Dual Enrollment and Advanced Placement Blog Posts

I've noticed more activity on my blog lately and many people seem to need information about both Advanced Placement classes and Dual Enrollment. On the right-hand side of my blog page there is a list of subjects with the number of posts in each. One of these days I will clean this up by tagging my posts in a more consistent manner. Click on the subject area you are interested in and the posts will come up. Remember that the blog posts read from the bottom (oldest) to the top (newest) so to make sense scroll down to the bottom of the posts and read up!


If anyone has any questions about the posts please feel free to e-mail me at: karen@preferredlearningacademy.com

When I was working at the college in the dual enrollment department I realized that most parents did not know how the Advanced Placement classes worked and how the college credit was awarded. AP classes really are the reason I started this blog since there was such a mystery surrounding them. Also, during my time promoting Dual Enrollment for the college, I saw that MANY parents had no idea that there was a way, in Florida, for their kids to get free college classes. So sad! I cannot tell you how many times a parent would say, "Why didn't I know about this?" My goal is to educate people about what dual enrollment is and what it isn't.


Please read the blog subjects you are interested in and remember to read from the bottom up or some of them may not make much sense!

AP Classes Revisited

I thought that it would be a good time to revisit the AP class question. Your kids should be deciding their junior or senior year courses and the question of AP may come up.

Many parents are not exactly sure what AP courses will mean for their child so let me explain. First off, your child does not get college credit for passing the AP course. She will have to pass a one-day rigorous AP exam. She can receive all A's during the school year but MUST pass the AP test with a 3, 4 or 5 in order to receive college credit. Many students do not pass the test. I think the percentage runs just under 50% who do not pass the AP test.

Your student will also take this AP course for an entire school year which is, in Florida, the equivalent of two college semesters. If he receives a 3 on the AP test he will receive the credit for one college course. He could have had two courses during that time.

Please read this post by clicking on the link below:
To AP or Not to AP

Sometimes schools do not tell parents which college classes are received for the AP course. I have seen MANY students from local schools take AP Human Geography and not receive the college credit from the university they attend because only ONE of the state universities I looked up offer the course! What a waste of possible college credit time! A good advisor can help you choose which courses will be useful to your student.

Please read this post by clicking on the link below:
More on AP Courses

If you have any questions please e-mail or post a comment. I will be glad to help!

New Year Greetings!

Happy New Year! Here's hoping that 2010 is a great year for everyone!

The school is up and running with all paperwork filed and finished! The old lawyer is gone and a new company is helping with everything! Yippee!

Please take a look at my older posts concerning:

Dual Enrollment

AP Classes

Beginning Homeschooling

Read the posts from the bottom up since that is the way they make sense.

Money to Pass the AP Test, Huh?

OK, you all know I am not a complete fan of AP (Advanced Placement) classes for high school students. There are generally better ways to get the college credits, in my opinion, especially in the state of Florida. In an article from The New York Times I see that some New York City high schools, both public and private, are now offering up to $1000 to students to pass the AP exam.

What? We now have to give a monetary incentive to students to do well on the tests? What happened to "do your best?" I mean really! Sheesh! The schools get money for every student taking the course. The teachers get money for every student who passes the AP exam with a 3 or higher. Now the students must get paid in order to do well? What the heck is wrong with this picture?!

Don't you think that MAYBE the teachers should want to teach the course properly in the first place, the schools would offer the AP option as just another public school class, and that students would try their hardest to do well on the test? Am I in dreamland? Are we raising a generation of "gimme, gimme" adults here looking for monetary compensation for a normal job well done? If all of your paperwork is finished on time, do you get a cash bonus? If you get your normal job done do you expect to get a little extra in your paycheck?

We are raising kids into adulthood expecting compensation that would normally be considered "just part of the job, ma'am."

Read the article here: New York Times
(click on the above link for the article)

Another Post About AP courses

My AP posts have been very popular! You can look at them here:

Four Blog posts about Ap classes : Read from the bottom up, it will make more sense!

I thought I would just make a list of things to consider about AP courses.

1. Your child gets the college credit only if he passes the AP test. ONE test given ONE day. If your daughter has cramps, oh well!

2. Your child can get credit for more than one college class with one AP course, such as AP English Language, IF she passes the AP test with a 4 or 5. The highest scores. For the AP English Language example, she would get ENC1101 and ENC1102 for her year of that AP course IF she passes the one test with a 4 or 5.

