Q and A for interpreting and applying the AP equivalencies table
Q: Where can I find more information about Advanced Placement course content?
A: https://apstudent.collegeboard.org/apcourse
Q: What if my college does not offer the CCN listed in the equivalency table?
A: Credit should be awarded for the closest course in your catalog or simply give elective credit for a 3 or
higher.
Q: In instances where colleges do not use the listed common course, but do use another common
course designation, would we have flexibility to modify and award credit?
A: Yes, colleges would have the flexibility to modify and award credit as in this example:
US History: The table lists HIST& 146/147/148, but Lower Columbia College does not have those
and instead offers Hist&136 and 137; LCC could choose to award 10 credits for those courses,
plus an additional 5 elective credits if the student earns a 5 on the AP exam.
Q: Please interpret the note on the AP policy that reads, “When appropriate, “elective” credit should be
awarded for institutional transferrable courses when possible. “
A: The note about “when appropriate” indicates that colleges have discretion to grant credit as in the
example with HIST& 136 and 137 plus 5 elective credits if an AP score of 5 is earned.
Q: Please interpret the and/or intent in the table. Which course should be selected or how many credits
may be earned?
A: It is a local choice, and ATC recommends whichever best aligns with the student’s intended degree
requirements.
Q: A student earns a 3 in AP Biology. How do we interpret that?
A: The school or student could choose to apply it to either BIOL& 100 or BIOL& 160 for a total of 5
credits, whichever best aligns with the student’s intended degree requirements.
Q: A student earns a 4 or 5 in AP Biology. How do we award credit for that?
A: If the awarding school offered both BIOL 100 and BIOL& 160, credit could be awarded for one or both
courses. ATC recommends choosing whichever best aligns with the student’s intended degree
requirements.
Q: The History listing makes no sense!
A: In the History discipline, AP scores do not correspond to a chronology, so there is no correlation
between the score and which course we award credit. A student earning a 3 on the AP World History
exam could select any one of HIST& 126, 127, or 128 as the course for which they receive credit; an AP
score of 4 could earn credit for any one or two of the sequence, and a 5 could receive credit for any one,
two, or three of the sequence, whichever best meets the student’s academic needs.
Q: The Physics listing is confusing!
A: Agreed, and this section needs more discussion among physics instructors. Physics 1 covers the
content in PHYS& 114; Physics 2 covers PHYS& 115 and 116. If a student earned a 3 in AP Physics 1, but
then scored a 4 or 5 in AP Physics 2, is that indicative of a poor understanding of physics or was it simply
a bad test day? Physics 1 and 2 are each year-long courses, and a student could reasonably be better
prepared the second year.
Physics B is no longer taught, and we will only encounter this on older transcripts.
Physics C covers only two topics, so does not provide complete coverage of any one physics course. This
remains a challenge for our group: How many credits should we transcript when the test does not align
to a full courses?
PHYS& 222 and 223 are not listed in the table because none of the AP exams align with those courses.
Revised January 2016