Data Revealed: Which AP Courses offer the MOST value in Colleges Admissions & How to Get Higher Scores on these difficult exams to get scholarships
Data and Insights and Question Analysis provided inside
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This email note shares valuable data on the AP Exams and which ones have more appeal to colleges (via the number of colleges that accept it). Share this email with friends and family with teens in middle/high school.
At the bottom of the email, we go through a challenging AP Question for educational purposes. Make sure to be on our email list if you aren’t yet already.
Tigerway Students and Parents,
In this email we wanted to provide you valuable data and insights into one of the largest secrets behind College Admissions success: strong performance in rigorous coursework such as the AP Courses in high school. Data tables and the College Board AP reports are linked for you at the bottom of this email.
Our experience suggests that strong results in AP Coursework (or course equivalent) along with strong SAT/ACT scores is a winning combination when it comes to securing a high “Academic Rating” on your college admissions profile.
Every student will given an “Academic Rating” and “Non-Academic Rating” in the admissions process. The Academic Rating can be boosted with harder classes taken along with strong performance in those classes.
Here, we wanted to show you College Board’s primary data on what are the MOST taken AP courses in calendar year 2021 so that you can assess which courses are most in-demand for competitive students in the admissions process.
The list of top 10 most taken AP Courses are the following in the order of size:
English Language (500K+ Students)
U.S. History (450K+ Students)
English Literature (320K+ Students)
World History (300K+ Students)
Psychology (288K+ Students)
Government and Politics (283K+ Students)
AP Calculus AB (250K+ Students)
Biology (230K+ Students)
Human Geography (211K+ Students)
Statistics (184K+ Students)
Also equally important is the “number of colleges” in the last column that accepts these AP Exam scores as potential credit waivers for their university classes.
Ideally, you want to be taking an AP Course where the number of colleges accepting it for credit is high.
Going forward at Tigerway, our program’s private coaching programs allows students to get simultaneous help on the SAT/ACT AND in their high school coursework in select AP Classes (based on our coaching availability). In other words, not only do our coaches help students with growing their SAT/ACT Score, they can ALSO help with helping their students improve their abilities in their coursework to get a big edge in the admissions process. This structure is only available in our private coaching programs, and not our Group based program.
Just as an example, our Coaches routinely help students with SAT Strategy AND coursework from say Algebra 2. Other examples include our coaches helping students with SAT Strategy and then STEM classes like AP Chem or Physics.
This type of coaching structure is not available in the traditional tutoring industry, but we provide it.
Our coaching roster typically can cover the following areas (however our availability for select niche classes is extremely limited so please book a call with us to see if we have availability):
AP English (Lang & Lit)
AP Bio/Chem/Physics
AP Calculus
AP Statistics
AP History (U.S. & World)
The return on investment on a strong AP Score is very high. Usually, a 4 or higher (out of 5) will result in a waiver in the first-year college class tuition. Given that one college course now costs around $5000-$6000, the benefits of scoring high on an AP Exam are the following:
You waive the $5000-$6000 college course tuition fee
You save time by skipping the introductory level class and being able to take more electives that interest you immediately (perhaps this is the biggest benefit)
Get a head start on taking courses towards your major so that your college academic transcript conveys more technical knowledge so that you can get internships sooner.
The benefits of leveraging your time in High School well and being strategic about how you perform on the AP Exams is a secret that not many high school students are taking advantage of.
Another benefit is the following: Given the strong correlation between a high SAT English score and a high AP English score, investing a bit of time, energy, and resources into mastering this area will not only allow you to shine on the SAT but it will also prepare you for a high AP English score that eventually pays you back with waived college credits and allow you to take classes for your college major sooner.
We’ll wrap up this email with a question & answer analysis on a question from AP English Language (the most popular and most taken AP Course in the U.S.):
A Sample Passage from AP English Language: About Healthcare
The Question
Explanation: The first sentence in the passage sets the tone by asking readers how they may evaluate the quality of their physicians. The passage goes onto to suggest that the healthcare system is complex and specialized. Therefore, patients (the consumers) need to learn more about their physician.
An appropriate second sentence would begin to answer this question by providing context on how to evaluate a physician given the nuances among factors such as experience and relationship with patients.
Choice B (which is the answer) discusses the fact that there are many factors that drive the physician’s relationship with the patient that need to be considered and is a suitable transition from sentence 1.
Why the other choices are incorrect: To succeed on AP Exams and the SAT/ACT Exam (as well as regular courses at school), it’s not enough to understand why an answer is right but also why the OTHER answers are wrong.
Choice A emphasizes convenient schedule, Choice C mentions that it is impossible to learn about the doctor before a visit, Choice D mentions that doctors are interchangeable, and Choice E suggests that you should learn about a doctor’s personal life before knowing whether it will be a good patient-physician relationship.
None of these choices help the patient learn more about the physician and does not answer the question directly.
We’ve attached data on the College Board’s AP summary report for you below with a PDF downloadable attachment.
Appendix & Data
College Board AP Summary Report
Tigerway is a proud Founding Member of the National Test Prep Association (NTPA) where the NTPA consistently communicates with the College Board’s SAT Exam Team and ACT Exam to understand the future of academics and standardized testing.
Connect with us Today - get your Grades, SAT/ACT Scores, and increase the likelihood of admission offers into the most selective U.S. Universities:
Text us directly on our website: https://www.tigerwayprep.com/ or our program officer Jasmine Ngo at 781-510-0738