 AP’s, 2 other weighted/honors classes.</p>

<p>~2 hours for AP English Lit ~1-2 hours for AP Gov’t ~30 minutes for AP Enviro ~45 minutes for AP French ~30 minutes for AP Music Theory ~45 minutes for my SUPA Psych class</p>

<p>But it functions on an every other day cycle so on nights like tonight, I’d typically have (at most) about 5 ish hours, but I usually split it up so I do some in the morning so I don’t get too stressed.</p>

<p>1 honors, 3 IB, 2 AP, and 1 class through the local college</p>

<p>maybe 1-1.5 hours per night</p>

<p>I do… erm. 6~8 hours of homework a night.</p>

<p>6 AP atm.</p>

<p>Are you serious? Wow, you must have crazy teachers.</p>

<p>AP Calculus BC: 5 minutes a day (usually 10 problems, all easy) AP Statistics: 10-20 minutes AP English Lit: 10ish minutes a day AP Environmental Science: I do it in class. AP Spanish Comp: 30 minutes a night (non native, most time consuming) Marching Band: an hour a day individual practice(not including marching practice!) DC Humanities: no homework</p>

<p>2 hours a day.</p>

<p>One day I have Economics, Biology, Chemistry, and US History.</p>

<p>The other day I have Calc (AB), Spanish, Pure Maths, and English Lang.</p>

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Advanced Placement (AP)

Are you taking AP classes in high school and want to know if you'll be able to get college credit for them? It's not always possible to get college credit from AP classes, but many high school students do. How can you be one of them? Read this guide to find out! We'll walk you through the process and answer all the key questions such as, "How many college credits is an AP class worth?" "Are AP classes college credit?" and "How many college credits is AP world history?"

Let's get started!

Do AP Classes Count as College Credit?

If you take one or more AP classes in high school and do well on the exam, can you get college credit? Yes! The possibility of earning college credit is a major benefit of taking AP classes.

Advanced Placement is a program run by the College Board (the makers of the SAT) that allows high school students to take courses that can earn them college credit and/or qualify them for more advanced classes when they begin college. There are currently 38 AP courses and several million high school students enroll in AP classes each year.

However, it's not taking an AP class that earns you college credit, it's how well you score on the AP exam. AP exams are given in early May each year, and they're scored on a scale of 1-5. Your scores on these exams give you the potential to earn college credit from AP classes.

How Many College Credits Is an AP Class Worth?

So if you go through all the work of taking an AP class, studying for the AP exam, and doing well on it, how many college credits can you expect to earn? It depends on several factors, mainly:

• Which AP exam you take
• Your AP exam score
• The college's AP credit policy

Let's go through these factors one by one. First, some AP exams tend to give more college credit than others, often the foreign language and math/science APs. Scoring well on a foreign language AP exam typically requires multiple years of study, equivalent to several college classes, so it makes sense you get more college credits for it. Math and science AP classes also often have prerequisites (such as taking pre-calculus in order to take AP Calc AB or BC), and colleges often award credit for both the AP course you took and its prerequisite. For science APs such as Biology and Chemistry, you typically get credit for both a lecture course and a lab course.

The next factor is your AP exam score. Typically, you need a minimum score of 3 to get college credit. However, some colleges only award credit if you earn a 4 or 5. Additionally, some schools give college credit if you earn a 3, but give more college credit if you get a higher score (this is especially true of foreign language APs).

The final, and often most important factor, is how generous the college you're interested in is with awarding AP credit. Some colleges, especially public ones, award AP credit for every AP exam, often for scores of 3 and higher. Other schools are much more restrictive, and some schools, as you'll see below, don't give any college credit for AP classes at all.

AP Policies for 3 Colleges

What are some AP policies for actual colleges? Below are the AP credit policies for three schools: Ohio State University , Bowdoin College , and Brown University . Look through the charts to see how different exams and scores earn students different credits. Note that these charts only give an overview of credit earned; click on the links above to see the exact courses you earn credits for each AP exam.

For each school we'll look at how many credits a student, "Ava" would earn if she took AP US History, AP Biology, and AP English Language and earned a 4 on each exam.

OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY

Like many other large, public schools, Ohio State University has a generous AP credit policy. It gives college credit for every AP exam, and you generally only need to score a 3 to get college credit (although higher scores often earn you more credit). Math, science, and foreign language exams tend to give the most credit.

If Ava attended OSU, she'd earn 4 credits for her AP Bio score, 6 credits for her AP US History score, and 3 credits for her AP English Language score, for a total of 13 credits. At OSU, students need 180 credits to graduate, which comes out to about 23 credits per semester. So Ava's AP scores would earn her over half a semester's worth of college credit. Not too shabby!

