When juniors and sophomores handed in their course selection sheet last week, it felt like one question was on everyone’s lips: “How many APs are you taking?” It seems that in the eyes of most juniors and seniors, how many AP courses a student takes determines how dedicated they are to school and thus getting into a good college. To me, this seems arbitrary.

AP, or advanced placement, courses, are courses specifically designed to prepare students for AP examinations in a certain subject. Some colleges accept AP credit to place out of introductory level courses, but many do not. However, AP courses have taken on a much broader significance to just preparing for a test; they’re considered as a qualifier of how “seriously” students take these classes.

At a school with such a diverse array of courses, this hierarchy of course level seems ridiculous. Some may consider a student taking Psychology instead of AP European History a less dedicated student, when in reality they’re pursuing their interests at a much higher level than that specific student would perform in an AP-level course. Many students elect not to take AP courses in favor of seminars and other courses that better fit their interests, and they shouldn’t feel as though they’re somehow not as serious as AP students.

In addition, the curriculum of AP courses tends to be much stricter than others because the teacher has to prepare students for a specific test. Often, this can cause a course to skip over particularly interesting or useful elements in favor of test preparation. In some cases, students may learn a wider, more interesting array of topics in a non-AP course than an AP course for this reason.

I believe that we shouldn’t have AP courses at our school. If students want to take an AP exam in a particular subject, an honors-level Masters class should prepare them for it and they can do the rest of the preparation on their own. The AP system ultimately creates a harmful hierarchal system amongst courses and therefore students and can cause courses to teach less interesting subject matter because of the limitations of test prep. Not having AP classes would allow students to pursue interests like Political Science or a science seminar without feeling guilty about not taking an AP course. School should be about pursuing your passions and earning a better education, not preparing for tests.