Last Updated on October 1, 2026
Quick answer: When choosing advanced placement courses, weigh your intended major, the rigor your school offers, your ability to earn top grades, the expectations of the colleges on your list, and your overall workload. Colleges want to see that you challenged yourself within your school’s offerings, especially in core subjects and the field you plan to study.
How to Choose Advanced Placement Courses
Choosing advanced placement courses can feel like an overwhelming ordeal. At first glance, all the options, course names, and new lingo can be very confusing. When it comes to advanced course selection for high school, there are a lot of factors to consider. One of the most common and challenging higher level exams that high school students take is the Advanced Placement, or AP exams. With lots of options on the horizon, and perhaps uncertainty about what you wish to study in the future, you may be confused about choosing your AP courses.
Choosing your AP courses and succeeding in them can be an effective way of showcasing your prowess in a certain area. A good place to start is thinking about what a typical course load looks like at your high school. In the college admissions process, you will be compared to other students from your school, so it is important to think about your course selection in that context. Your high school college counselor will detail the rigor of your course load in their letter of recommendation. Before you choose classes, talk to your counselor so that you understand the courses students at your school usually take. Ask which ones are considered the most challenging, and think about how you can select your courses to do more than required, separating yourself from the rest of the pack.
To guide you through the selection process, we have outlined basics of the AP exams, the AP subjects that are offered by the College Board, how scoring works, and strategic tips for choosing your AP courses.
When AP Classes and Exams Happen
AP exams occur every year in May, and usually feature both a multiple-choice and a free-response section. Even though AP classes are most suited to the level of juniors and seniors, you may start earlier depending on your school’s policy. Schools sometimes have restrictions on which year you can take certain APs and they can place caps on how many AP classes each student can take. Look online or talk to your counselor to find out more about your school’s policies to navigate and strategize which courses would be the best for you.
Which Advanced Placement Courses Can You Take?
The College Board lists 42 AP courses in its AP course index. [1] Your school probably will not offer them all, but most schools cover several disciplines so that you have options. Learn the number of APs that most students at your school take, and then how many you should enroll in to get noticed.
Below are the long-established AP subjects, with newer additions listed after:
- Art History
- Biology
- Calculus AB
- Calculus BC
- Chemistry
- Chinese Language & Culture
- Comparative Government & Politics
- Computer Science A
- Computer Science Principles
- English Language and Composition
- English Literature and Composition
- Environmental Science
- European History
- French Language & Culture
- German Language & Culture
- Human Geography
- Italian Language & Culture
- Japanese Language and Culture
- Latin
- Macroeconomics
- Microeconomics
- Music Theory
- Physics 1: Algebra-Based
- Physics 2: Algebra-Based
- Physics C: Electricity & Magnetism
- Physics C: Mechanics
- Psychology
- Research
- Seminar
- Spanish Language & Culture
- Spanish Literature & Culture
- Statistics
- 2-D Art and Design
- 3-D Art and Design
- Drawing
- U.S. Government & Politics
- U.S. History
- World History
The College Board has also added newer courses to its lineup, including AP African American Studies, AP Precalculus, AP Business with Personal Finance, and AP Cybersecurity, and World History is now offered as AP World History: Modern. [1] Newer courses are less widely available, so ask your counselor which ones your school plans to offer and when. If you are weighing AP against an International Baccalaureate program, our comparison of IB vs AP walks through the differences.
How AP Exams Are Scored
The multiple-choice section of each AP exam is scored by computer. [2] The essays and open-ended questions are scored at the annual AP Reading in June by college professors and experienced AP teachers. [2] The two section scores are combined into a composite score, which is converted to the 1 to 5 AP scale. [2] The conversions reflect factors such as:
- What percentage of students earned each AP grade over the past three years
- How students did in multiple-choice questions and different parts of the exam
- How examiners viewed the overall quality of answers in the free-response questions
- How university students who took the exam as experimental studies performed
Scores are reported on a 5-point scale, and most scores are available in July: [3]
- 5 = Extremely well qualified
- 4 = Very well qualified
- 3 = Qualified
- 2 = Possibly qualified
- 1 = No recommendation
Some universities accept a 3 or above to grant college credit, although top schools look for higher scores or do not give credit at all. The College Board equates a 5 with a college grade of A+ or A, so aim for those 5s. [4] But note that colleges have been increasingly giving fewer and fewer advanced credits for AP classes, as many schools believe that AP courses do not substitute for college level course quality. Policies vary widely, so check each college’s AP credit and placement policy before you count on skipping a course. Our guide to submitting AP scores to colleges explains when to send them.
