Advanced Placement Courses

What are AP courses?

The College Board organization creates the Advanced Placement curriculum to mirror introductory college-level coursework. AP gives students the chance to take college-level work while they are still in high school. https://ap.collegeboard.org/

More information regarding the AP program in SDUHSD can be found on the Course of Study webpage. 

Information about the optional AP Exams can be found on the SDUHSD Assessment and Testing webpage as well as the SDUHSD AP Exams website.

 SDUHSD’s partnership with the College Board

• SDUHSD high schools contract with the College Board to be able to offer Advanced Placement courses. The College Board offers many Advanced Placement courses and exams that schools can contract to offer.  Each high school’s annual AP offerings are listed on their school’s website.
• Courses and teachers must annually receive authorization from College Board to be approved as qualified to teach these courses as the curriculum and exams are proprietary to College Board
• SDUHSD must assure that we can closely comply with all College Board requirements. If we provide a course that is not compliant with the College Board requirements, it will not be accepted. 

How are AP course grades weighted in the GPA calculation?

• AP classes are college-level courses taught in the high school setting and may earn a weighted grade  (which means +1 grade point) for a C grade or higher. Advanced Placement courses are denoted with a “p” and specific course titles on the SDUHSD high school transcript and show as weighted with a “+” symbol.
• Each college determines its own admission GPA practices. Example - for CSU/UC, students may earn an extra point for each semester of a course weighted by UC, with a maximum of 8 points between 10th and 11th grades. AP grades may not be weighted by some colleges.

Advanced Placement exams

• AP exams are optional.
• AP exams are not required for high school graduation or college eligibility.
• AP exams are separate from and not required for district AP courses and AP exam scores do not impact student grades.
• AP exam scores may earn college credits and/or satisfying prerequisites for placement in some cases (see below).
• Some colleges do not award any credit or accept any AP exams.

How do colleges apply credit for AP exam scores?

• Each college follows its own practices and not all colleges accept AP exam scores or offer credit or acceleration based on them. For more information, visit College Board AP Credit Search.
• A student may choose to take an AP exam to earn a score which may earn placement or credit for college; students are not required to take the exam if they take the class. College Board AP Credit Information

 SDUHSD policies related to administration of AP exams each year

Information about SDUHSD AP exam administration policies can be found on the SDUSD AP exams website as well as on 6141.5 Advanced Placement Board Policy/Administrative Regulation.

The College Board provides the exams, exam format, and testing dates and times. It is SDUHSD’s responsibility to plan and pay for the logistics of AP exam administration including but not limited to; recruit and train proctors, secure facilities, provide testing materials and supplies, provide hardware and software updates for digital and computer based exams, provide tech support during testing, provide compliant seating (tables/chairs), and securely store test materials before and after testing.

SDUHSD must assure that we can closely comply with all College Board requirements. If we provide an exam administration that is not compliant with the College Board requirements, it may be deemed a non-standard administration and student test scores would be invalidated/will not be accepted.

How do students register for the AP exams?

• Students enrolled in SDUHSD AP courses have accounts aligned with the College Board and follow the registration process and deadlines as outlined on the SDUHSD AP Exams website.
• SDUHSD schools begin planning and preparing for AP exam administration in August each year to ensure that we are able to provide a compliant testing environment for all students who are enrolled in an SDUHSD AP course and who choose to take the optional corresponding subject exam.

AP exam information for students not taking a district AP course

Some SDUHSD students also choose to participate in concurrent off-campus study to supplement their course of study at SDUHSD. Students who do not enroll in a district AP course may wish to participate in the optional AP exam in May.

• Students who are not enrolled in district AP courses but are pursuing independent study or off-campus coursework to prepare for an AP exam register as an independent study student for the AP exam and are placed on the waitlist.
• While the goal is to accommodate all students on the waitlist each year, our schools can not guarantee registration for self-studied students until final registration numbers are evaluated in the spring. School teams can then evaluate their capacity to support more students given the secured facilities, proctors, and equipment needed for each exam.
• Students on the waitlist are notified of their registration status by March.

Why is there a waitlist for students not enrolled in SDUHSD courses?

Our goal is to accommodate all of our students on the waitlist for all exams each year. To accomplish this goal, our district and school teams start planning in August to begin problem-solving foreseeable challenges including:

• facilities used at each of our schools for exams that are offered on set dates, during the school day, over a 2-week period in May
• tables/chairs needed to maintain compliant seating for exams
• technology needs
• proctor recruitment and training.

Each AP exam has unique logistical or component requirements. As one example, AP Spanish and AP Chinese exams each include both a listening and speaking component which require additional administration needs including:

• multiple audio sources and special headphones that are costly (up to $150 each) and can only be used for AP testing,
• all students must use a district-owned College Board allowable computer with special College Board required software and apps installed, and
• each examinee’s computer must be regularly updated by our tech team to make sure the apps and software are ready for exam day, and
• the College Board does not release the technology specifications for digital exams until February which makes it difficult to create a final administration plan now for digital exams. This year SDUHSD will administer in-school digital AP exams for AP Chinese, Computer Science Principles, European History, English Literature, English Language, Japanese, Seminar, United States History, and World History.

Educational Services and Human Resources work collaboratively to discuss exam proctor recruitment to ensure we are able to secure enough proctors to offer the optional AP Exams to all SDUHSD students who wish to participate. Each year, we communicate this information with staff, students and parents and strive to work collaboratively with all educational partners while complying with College Board testing requirements.

Considerations Related to Language Other than English

College Board has 7 AP World Language programs - Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Latin and Spanish.

As part of our Course of Study, SDUHSD offers American Sign Language, Chinese (Mandarin), French, Japanese and Spanish pathways. Like all of our courses, each year’s offerings are determined by student enrollment, staffing and facilities.

Students who take an SDUHSD AP World Language course and choose to take the corresponding AP exam:

This year, SDUHSD offers the following AP World Language programs:

• AP Chinese  - CCA, TP
• AP French - SDA, TP
• AP Japanese - SDA, TP  
• AP Spanish - CCA, LCC, TP, and SDA

Students who want to take an AP exam who are not in a SDUHSD AP Course:

These students will register as an independent study student for the AP exam and be placed on the waitlist.

Each year, we communicate this information with staff, students and parents and strive to work collaboratively with off campus institutions.

Demonstrating Proficiency in a World Language not offered by Advanced Placement

Note that language other than English is not required for SDUHSD graduation. It may be required by a 4-year college and there are multiple ways for students to demonstrate language proficiency to universities, including primary instruction in a language other than English, coursework on or off-campus, and test scores. Students who want to demonstrate proficiency or earn credits in a world language and are not able to do so through AP coursework or exams may explore other options and should check college admission websites and ask a counselor for assistance.