Taking AP Courses

Advanced Placement (AP) Courses are college-level courses offered by the College Board brought to BLA.

APs at BLA

At BLA, AP classes are open-enrollment. This means that regardless of your GPA or performance in specific classes, you are eligible to sign up to take an AP course.

Students should be prepared to do up to 1 hour of homework per night each AP class and have an interest in the subject matter. In addition, the goal at BLA is for all students to strive to earn a 3 or higher on the AP exam.

The rundown

• AP classes add 1 point to your GPA. For example if you had a 3.00 unweighted GPA average in an AP class that would translate to a 4.00 on the weighted GPA scale.
• AP courses are endorsed by the College Board and follow a specific curriculum. Many resources are available on their website.
• Each college and university has its own policy in terms of accepting AP courses. In most cases, you take an end of the year exam, get a score around mid-summer, and that score is used to determine whether or not it will be approved for college credit. It varies university to university. In the case of AP Computer Science Principles, there is a portfolio entry as well as an end of the year exam.

How many AP courses am I permitted to take?

There is not a concrete rule about how many AP courses you can/should take, however, you should take as many as they can in order to prepare for college while maintaining their health and well being. This includes time for family, friends, extracurricular activities and plenty of sleep.

In cases of over enrollment...

BLA will work to create enough AP sections to meet the requests of students. In cases where BLA is unable to create enough sections to accommodate student requests, priority for AP classes will be given based on the following criteria:

• Current course weighted cumulative grade (Students will receive 1 point added to their GPA for an AP course) = 5 pts
• Cumulative grade point average (GPA) (Students will receive 1 point added to their GPA for an AP course) = 5 pts
• Attendance (Students must be present in school at least 90% (excluding excused absences) to receive the point. 3 unexcused tardies = 1 absence) = 1pt
• Total possible points = 10-11pts depending upon the grade level and the course*

Students with the highest total score will be placed into courses if there are more students requesting a course than there is space available. Consideration will be given to having students in AP classes be representative of the BLA population.

Choosing which courses to take

Think about potential career paths you plan on pursuing. Certain APs are available to students at specific grade levels. If you are excelling in a subject this year, think about ramping up next year with an AP course in that subject. You can research the AP Course curriculum on the College Board website when making your decision, along with the myBLA course selection tool!

Now that you're enrolled, now what?