Help Justify Advanced Placement

[Strangler Lewis]

14 AP tests? There aren't that many subjects in the whole world. I took four, and I think our school might have offered AP chemistry. Or maybe the teacher was in jail by then. I don't remember.

I am ambivalent about the whole AP experience. I got four 5s, but, except for biology, I'm not sure I was better off having "AP'ed out" of various college requirements. Calculus was a joke. I got a D second semester of senior year because my mind was on other things and then taught myself the whole thing in the week or two before the test. AP history was mildly entertaining, primarily because the teacher generally showed up loaded, but I don't recall too many vigorous discussions. AP English was great. However, I can't say that the class, or my other English classes, prepared me for college. I got a lot of A's because I enjoyed the work and had clever things to say. When I got to Berkeley, I took a lot of beatings initially because I had not mastered the IRAC method of writing. That was a humbling, but probably necessary, experience.