Advanced Placement (AP) courses are designed to completely immerse students in a college-level environment in which there is a final exam at the end of each school year that determines if students will get college credit for the particular AP class.
AP English Language and Composition (AP Lang) is an introductory English language course where students are given coursework that heightens their understanding of writing and composing rhetorical arguments based on a complex view of rhetorical devices, style, and non-fiction-based writing.
Ms. Mills, a teacher for AP Lang at Columbus High School (CHS), wishes for students to know that the course is rigorous, although the fruits given by taking the course greatly outweigh the rigor.
"Only those students who are highly motivated with a good background in English should take it. However, the class is quite helpful in reading and achieving writing at the collegiate level."
A former AP Lang student stated, "AP Lang really helped me on the SAT because it really got me used to the formatting of SAT reading questions, so it almost felt like I had seen the questions before on the AP Lang exam."
The class is also extremely useful, according to Ms. Mills, as it provides critical reading and writing skills that are "lifelong skills; thus, to improve in these areas is not only impacting on other courses taken during high school but perhaps even into college and the job field."
AP Lang, even with its rigor, provides skills that will be invaluable for a student's future in terms of college, the SAT, ACT, GRE, and beyond.