My Impressions on AP

I want to share my impressions of AP, as a student who finished all the STEM subjects in AP and got ten 5’s during high school.

What is AP?

AP stands for Advanced Placement. Developed by the College Board, AP is a set of standardized, pre-college¹ level courses that authorized high schools can offer. Taking an AP course usually involves two phases: first, you take the course at your high school, do homework, and sit exams that count toward your high school GPA; second, you sit the AP Exam at your designated test center in May, a test that typically runs three hours. AP Exam scores range from 1–5. Many universities in North America accept these scores for credit, depending on their individual policies.

My AP Experience

AP was one of the most valuable experiences of my high school years. Studying at a public high school in China, I took as many AP courses as I could. Compared to local/national course content², AP felt more innovative, more flexible, and offered a generally richer learning experience.

The most important quality of AP is academic freedom. The College Board explicitly states, in the CEDs of almost all AP subjects, that AP opposes indoctrination and censorship. There are no official textbooks or study guides for AP subjects, so students are encouraged to explore any trustworthy source with an open mind. When studying AP History subjects, for example, you can freely draw on reference books, online tutorials, academic papers, and even archived historical documents. As long as you’ve covered every topic in the CED, you can score well on the AP exam no matter which materials you used to get there. For me, the process of weighing different sources and opinions helped me gradually build the critical thinking skills I now rely on in undergraduate study.

AP also offers a gentle learning curve into college-level concepts. AP Statistics, for me, laid the foundation for understanding deeper topics in machine learning — and the relationship went both ways, since modern ML terminology later helped me understand AP Statistics concepts more intuitively (false positives and false negatives in ML, for instance, are exactly Type I and Type II errors in AP Statistics).

One of the biggest problems with AP is outdated content. To sit the AP Statistics exam, for instance, you need an approved graphing calculator with statistics functions. A commonly used TI-84 can cost $200, yet almost nobody uses a physical calculator for statistics or data science after high school. Now that AP tests are computer-delivered, it seems entirely feasible to teach basic statistics using Python or R, letting students work in modern environments like Jupyter Notebook within Bluebook³ during the exam itself. That would let them move into projects or internships using the same tools they already learned in the classroom.

Biggest Takeaways from AP

The first lesson AP taught me was letting go of perfectionism. Getting a 5 on an AP exam only requires understanding every topic in the Course and Exam Description (CED) — not chasing a perfect score. While studying, I learned to divide my attention across topics according to their weight, and to drop less important ones when time was tight, because studying strategically doesn’t stop you from getting a 5. Now, as an incoming student at the University of Toronto, notoriously demanding when it comes to coursework, I’m trying to carry the same mindset: an 80 is a five, so do well, then move on — rather than grinding for a 90 or an A+ when my overall GPA doesn’t require it.

Another major takeaway was trying new things. Three years ago, I was obsessed with computer science. Taking electives like AP U.S. History, AP Chemistry, and AP Biology helped me stop treating computer science as my whole identity. Trying out different subjects across math, science, and the humanities shaped me into someone who’s not just technically capable, but multidisciplinary and aware of the wider world. Unlike college courses, which often come with prerequisites, AP courses are relatively low-pressure to take — and low-stakes to drop, if you only register for the exam. My projects and hobbies today span cognitive science, biology, computer science, and social issues, largely because AP let me explore so many subjects I was curious about.

AP was also where I first discovered that I found the social sciences and humanities genuinely fascinating. AP History courses include a document-based essay question, where you synthesize evidence from several historical documents to build an argument. Writing used to feel miserable, but that changed over time. As I mentioned above, I came to enjoy the freedom of exploring different ideas. For me, studying in the social sciences, humanities, or liberal arts more broadly is about finding non-trivial connections between different phenomena, then marshaling whatever evidence you can to justify them. The joy is in untangling complex problems and shaping your own argument out of the mess.

How to Study AP Well

Here are a few approaches that worked well for me.

One is to use active recall. I like to make cheat sheets for topics that are important or difficult: I start with a blank document, list everything I remember related to the topic, then fill in gaps as I go. Wherever I get stuck, that’s a signal for where I need more attention — I look it up in a textbook, search online, or ask someone. Spaced repetition tools like Anki are also worth using. When I need to memorize a large volume of material — U.S. History events or Biology terms, say — I find or build Anki decks, review them daily, and run a filtered deck in the days before the exam. You can also have AI agents (Claude Code, Codex, etc.) generate Anki decks from your study material.

The other is to ask questions. Whether you’re asking a teacher, a classmate, or a generative AI tool (there are plenty of good ones now — ChatGPT, NotebookLM, and others), every question you ask clears up something that was shaky in your understanding. I treat AI specifically as a TA I can pester with questions any time of day. It’s also worth seeking out well-regarded teachers and study guides on YouTube or in online forums — the ones the community has already vetted.

Appendix: The Easiest and Hardest APs, FYI

The hardest APs, in my experience, were AP Physics C: Mechanics, AP Physics 1, and AP Physics C: Electromagnetism. English and History APs were also hard for me, since they’re reading- and essay-heavy, especially for ESL students like me.

The easiest APs I took were AP Environmental Science and AP Computer Science Principles.

That’s the end of my thoughts on AP — written on the day I got my final two 5’s of senior year. As a reward for reading this far, try this tool, which saves AP Classroom quizzes as HTML scoring guides for review, or visit my GitHub for notes and cheat sheets from some of my AP subjects (a few are in Chinese). Go explore your high school/AP life, and stay curious⁴!