CYHSB WEEKLY

Cooper Yeshiva High School for Boys

Volume 17, Issue 16

Rabbi Shimon Bar

Yochai: An Inspiration well Past his Passing

Page 3

Cooper Clicks

Page 4

Terror in Israel as Gaza Situation Escalates

Page 6

Parshas Behar

Bechokasai: Surprising Sabbatical Specifics

Page 7

This week’s Weekly is sponsored by Joshua Parcover in honor of this year’s weekly staff.

Many AP classes are given every year at our school, but are they helpful or hurtful for students? Source: collegeboard.com

AP Classes: Ideal or Ordeal for Students?

Yaron Weiss (24’) With colleges being harder to get into and the academic field being more complicated students are always trying to figure out ways to stand out. One such way is AP classes. But, one may ask, what exactly is an AP class? AP stands for Advanced Placement and is a program run by the College Board, an organization that helps students get access to colleges and different opportunities. Apart from AP classes they also administer the SATs and the ACTs with a practical monopoly on both college level tests and tests with cool sounding acronyms. College

Board offers a total of 38 AP classes ranging from subjects like math and science to social science and world languages, which are all taught at a college level. Schools choose which AP classes they are willing to offer each year.At the end of the year students in AP classes take a test, which normally consists of two parts, free response questions (FRQs) and multiple choice questions (MCQs). But then the next logical question is, how does this help a student? How does taking an AP class help a student get into a college or make them look better?

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The answer to that is scoring. The scoring for an AP final is on a five point scale. A one or two is a fail, while a three, four or five is a pass. When applying to a college, administrators look at the score a student received on their AP tests. Students with a higher score impress colleges more than ones with lower scores. By looking at one's scores an administrator can determine many things about the applicant. They can see if the student is able to handle college level classes, if they are committed to learning, if they are smart, and how passionate they are about a subject.

The score one receives on an AP final can also affect how many years they have to go to college for or allow them to take more college classes than a normal student wouldn't have the time or opportunity to take. This is due to the five point grading scale. Some colleges accept the score on your AP final as credits for the subject. So if a student received a four on their AP science final, a college might accept them with four science credits. However not all schools accept all scores; most schools only accept scores of three or higher. One score can also have an effect on tuition fees. Students who receive high scores in AP classes are more likely to receive scholarships than students who score low or don’t take an AP all together.

One more reason for taking AP classes is the boost it gives to your GPA. In most schools, including ours, an AP class counts as six points for a student’s GPA, or grade point average. This means that a B in an AP class is worth the same as

AP exams can be stressful but rewarding experiences for students. Source: thehawkeye.com an A in an honors class and an A in an AP class is one above an A in an honors class. Colleges also look at a student’s GPA to accept people over each other and give out scholarships leading to much of the same benefits as before. This also may help with winning valedictorian, which is mostly based on the student’s GPA.

Another good reason to take an AP is for the experience. As stated, an AP class is taught at a college level. This gives students the opportunity to prepare and see what it is like to take a college class. It helps students with time management and can also enhance a student's critical thinking and problem solving skills. Junior Joshua Parcover said about AP’s, “AP classes are a part of our curriculum which I find very valuable as it gives me very good

experience for classes at college level..”

While all of these reasons make APs seem like a good idea to take they are not always for everyone. AP classes require a lot of time and effort to get a good grade. Students who are not able to keep up will get left behind. On top of that there is a risk and reward. To take the test at the end of the year students must register and pay a fee. Students who are not prepared for the test can end up failing and in a sense wasting their money. Over the last week and a half at the CYHSB students have been taking these exams I’ve been talking about. The AP classes that were available this year were AP Literature, AP Environmental Science, AP Art History, and AP Calculus. . Next year the AP classes that the CYHSB will be having are AP Calculus, AP Psychology, AP US History, and AP Language.