You told beoShaffer that you can sign up for the summer class after you take the placement test. Therefore, unless you can get some sort of major benefit out of the summer class, you should take the test (assuming the costs associated aren’t very high).
Possible benefits to taking the class: You already know the material, and would presumably score well (be cautious about this one, though, since college coursework is often a shock to people coming out of high school, especially intelligent students). Since that factors into your GPA, if achieving a high GPA is important to you, you should at least consider it. More directly having to do with transitioning from high school to college, it might be a smart idea to ease into college work with a course whose material you basically already know. My first semester freshman year I tried to jump straight into organic chemistry, since I had scored a 5 on the AP Chemistry exam, and was … unpleasantly surprised.
I don’t know if you yourself, or your parents, or a scholarship would be paying the tuition for the class (don’t forget things like housing and food when you’re calculating that number), but it seems like most of the costs associated with the class would be opportunity costs. Taking this class means you wouldn’t be preparing for other courses (at least not as much), or getting a job to earn some money, or doing anything else that you’re interested in.
More directly having to do with transitioning from high school to college, it might be a smart idea to ease into college work with a course whose material you basically already know. My first semester freshman year I tried to jump straight into organic chemistry, since I had scored a 5 on the AP Chemistry exam, and was … unpleasantly surprised.
I will second this. I was in a similar position with physics, except that I decided not to opt-out of the intro course. This did result in it feeling a bit repetitive but I think it was worth it.
I do like this type of post. Upvoted.
You told beoShaffer that you can sign up for the summer class after you take the placement test. Therefore, unless you can get some sort of major benefit out of the summer class, you should take the test (assuming the costs associated aren’t very high).
Possible benefits to taking the class: You already know the material, and would presumably score well (be cautious about this one, though, since college coursework is often a shock to people coming out of high school, especially intelligent students). Since that factors into your GPA, if achieving a high GPA is important to you, you should at least consider it. More directly having to do with transitioning from high school to college, it might be a smart idea to ease into college work with a course whose material you basically already know. My first semester freshman year I tried to jump straight into organic chemistry, since I had scored a 5 on the AP Chemistry exam, and was … unpleasantly surprised.
I don’t know if you yourself, or your parents, or a scholarship would be paying the tuition for the class (don’t forget things like housing and food when you’re calculating that number), but it seems like most of the costs associated with the class would be opportunity costs. Taking this class means you wouldn’t be preparing for other courses (at least not as much), or getting a job to earn some money, or doing anything else that you’re interested in.
I will second this. I was in a similar position with physics, except that I decided not to opt-out of the intro course. This did result in it feeling a bit repetitive but I think it was worth it.