Celts, strategically plan in 8th and 9th for 4 years of high school classes. Forecast your classes with intention.
As of September 2025, we have 11 AP classes available while you in high school, and 5 of those AP classes are also considered dual enrollment with Oregon colleges. Thus, for those 5 classes you do NOT need to take the AP test to receive college credit .
As with all things related to AP or DE, your mileage may vary when actually applying them to your college major, and every college/university has their own policy about accepting AP or DE classes.
~ Mrs. Conolly
--------------------------
Should I Take AP Classes?
By Jonathan Harris, Adjunct Professor at University of Richmond, Parent, and Educator (September 2025)
I’m not going to wade into the swamp of “how many AP classes do I need to take to get into college X” except to say that a lot of kids would be much better off if their high school experience was based on what’s most appropriate for them and then found a school that matches that. There are, after all, about 2000 4-year colleges in the US and the average acceptance rate is over 70%.
But here’s some food for thought about AP classes. In the class of 2024, only 36% of students took at least one AP test and only 23% scored a 3 or higher on at least one AP test. Research shows the biggest bump in college GPA comes with taking one AP test and the researchers were unable to identify any additional benefit after 5 AP tests.
Edit: Adding some additional data about the distribution of total number of AP tests taken. Less than 2% of students who take AP tests take more than 10.
https://newsroom.collegeboard.org/advanced-placement-participation-and-performance-continues-increase
https://research.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/Summary%20of%20Research%20on%20the%20Relationships%20Between%20Number%20of%20APs%20and%20Performance%20with%20College%20Outcomes.pdf
https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/number-of-ap-exams-per-student-2024.pdf