Colleges that do not give any credit at all may still use AP scores for placement purposes in the different courses. If you are a top student and want to skip low level prerequisites, this may be your best option.
Strategic Tips for Choosing AP Classes
So, how do you go about choosing your AP courses from the wide selection to ensure that you can study to the best of your abilities and score those 5s? We’ve outlined some tips below to help you narrow down your choices:
- Reflect on Past Courses – Often, in order to qualify for AP classes you’ll have to take honors-level courses in the same areas, or meet a required GPA or grade. So make sure you’re choosing your AP courses based on the courses you’ve excelled at during freshman or sophomore year. If you’ve discovered that you’re surprisingly good at English, take AP Lit. If physics was your best class, take that as a sign that you would perform well in AP Physics!
- Think About Your Future Plans – This is key in your advanced high school course selection process. What do you want to major in once you’re in college? Do you have a career in mind? What academic areas are you interested in? Asking yourself these questions can help you decide which direction you want to head. If you plan to study STEM fields in college, you’re definitely going to need AP Calculus to show admissions officers your prowess, and MIT, for example, expects applicants to have at least some exposure to calculus by graduation. [5] If you want to eventually go to medical school, taking AP Biology and Chemistry is a great place to start, since those subjects anchor premedical coursework in college. [6]
- Don’t Try to Self-Study for AP exams – It’s important that you only sit for the AP exams in which you are enrolled at your school. Don’t try to self-study, as extra scores are not seen as a good use of your time in most cases, a point we cover in depth in Should You Self-Study for AP Exams?. Even a couple of extra 5s won’t help you get noticed. It would be far better to use that time having an impact in your community. In addition, studying under an instructor will prepare you far better for your exams and be more efficient; your teachers have lots of experience! Plus, remember those letters of recommendation? Your teachers can’t write them if they haven’t taught you directly. It’s important that you select the courses from your school that interest you the most so that you can perform better on the exams.
- Take Advantage of Tenth Grade – At some high schools, you can start choosing your AP courses in tenth grade, or even ninth grade. While you definitely don’t want to overburden yourself this early, it may be worthwhile to take an early AP or two to get a feel of what’s to come, without the pressure of impending college applications. If you’re hoping to take all three of the popular AP science classes, Physics, Chemistry and Biology, your sophomore year is a great place to get one out of the way. Or if you want to take AP World History or European History, you could try to enroll in the tenth grade. Talk to your counselor to figure out which are best for you early on, in order to strategically plan your course load.
- Don’t Put Everything Off – Since you can take APs multiple years throughout high school, there’s no need to stuff all of your AP classes into senior year. You’ll be busy trying to write your personal statement and working hard on extracurriculars. So, make the most out of your options and spread out those APs. Take a couple in the tenth grade if you can, a few in the eleventh grade, and the rest in the twelfth grade. Colleges know you’re human and definitely don’t expect you to have taken ten AP classes in your senior year alone. Moreover, you’ll perform better if you have fewer exams to study for each year.
- Maintain a Balance – Balance is important, not only in the way you spread your AP classes throughout the years, but in the courses you decide to take. While colleges want to know if you excel in the field of your interest, they also like to know you’ve got skills in other areas. What better way to demonstrate that than through excellence in your AP exams? For example if you want to major in History, you should definitely score well in AP US History and AP World History. But you can also take AP Physics or AP Calculus to show colleges that you’re skilled in other fields too and can keep up with the distribution requirements of the school.
No matter which AP classes you take, what’s important is that you take courses which challenge you and you can strive for excellence in. Yale, for example, tells applicants to challenge yourself with a balanced academic program and notes that it only expects you to take advanced courses if your school provides them. [7] For help deciding on a number, see How Many AP Classes Should I Take?. When choosing your AP courses, think about your career prospects, areas where you shine, and how to maintain a balance by showing depth of knowledge in a multitude of areas. Don’t make the decisions on a whim. Try and foresee which subjects will help you in a couple of years when you’re working through the Common App, and choose the classes which will benefit you the most to help put you at the top of the application pool.
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