APs: They Make You or They Break You

As course planning begins to wind down, the familiar echo of Juniors frantically asking friends and classmates how many APs they're taking begins to quiet down as well. Still, the forms are being finalized as they make their way through the final stages to be turned in.  There is little doubt in anyone's mind that there is a major discrepancy between the faculty and the students when it comes to Advance Placement courses for senior year.  While many teachers advice students to lessen their course load for senior year and think more practically, it's hard to accept this information when college decisions are lurking around the corner. 

It is commonly said by siblings, parents, and counselors that taking AP courses helps the start of your college life immensely. There is no denying this. It is also commonly said by teachers and advisors not to overdo it, it will kill your senior year. There is also no denying this. Hearing both these sides so frequently leaves students in the middle as good as we were before hearing anything at all although, it does cause us to think a bit more then just checking the boxes and filling in the numbers.  

While I was sitting in the car on the way to school the other morning, I noticed that the familiar murmurs of my mother's morning dose of WBEZ had actually sparked my interest.  The topic this morning had been AP courses and the AP tests in particular, how... fortuitous. I had been having at least one talk daily about the AP choices in the past few weeks, why not listen into this one as well? What caught my attention in particular was that Illinois had received the highest AP test scores in the country.  

It is one thing to take into account a school such as New Trier's averages alone but it is a another thing to take into account a whole state. It is obvious that the students at New Trier are very hardworking and are up for the AP challenge but it is also obvious that taking APs is highly encouraged and nearly expected be parents. As just one school in the state, what sort of effect could New Trier have made on the average scores of Illinois? 

Where are these test scores coming from? We are constantly being encouraged not to overload our schedules but is it really doing anything in the decisions we end up making? Was the fact that we were being advised to lessen our AP course load somehow affecting the way students enter these courses?