Why Participate in Advanced Placement Courses?
With 35 courses & exams across 20 subject areas, AP offers something for everyone. The only requirements are a strong
curiosity about the subject you plan to study and the willingness to work hard. Here are just a few reasons to sign up:
Gain the Edge in College Preparation
Get a head start on college-level work.
Improve your writing skills and sharpen your problem-solving techniques.
Develop the study habits necessary for tackling rigorous course work.
Stand Out in the College Admissions Process
Demonstrate your maturity and readiness for college.
Show your willingness to push yourself to the limit.
Emphasize your commitment to academic excellence.
Broaden Your Intellectual Horizons
Explore the world from a variety of perspectives, most importantly your own.
Study subjects in greater depth and detail.
Assume the responsibility of reasoning, analyzing, and understanding for yourself.
AP Courses at CCHS
World History
The purpose of the AP World History course is to develop greater understanding of the evolution of
global processes and contacts, in interaction with different types of human societies. The course
highlights the nature of changes in international frameworks and their causes and consequences, as
well as comparisons among major societies. The course emphasizes relevant factual knowledge
deployed in conjunction with leading interpretive issues and types of historical evidence. The course
builds on an understanding of cultural, institutional, and technological precedents that, along with
geography, set the human stage.
Biology
The AP Biology course is designed to be taken by students after the successful completion of a first
course in high school biology and one in high school chemistry. Primary emphasis in an AP Biology
course should be on developing an understanding of concepts rather than on memorizing terms and
technical details. Essential to this conceptual understanding are the following: a grasp of science as a
process rather than as an accumulation of facts; personal experience in scientific inquiry; recognition
of unifying themes that integrate the major topics of biology; and application of biological knowledge
and critical thinking to environmental and social concerns.
US History
The AP program in United States History is designed to provide students with the analytical skills and
factual knowledge necessary to deal critically with the problems and materials in United States history.
Students should learn to assess historical materials- their relevance to a given interpretive problem,
their reliability and their importance- and to weigh the evidence and interpretations presented in
historical scholarship. An AP United States History course should thus develop the skills necessary to
arrive at conclusions on the basis of an informed judgment and to present reasons and evidence
clearly and persuasively in an essay format.
English Language
The AP English Language and Composition course is designed to help students become skilled readers
of prose written in a variety of periods, disciplines, and rhetorical contexts and to become skilled
writers who can compose for a variety of purposes. By their writing and reading in this course,
students should become aware of the interactions among a writer's purposes, audience expectations,
and subjects, as well as the way generic conventions and the resources of language contribute to
effective writing.
English Literature
The AP English Literature and Composition course is designed to engage students in the careful
reading and critical analysis of imaginative literature. Through the close reading of selected texts,
students can deepen their understanding of the ways writers use language to provide both meaning
and pleasure for their readers. As they read, students should consider a work's structure, style, and
themes, as well as such smaller-scale elements as the use of figurative language, imagery,
symbolism, and tone.
Psychology
The purpose of the AP course in Psychology is to introduce the systematic and scientific study of the
behavior and mental processes of human beings and other animals. Included is a consideration of the
psychological facts, principles, and phenomena associated with each of the major subfields within
psychology. Students also learn about the ethics and methods psychologists use in their science and
practice.
Government & Politics
The AP Government & Politics: United States course provides an analytical perspective on government
and politics in the United States. This course involves both the study of general concepts used to
interpret U.S. politics and the analysis of specific case studies. It also requires familiarity with the
various institutions, groups, beliefs, and ideas that constitute U.S. political reality.
Calculus
Calculus AB is primarily concerned with developing the students’ understanding of the concepts of
calculus by providing experience with it through methods and applications. The main topics are
differentiation (slope of a curve) and integration (area under a curve). Very minimal time is spent
reviewing the concepts of the prerequisite courses. Prior to taking Calculus, all students should
complete 4 years of college bound math.
THE AP TRACK
Freshman Year:
Honors Biology, Honors World History (in development), Honors English
Sophomore Year:
AP World History, Honors English
Junior Year:
AP Language, AP History, AP Biology
Senior Year:
AP Government, AP Literature, AP Psychology, AP Calculus