3. If your child dual enrolled, she could also have ENC1101 and ENC1102 during the course of the school year as long as she passes the entire course and not just one test.

4. Some of the college courses given for AP classes are NOT OFFERED at many of the state universities! If your child attends a state university that does not offer the class, he does not get the college credit there. The same holds true for Dual Enrollment but a good DE advisor will tell you which classes will transfer to the university of your choice. Many high school counselors either do not know or will not tell parents this truth.

5. In Florida, the state universities can NOT discriminate against Dual Enrollment courses for admission consideration. If your child has AP English Language and passes the test with a 3, the university MUST gauge it the same as your child taking ENC1101 for Dual Enrollment.

6. Dual Enrollment classes have the same weight as AP classes on a high school transcript.

I hope many of you find this information helpful! Any questions please feel free to call, e-mail or respond to this post. My information can be found on my school website:

Preferred Learning Academy

Personal Note, AP info and Good Article

Just a quick personal note here. I have been through a small surgery (yesterday) and am feeling pretty good today. I expect to be back to the usual in a few more days. Heck, I may even get to finally see the newest Harry Potter movie this weekend!

I have had a lot of response about AP classes and the college equivalent courses. I can only show the Florida courses since that is what I know. PLEASE if you live in another state and your child is considering AP classes, look up the college courses that are awarded in your state for the AP class! THEN, check the universities in the area to see if that course is even offered! Also, the AP English Language and the AP English Literature "thing" here in Florida surely is not isolated to Florida alone. Check it out! I really hate seeing parents deceived because the school will get money for having students in that course!

I'll be back with more information for parents soon! In the meantime, check out Mike Thomas from the Orlando Sentinel. I usually like what he has to say and when I don't, I still think his ideas are well thought out. This editorial article is regarding getting the kids out of the public high schools who do not want to learn. Very interesting! Of course you can bypass this by homeschooling your kids, but frankly, it is not for everyone!

More on AP Courses

As an advisor for Dual Enrollment, I saw a lot of students and parents in my office, or talked to them on the phone. At any given time we had about 1600 Dual Enrollment Students and I had a good relationship with quite a few! There were two things that shocked me. Number one, many of the parents and students in the public schools did not know anything about the Bright Futures Scholarship. That is going to be the subject for another post and is also Florida specific. The other thing that was shocking to me was that the students and parents did not KNOW the college courses that could be earned with the AP courses. Read my AP or not to AP post for examples.

I have had a lot of activity on my AP or Not to AP blog. I decided to look up more information that could help parents regarding the AP situation. It looks as though there is a proposal to allow 3 more credits of English for a score of 3 on an AP English Literature test if the student already has the ENC1101 credit. That would be great! If you read my AP blog post, you will see that a student who already has ENC1101 through the AP English Language test, receiving a 3 on the AP exam, will only receive the SAME Enc1101 course if he received a 3 on the test for AP English Literature. Here is the new proposal,which is not set in stone yet. Most parents are NOT told about this little snag with AP. Please read the AP or Not to AP blog post for further information.

Lets look at a few more AP course equivalencies. Do the State Universities offer any of these?

AP Computer Science A: Course equivalent - CGS1075 or CGS2075 (same course, the first digit does not matter. Can be a 1 or a 2)

UCF, UF, Valencia CC, USF, FSU ALL do NOT offer this course! I looked on their courses for Fall 2009! Your child can receive the credit from his college only if the college offers the course!

Lets look at another example:

Here's a popular one around the Orlando area. AP Human Geography: Course equivalent - GEO2400 : GEO1400 or GEO1420 : GEO2420 (Again, the 1 or 2 as the first digit does not matter)

USF, Not offered
UF, has GEO2420
FSU, Not offered
Valencia CC, Not offered
UCF, Not offered

With the AP Human Geography course, if your student plans on attending UF, he can receive the college credit for that test. If he chooses to go to FSU, USF or UCF, he will NOT receive the credit.

Let's do one more:

AP Psychology: Course equivalent PSY1012 or PSY2012

This is the main psychology course in the state university system! ALL state schools offer this course!

You can see that not all AP classes are going to help your student providing he passes the AP test with a 3 or better.

I will be out of the loop for a few days with a minor surgery. If you have any questions please feel free to e-mail, post a comment on this blog, or call me. My number can be found on the Preferred Learning Academy website. I should be able to get back to you by Friday at the latest!