BOWDOIN COLLEGE

Bowdoin College is a private liberal arts college, and its AP credit policy is similar to those of many other private schools: it offers a decent amount of AP credit (but not as much as most public colleges), and it often requires higher exam scores (4 and up for most exams) for students to earn credit. For many AP exams, Bowdoin often doesn't award college credit but instead allows you to place out of introductory classes. So if you took the Calculus AB exam, you wouldn't get math credits for it, but you could skip the equivalent calculus class at Bowdoin if you scored high enough. Unlike OSU, Bowdoin gives one credit for every AP exam it offers credit for; you don't get more credit for certain exams.

If Ava attended Bowdoin, she wouldn't earn any credit for her AP Bio score (but could place out of an introductory biology course), she wouldn't get credit or placement for her AP English Language score, and she'd earn 1 credit for US History. Bowdoin requires 32 credits to graduate, so her AP credits wouldn't make a huge difference, but with the one credit and testing out of introductory biology she'd have two extra spaces in her schedule which can be very helpful when trying to fit in all your graduation requirements or just to have time to take extra electives you're interested in.

BROWN UNIVERSITY

Brown University doesn't offer any college credit for AP classes. This is a fairly common policy amongst Ivy League schools (Harvard recently made the decision to stop offering college credit for AP courses). However, Brown does allow students to use certain AP scores to skip some entry-level courses and/or satisfy concentration requirements. So, although you won't get college credits for your AP scores, you could begin college taking higher-level courses and having more room for electives because you can skip some intro courses. Here are the AP exams Brown allows students to skip intro classes for, along with the minimum AP exam score you need to earn.

• Art History: 5
• Biology: 4+
• Calculus AB: 4+
• Calculus BC: 3+
• Environmental Science: 5
• European History: 5
• French Language: 4+
• German Language: 4+
• Italian Language: 4+
• Microeconomics and Macroeconomics: need a 4+ on both exams
• Physics 1 and Physics 2: Need a 5 on both exams
• Physics C Mechanics: 5 OR a 4 along with a 5 in Physics C Electricity and Magnetism
• Spanish Language: 4+
• Spanish Literature: 4+
• US History: 5
• World History: 5

Clearly, this is a much more restrictive policy than the other two schools. You don't actually earn any college credit from your AP classes, many exams don't allow you to skip any intro courses, and for those that do, you generally need to score a 4 or 5 on the exam.

If Ava attended Brown, she obviously wouldn't get college credit, but her AP Biology score would be enough for her to skip an introductory biology course giving her an extra spot in her schedule.

How Should You Use This Information?

AP credit policies can be an important consideration when choosing a college. I went to a high school that emphasized AP classes, and when I began deciding which colleges to apply to, I knew I didn't want to attend one that wouldn't give any college credit for my AP scores. Many students make similar choices.

Once you have an initial list of colleges you're thinking about applying to, check out their AP credit policies. You can generally find this easily by Googling "[school name] AP credit policy." Look through the credits/placements they offer for AP exams you've taken or plan to take. How many college credits you get for AP exams shouldn't be your only college decision factor, but knowing that, say, one college would give you credit for taking an AP Calc class while another won't may be a good tiebreaker if you're struggling with which college to attend. 

This information can also help you choose which AP classes to take if you haven't chosen your junior and/or senior classes yet. If the colleges you're interested in offer college credit for, say, AP Statistics and also require all students take a stats course, you may decide to take AP Statistics in order to not have to take the class in college and have space for an elective instead.

One thing you shouldn't do is choose to take AP classes solely because a college gives a lot of credit for them. You'll likely end up in classes you find difficult and/or uninteresting, and, if the classes don't relate to your major, you may end up with, say, a lot of economics college credits when those weren't something you need to take in the first place. Try to strike a good balance where you take AP classes you're interested in and, hopefully, can earn you some college credit and allow you to take the classes you're most interested in while you're in college.

Summary: How Many College Credits Is an AP Class?

Do AP classes count as college credit hours? At many schools they do! If and how much college credit you earn depends mainly on three factors:

• The AP exam(s) you take
• The exam score(s) you earn
• The AP score policy of your college

Public schools tend to offer more college credit than private schools, and there are some schools, often Ivy League schools and colleges that are especially small, that don't offer college credit but allow students to use AP exam scores to skip introductory courses. When you have a list of colleges to apply to, check their AP credit policies to see how much college credit you can earn, then use that as a factor in your college decision making process.

What's Next?

Which AP classes should you take? Read our guide to choose the best AP classes for you , based on your interests and college goals.

Which are the hardest AP classes? Our in-depth article compares the difficulty of every AP class and gives a list of the top 6 hardest APs.

Also studying for the ACT/SAT? Come up with a target ACT or SAT score based on your top schools .

Christine graduated from Michigan State University with degrees in Environmental Biology and Geography and received her Master's from Duke University. In high school she scored in the 99th percentile on the SAT and was named a National Merit Finalist. She has taught English and biology in several countries.

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