Advanced Placement Program

The Advanced Placement Program is designed to provide motivated high school students with post-secondary-level academic courses. This rigorous academic program offers students a head start in successfully navigating academic challenges they will encounter at post-secondary schools. Based on their performance on AP examinations, students can earn credit, advanced placement, or both, for university and college courses. Students' achievements in AP courses are celebrated with course credit, College Board awards, and scholarships from most universities including the University of Alberta.

The AP Program provides:

• A selection of academic courses at the post-secondary level taken in high school.
• A focused learning environment
• Academic skill development in writing, research, problem-solving, independent thinking, critical thinking and responsible scholarship
• Increased confidence and readiness for post-secondary studies
• Active, high-level learning that allows students to develop the skills, habits of mind, and concepts needed to succeed in post-secondary institutions
• The opportunity to take courses in specific areas of student interest and ability
• Credit for many university and college first-year courses
• The chance to challenge AP Language exams in a variety of languages to receive advanced placement or credit at university and college

AP Students are:

• Motivated to learn in a challenging academic setting
• Eager to engage in independent research
• Willing to challenge their thinking
• Inclined to look at the world through a global perspective
• Aspiring to academic excellence
• Prepared to engage in deep and detailed study of specific subjects

AP at Edmonton Catholic Schools:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYHuFiUUgi0

Benefits of taking Advanced Placement courses

Dual Admission: Many universities will use the higher grade of either AP exam or the mark awarded by Alberta Education for that course when determining competitive averages for applications. This gives the students two opportunities to achieve a competitive mark!

Advanced Credit: Students may receive transfer credit on successfully completing the AP exam with a 4 or 5 (on a 5 scale), thus saving expensive post-secondary tuition and/or allowing for greater flexibility in their college or university course schedule.

Click on the following links to see what each University in Edmonton offers for credit:

University of Alberta

MacEwan University

Concordia University

King’s University

Higher University Success: Research shows that students who write the AP Exam typically experience greater academic success than similar students who do not participate in AP, no matter what mark they receive on the AP exam!

Advanced Placement Opportunities at LSL

AP in-class courses include:

• English Literature and Composition
• Calculus AB
• Physics 1
• Biology
• AP Psychology

School Fees:

Students are required to pay a fee per exam, applicable for up to two AP exams. This fee must be paid prior to the ordering of the exams, with the deadline being October 17, 2025. Any exams ordered after November 16, 2025, will incur an additional $50 late fee per exam, as stipulated by the Advanced Placement organization.

AP Exam Schedule:

https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/courses/exam-dates-and-fees

AP Program Overview:

Advanced Placement was created by Harvard, Princeton, and Yale and is run by The College Board's Advanced Placement Program (AP), a collaborative community of AP teachers and students, states, districts, schools, colleges, and universities committed to the daily work of developing college-level knowledge and skills since 1955. More than 5 million AP exams are written yearly around the world and AP is the most recognized enhanced program in North America.

https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/about-ap/ap-a-glance

Addressing Misconceptions Surrounding Advanced Placement Courses

One of the most common misconceptions amongst students and their parents is that student marks will be lower because AP classes are harder; however, AP courses are structured so that the students are always at an advantage.

· For content-based courses like Math or Science, exam questions that are outside of the Alberta Program of Studies are kept separate and are not factored into the mark that will appear on the student’s transcript.

· For skill-based writing courses, such as English, students are graded according to the rubrics   established by Alberta Education. Even though the literature studied is at an advanced level, the assessment is at grade level. If students do assignments specific to the content on the AP English Literature and Composition Exam, they are assessed and receive feedback, but the scores are not included as part of their English 30 course grade.

 Advanced Placement is not a program that is strictly for the “academic elite.” i.e. those with 80% and above averages. Determination for placement into the Advanced Placement program should be based on enthusiasm for learning and interest in the subject area.

Contact Us

Nicole Schatz

AP Coordinator
Email : Nicole.schatz@ecsd.net