The Best (And Worst) Online AP Courses

Dec 6, 2022

Taking AP courses lets the students earn college credits and allows them to explore advanced studies with their topics of interest. They can perform their research work with their high school studies. AP courses help students to save time and money for their higher studies.

Previously, AP course classes were provided by traditional methods. But, today, with the advancement in technology, online AP classes are available. There are many advantages to taking online AP courses. You can take any AP courses online from anywhere in the world.

What are the best online AP classes? What are the worst online AP courses? What are the various ways to determine the best AP courses online? These are some questions that students often want to know the answer to.

This section is about the best online AP classes that you can select from and which AP courses online you should avoid.

How Do You Determine the Best Online AP Classes?

Anything that claims to be best must have some unique or specific features that make it different from others. The same goes for the best online AP classes. If you are looking for one of the best online AP courses, you must look for such features.

Some Features to Determine the Best AP Courses Online are:

1. Recognition:

The College Board recognizes the best online AP courses. The College Board has approved those online AP classes’ syllabus and course requirements.

2. Study material:

Usually, students find those classes the best, where they find the lectures interesting, engaging, and clear to understand. If the AP courses online you have selected contain all the mentioned points, it is the best one you were looking for.

3. Feedback sessions:

Having easily approachable and accessible teachers makes the study environment light and interesting. The classes where you get timely feedback for your performances and assignments for your exam preparations are one of the best online AP classes. Moreover, easily accessible teachers help you a lot with all your queries.

4. Easy-to-use interface and technical support:

The best online AP classes are those you can navigate easily through your computer. In case of connecting issues or other problems with the online classes, you must have technical support to overcome those issues timely.

5. Timely review:

Giving timely reviews increases students’ morale and gives them more experience. The online AP courses that provide you with these features are considered among the best classes, among the others.

6. Affordability:

The priority of students when looking for the best online AP classes is, they can learn without paying. This way, they can save money on their studies. However, do not consider every free class the best one. Some paid AP online classes are also good.

Some Best Online AP Courses

In India, there are 23 accessible AP courses. Various academies provide AP exam practice classes. However, you need to search for the best among them. Here are a few of the best online AP classes with their features.

1. AP English Language and Composition:

This course was thrived by the University of California at Berkeley. Although it is an incomplete AP course, if you desire to learn specific literary and composition skills, this online AP course is perfect for you. It is a completely literary-focused course.

This AP course will let you improve your literary reading and writing skills more effectively.

The topics enclosed under this online AP course are:

Cultural considerations of literature
How to interpret classic works of literature
Test-taking strategies

This course also helps you in improving your academic writing abilities. You can easily get online videos, transcripts, or other study materials for this course preparation. It is a highly accessible course and easy to complete successfully.

2. AP US History and Review Course:

It is one of the most expensive AP courses. However, this online AP course is the only course that requires a live interaction between students and teachers. Generally, online AP classes for this course are divided into eight live sessions of two hours each.

Some critical topics that are covered in this course are:

Gilded age politics
Native American societies
Modern US history
World War II

The multimedia classes let the students engage and make the curriculum interesting. This course involves a lot of assignments and workshops for exam preparations. This course is easily available for online studies.

3. AP Calculus BC:

If you find Mathematics, Physics, or Engineering an interesting field and want to pursue your desire to be in any of them, this case, this course is designed for you. It is a comprehensive course and gets completed in 167 lessons. Each lesson will let you learn some specific topics of Calculus.

The lessons are outlined in a short and easy-to-understand pattern. It makes this course popular among students. You can easily prepare them and retain what you learn at any time.

The topics included in this online course are:

How to graph functions
How to analyze the Taylor series
How to identify second derivatives

You may require a scientific calculator in its curriculum. You will learn to draw strategies to solve the limit of functions, differentiation, and integration problems.

The study material for this course is easily accessible online. You can get video tutorials, practice tests, and lesson quizzes when you join any online AP class for this exam.

4. AP Statistics:

It is a brand-new course unavailable in many online AP classes. In total, there are only 16 available AP classes that teach this course. The curriculum of AP statistics is updated by adding new concepts and lessons.

The syllabus covered in this course is:

Two-way tables.
Analyzing value
Modeling
Probability
Study Design
Quantitative data

You can easily find online AP classes for this course that are highly flexible. You can attend live sessions at your convenience. It is an easy-to-access course, and all the required study materials are available online for your preparations.

5. AP Psychology:

The University of British Columbia introduced this course. It is one of the eight easily accessible online AP courses. As AP Psychology is a complex course, the classes of this course are divided into eight live sessions.

It is an introductory course in Psychology for high school students. The main target of this course for high school students is to look for the answer to the question ‘What is Psychology?’ This course will also teach how modern psychology differs from past Psychology.

Some critical topics that are included in this online course are:

Psychological research methods
The history of psychology
Basic statistics

Usually, this course is completed in three weeks with 8-12 hours of classes per week. It is an open-ended course. If students need more time to complete their curriculum, in that case, some online AP classes are available for this course, providing them with such convenience.

Some Worst Online AP Courses

Based on reviews of students, some online AP courses that they find problematic, whether with their accessibility or flexibility, are given below.

1. AP World History:

This course requires a lot of reading processes. It would be best if you covered many topics as you have to read the whole history of the world. It makes the course quite typical.

Hence, students usually think of this online AP course as the worst among others.

2. AP European History:

Europe is one of the oldest civilizations in the world. It has a long history. So, there is a lot of data to prepare for this exam. Hence, most students avoid it and consider it the worst AP course.

3. AP Physics:

There are three types of AP Physics courses, i.e., AP Physics 1, AP Physics 2, and AP Physics C. There is no magic trick to make you ace this test easily. It is extremely challenging to handle this AP exam. If you are not an unmotivated student, selecting this AP course is not wise.

4. AP Human Geography:

Selecting an AP Human Geography course is useless unless you want to be linguistic. It is a good choice if you are considering social studies to make your career. Otherwise, it is hard to categorize countries by their shapes or agricultural products’ effect on developing countries. Hence, students think to avoid this course.

Conclusion

Taking online AP classes aids you in scoring more than average passing scores, and you can earn college credit easily with the help of online AP courses. As a result, you get a kick start to better college studies and careers. It is also possible that you can graduate earlier than other students.

Similar to other online learning classes, you must select AP courses online after lots of research. Each AP course online does not provide the same quality classes. Some are worthy of spending money, time, and effort, while some are not. So, check all factors mentioned in this article before taking any online AP classes.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What are the top five rank-wise online AP courses?

A. There are no fixed criteria to rank online AP courses. These programs are ranked based on their popularity among students and the result they secure via students’ performance in AP exams. The top five such online AP classes are:

AP Chemistry
AP English Language and Composition Exam
AP Psychology: Course 1
AP Physics 1
AP English Literature and Composition: Part 1

2. What basic factors need to be checked before joining any AP courses online?

A. When you talk about taking online AP courses, every student has different needs. It is necessary to select a class that meets your needs. Some basic factors that you must check before joining any online AP classes are

How much time do you have and can you give to prepare for AP exams?
How much does the class you select cost you?
What is your learning style, and does it match the selected class?

3. What are the look-for must-have features of the best AP courses online?

A. The best online AP classes ensure that their features are helpful for their students. The classes that enable their students to provide an effective study environment and give them opportunities to succeed in their AP exams are the best AP courses online. The look for must-have features of the best online AP classes are: