Considering taking an AP course but have no idea what you’re signing up for? Have no fear! This guide will introduce you to the aims of AP courses and the general structure of AP exams, as well as point you towards some great resources that you can use to study for whichever AP course(s) you end up taking!

The “AP” in “AP course” or “AP exam” stands for “advanced placement.” AP courses are courses that adequately prepared high school students may elect to take, usually during their junior and senior years. When signing up for an AP course, you should assume that you’re signing up for an introductory college course, not a high school course, as AP courses aim to teach the material necessary to their specific subjects at the breadth and depth found in typical collegiate introductory courses. These courses are notorious for being extremely demanding, challenging students to think critically, often more than they have ever been challenged in their high school curriculum. Lots of homework and reading is to be expected, as is a whirlwind pace, which does not leave room for a lot of review or repeated explanations. Students are usually advised to fulfill some sort of prerequisite courses before electing an AP course in a certain subject.

So, given that AP courses are a lot more work than regular high school courses, why would anyone want to take them? Taking AP courses is a great way to bolster your high school transcript in college applications, as by succeeding in AP courses, you are demonstrating that you are intellectually mature enough to handle the rigor of college classes. Also, AP courses give you the opportunity to actually earn college credit before ever setting foot on a college campus. Students do this by performing well on an AP subject’s AP exam, which is given at the end of the year after the class has concluded. AP exams typically involve two sections: a multiple-choice section and an essay-based free response section. Each of these sections typically make up about half of the AP exam grade, though some courses, like AP Music Theory, involve other sections on their AP exams, and so change the weight of the multiple-choice and free response sections. AP exams are graded on a scale of 1–5, with 5 being the best possible score, and 1 being the worst possible score. The translation between AP exam scores and the amount of college credit is received varied by college, though high scores are usually required to qualify for advanced placement and college credit.

Now that you’ve learned about the general structure of AP courses and their exams, perhaps you need to find some good free online resources to ensure that you keep up with the material when you take these classes. You can use Varsity Tutors’ free online AP resources to do this. Offering free AP Diagnostic Tests, free AP Practice Tests, free AP Flashcards, and free AP Questions of the Day for a wide variety of AP exams, you can supplement your studies and make sure that you don’t have any gaps in your knowledge by taking advantage of these resources. With enough determination and the right preparation, you can prepare yourself for success in AP courses, no matter how seemingly impossible they may initially appear!