To AP or not to AP

Chances are good that you have read or heard about the virtues of AP classes. AP, or Advanced Placement, might get your child college credit. Most likely, it won't. MOST of the students who take AP classes do not pass the AP test, so no college credit. Here's how it works:

Your child signs up for the school-year-long AP class, let's say AP English Language. Your child will have a LOT of work in this class. OK that's not bad, right? No problem. Your child gets an "A" in the class. Wait! That's not the end. He still has to take the AP test at the end of the school year. Passing the test with a score of 3, 4 or 5 will give college credit. Here in Florida, if he gets a 3, he will get credit for Freshman Composition 1, ENC1101. Great! In two college semesters he received the credit for ONE college class. Let's say he gets a 4 or 5. He will then get the college credit for ENC1101 and ENC1102 (Freshman Comp 2). So, in other words, in two college semesters he gets credit for two college classes. OK, Dual Enrollment can do that. And he would not have to pass ONE test to get the credit! Lets say your child takes AP English Language and does NOT get a 3, 4 or 5 on the AP test. Maybe your daughter woke up with cramps that day, or she is under the weather in some other way. Too bad, the test is the test. If your child takes the AP class and does NOT get a 3 or higher on the test, she does NOT get college credit. That's how it works.

Next scenario. She gets the credit for ENC1101 by taking AP English Language and getting a 3 on the AP test. Great! She could have done that in half the time, but no matter. The following year she is encouraged to take AP English Literature. She takes the course and again gets a 3 on the AP test. She then receives the credit for ENC1101. Wait! She already HAS that from her AP class last year. Oh well. No on told her, or YOU, the parent, that is the way it works. Now this is for Florida public colleges so I can't vouch for any other state or for any private colleges here in Florida.

Now lets say your child takes the Geography AP class. She receives a 3 on the test. Well, she gets a college class but some of the colleges do not offer it! In other words, she CAN get the credit for the class, but only if her college offers it!

All of the Floridians are now saying, "what about UF (University of Florida)?" UF likes to bill itself as the exclusive state university here in Florida. Well, in Florida, a state university can NO LONGER weigh AP classes higher than a Dual Enrollment class when considering applicants! Now, Dual Enrollment is given the same weight as AP classes both on high school transcripts and for consideration when applying to a university!

Did I mention that the tuition for Dual Enrollment is FREE here in Florida? In the above scenario the student took AP English Language and AP English Literature which would take the same amount of time as 4 college semesters and received ENC1101 for her effort!

Please feel free to e-mail or call, the number is on my school website www.preferredlearningacademy.com, for any clarification!

Dual Enrollment in Florida

OK here it is! Dual Enrollment or sometimes called Early College is when a high school student attends college classes and earns both high school and college credit. Here in Florida, the college classes are free for Dual Enrolled students. For private school and home schooled students books are NOT covered although public school students are covered for books. My tax dollars at work.

The state of Florida has guidelines regarding dual enrollment but each college can set rules regarding number of classes per semester, the types of classes and also when the dual enrollment student is allowed to register. With budget cuts at all of the community colleges, a very good question to ask is, "when does the dual enrolled student get to register for classes?" For the community college that allows dual enrollment students to register AFTER the other students, well, it will surely mean that many students will not get a class, or at least the class of their choice.

There are also requirements regarding age, test scores and overall GPA, unweighted. Please talk to the dual enrollment office of your local community college.

Why not AP classes? I know that MANY of the high schools are all about the AP classes. Frankly, MOST students do not pass the required AP test to receive AP credit. BUT the school receives the MONEY for having these students in the class. Your student can get an A in the AP class but if he does not pass the AP test, then he will not get the college credits. Another aspect of the AP debacle that had me very concerned as the dual enrollment advisor was that sometimes two of the AP classes will give the student the same college credit. For example, if your student takes AP English Language and passes the AP test with a 3, he will receive the credits for ENC 1101 (remember, this is a Florida course number). If your student takes AP English Literature the following year and also receives a 3 on the AP test, he will receive the credits for, ENC 1101. Which he already has from the previous year. MOST students and parents do NOT know this! What a waste of time and resources! In ONE year (two semesters) your student can take ENC 1101 and then ENC 1102 at the community college and receive the college credits for both.

Here in Florida the universities MUST weigh AP classes and Dual Enrollment classes the same! UF can no longer weigh DE classes the same as honors while AP classes are weighed higher. Nope. Not anymore! For a high school GPA, AP and Dual Enrollment classes are weighed the same!

Please contact your local community college dual enrollment office for the details.