Are Advanced Placement Classes Worth It?- Advantages and Disadvantages

The soaring competition worldwide in the education sector has led to students striving to start early, get smart early, and prepare for the future early. Along with the mounds of workload on the hot plate of a high school student, AP class can be another demanding challenge coming their way. Today, the education industry is so vying that students opt for extra courses to show colleges that they are up for the challenging curriculum and can thrive in competition. 

In this article, we will dig deeper and understand what AP classes are. We would also try to conclude after carefully evaluating their pros and cons. 

Advanced Placement Classes: In a Nutshell

Advanced Placement Classes are college-level tests and courses which high school students can take to qualify for scholarships. Students who decide on opting for Advanced Placement Classes can select a wide variety of the courses available at their school. This leads to students picking out the Major of their choice. 

While some people think High school offers a challenging curriculum, high school students giving the tests of the college-level curriculum might disagree as they are constantly looking to do something stimulating and engaging; they are rushing to places. Advanced Placement classes offer them to set their goals high, prepare harder and get ready for the competition they will face ahead.

Moreover, these Advanced Placement classes give students practice learning a college-level curriculum. High school students can score from 1 to 5 in this class. This score can be shown in the college to get scholarships. Other than this, many online courses are available to help students build a solid academic background. 

High school students have become multitaskers nowadays. They are involved in more than one activity and want to excel in every one of them. After the Advanced Placement Classes give them clarity about what to do next, they get started with preparations right away. 

Advantages For High Schoolers

1. Select What you Love: 

There is no greater joy for a student than studying what they love. Many schools offer different kinds of AP Classes, and you always have an option to select what tickles your brain the most. 

From Biology to English, you can select your major on your own. Learning these college-level academic majors might be challenging, but the task becomes much easier if the subject is of interest! This is why starting early and preparing hard is essential in high school. 

2. Getting Early Graduation: 

Students that score well in Advanced Placement classes get a scholarship from the college. For students, scholarships can lead to college granting them to skip a whole year and even tuition benefits. AP Classes can prove significantly beneficial to students looking for such opportunities and can score well during tests. College granting a year off can save a lot of money for a student; the student can instead use this money for future studies and goals.

3. Save Money on Tuition: 

With many courses on the way, the tuition fee of each course keeps piling on for students. This problem causes significant demotivation in them. But, students who join Advanced Placement classes save college tuition fees. By scoring well in the class test, colleges grant the students scholarships for their hard work. This way, AP Classes students save thousands of dollars in tuition fees.  AP classes motivate students in studying hard; this allows them to flaunt their learning skills.

4. Add another Major or Minor during College: 

As students decide upon AP Classes and take up a course, they get yet another opportunity to opt for another major or minor during their college. Students who start early in high school can study more subjects and master them during college. You can explore or surf through all the courses the college offers and lock that as your second major. AP Classes provide a wide range of classes during high school as well. Moreover, if you miss out on selecting a major in High school, you can also have another opportunity in college. 

5. Strengthen your Academic Skill-set:

Many students face difficulty as they enter college. With so much workload, stress, and extra studies, students find themselves covered from all corners. On the other hand, AP Classes students are more confident as they enter college. AP Classes also equip students with critical thinking, better communication, and problem-solving skills. With AP classes, there also comes tough examinations, which prepare students to deal with future endeavors. 

Major Disadvantages/Drawbacks Of Advanced Placement Classes

1. Demands your time: 

Time invested in AP Classes is much more than the time invested during the regular study. As AP classes prepare the students for college-level curriculum, study time has to be increased, and all the efforts put in must be uplifted. In some cases, students need to put in the whole day. In this case, students might fear that they would have to bid adieu to their social life and forget about having free time. But, everything comes with a fair price. 

2. Score over Knowledge

Students attempt AP Classes in the hope of getting to know about subjects they love and subjects they want to master. But with the taxing curriculum, after one point, students tend to focus on the score more than the knowledge. Learning new things gets lost during the process. In the halfway journey, students realize it is important to score well, and all they do is study harder, to score well, and not for wisdom.

3. Unavailability in many schools

While the AP class looks very promising, many schools possess restrictions over the same. Many schools do not consider AP Class scores for the scholarship eligibility but still consider the student capable of higher studies as they have managed to pass this difficult test.

Ultimate Decision for Students

Like everything else in life, AP classes, too, have their own pros and cons. These may be famous for their benefits, but the downsides cannot be ignored. It all comes down to making a decision as a student. If you are up for spending your days and putting in your nights, do not hesitate to take this class. This will lead to a better and brighter future. 

The most interesting thing about AP Classes is that you get to decide what class you want to get into and do the best later on. This liberty has helped students to be more creative and more attentive. 

The Bottom Line

Advanced Placement Classes are one of the finest ways to upgrade Academically. Education and its level have advanced manifolds in the past few years. New tests have come in, which have much more credibility. Yet, many educators swear by this test due to the recognition by most universities.  

Extracurricular courses have played a huge role in the same. Moreover, educators also feel that students who sign up for AP classes show higher academic success. Their doors to knowledge are open, and they are learning more than usual simultaneously.