Advanced Placement Exams (commonly known as AP Exams) are standardized tests administered worldwide by the College Board, a U.S.-based "non-profit" organization that makes billions of dollars in revenue yearly. These exams were developed to provide a uniform measure of subject proficiency for students worldwide, regardless of their local curriculum. While originally intended to promote academic opportunity, AP Exams today function as a path to potential college credit and have become deeply embedded in the highly capitalized landscape of education.
If you're on this website, chances are this is the main thing you're curious about, and the unfortunate truth is that high schools and colleges do a terrible job at explaining it. You'll hear tangents like they "boost your GPA" and "give you experience" and "look good" and nothing about what they actually do or how.
All universities in the United States use a credit-based system for awarding degrees. Once you fulfill the needed amount, you get your degree. Credits are acquired by taking courses. A degree in computer science, for example, might require 120 credits, with:
Many courses across universities grant 3 credits, with a max of 5–6 courses allowed per semester (about 15–20 credits). Some courses, such as lab courses, grant more credits due to a higher workload, and some traditionally easier courses, such as music, grant less.
AP Classes allow you to skip certain courses that you would otherwise have to take in College. An AP Music Theory class, for example, would fill in for an elective in the list above. This is immensely useful because it avoids repetition, lightens your college work load, and in rare cases allows you to graduate early or skip semesters.
More sophisticatedly, not every AP course will grant credit because of your chosen major. An AP Calculus course, for example, wouldn't be relevant to a Communications or Sociology Major, so the university will just "void" it because they can't grant credit for an irrelevant subject. And sometimes, Universities don't trust that the AP classes you took are sufficient anyways (regardless of your score) and might force you to take their own in-house courses anyways. This "wasted courses" effect is especially bad because many students enter College undecided (meaning they have no chosen major) and they might unknowingly end up choosing one later that wastes most or all of their hard spent time in high school.
This website eliminates that. It allows you to see exactly which AP courses will grant you credit and where. You can plan out your entire college path with the click of a button. You can see exactly what goes to waste and what doesn't. It optimizes your time and your future.