Top Ten Most Popular AP Courses & Exams

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Every year, more and more test takers are taking advantage of the Advanced Placement program. Back in 1998 when the AP program became available, there were 1 million test takers. That number has nearly tripled to 2.7 million test takers in 2008, the greatest number to date. Why have students gravitated to taking courses that have the same rigor of a college course?

The answer is simple. These students are college bound. By taking a course that matches the level of rigor of a college level course, they are gaining college credit and are not required to retake the same course in college. This means they can graduate faster and move on to more academically challenging courses sooner. They are also wowing admissions officers to select them for the limited openings for top schools.

So what AP courses and exams are these students taking?

AP Subject # of students
1. US History 346,000
2. English Lit 320,000
3. English Lang 306,000
4. Calculus AB 222,000
5. U.S. Government & Politics 177,000
6. Biology 154,000
7. Psychology 132,000
8. World History 124,000
9. Statistics 108,000
10. Spanish Language 101,000

Physics and chemistry follow closely after Spanish. Italian and Japanese language rank in as the least favorite AP subjects with less than 2000 test takers each during 2008.

If you are a student that is interested in preparing for an AP exam, talk to an AP coordinator from your school about the courses they have available. Find out from them how the extra workload might impact your current schedule. Also investigate the colleges you’re interested in attending to find out if they provide credit for the subjects you plan to tackle. Finally, come back to this site to score higher on your exam or visit College Board to get more information on the advanced placement policy.

Source: College Board