On the practical level, the Advanced Placement courses and exams raise lots of questions:

How can I do well on the test?

Should I take the college credit if I can?

Should I even take AP courses in the first place?

To help students deal with those concerns, here's some advice from students who have scored well, high school teachers whose students typically do well and college officials.

Advice on the AP exam

Elise Liu, senior, Fox Chapel Area High School, who already has taken nine AP exams, scoring 5 on eight of them: calculus AB, calculus BC, chemistry, computer science AB, statistics, world history, U.S. history and English language. She scored a 4 on Spanish language. For her science and math achievement, she received the Siemens Award for Advanced Placement as the top female student in Pennsylvania.

She is about to take six more AP exams: English literature, European history, biology and U.S. government as well as microeconomics and macroeconomics, both of which she is studying on her own.

"The most important thing for the history ones is to understand the essay is extremely important. It's not necessarily about content but knowing how to answer questions and being able to organize it properly.

"In math and science, you have to show every step of the work. Answers are irrelevant. I think if you miss the answer on a free-response section, you can still get something like maybe a 4 points out of 6. If you just put the answer down and none of the work, the most you can get is 2 out of 6. They separate points for each step of the process.

"Questions are created to be daunting. Whatever is going through your mind, write it down."

Ms. Liu also said there is room to miss some questions and still get a high score.

"They really do test a broad area so you can miss an entire concept and do well."

She said there's not always time in class to cover everything, so she studies on her own. When the Reconstruction was covered quickly at school, she made it a point to study it herself. On her U.S. History test, one of the major essay topics was on the period.

She also eats breakfast and brings "quite a few pencils."

Hari Seshedri, junior, Franklin Regional High School, who scored a 5 on three AP exams (physics C mechanics, calculus AB and computer science A) as a sophomore. He is taking computer science AB and calculus BC this year.

"For the AP test, especially for the free response part, you have to get all the points you can get. They do offer a lot of those. You should pace yourself and get all the essay parts.

"There are a lot of free points. There might be a really tough question. If you set it up, that's a quarter of the points. Do the easy stuff and write that down even if you don't know the whole answer.

"Even if you get a 70 percent, that [might] get you a 5. Don't panic if you're missing some."

Preparation for the test begins long before this week, he said. "Throughout the year, I paid attention in class, did the homework and learned what I needed to learn. I think I'll be fine," he said.

Carolyn Stewart, Franklin Regional calculus and computer science teacher, whose students typically do well on the exam.

"The night before, I suggest you go to bed. At that stage of the game, I'm not sure if a lot of quick review is going to make a big difference.

"With calculus, some basic integration and derivative formulas, if they don't have them down pat, they can look those over, but I think they do.

"With my computer science students, there's a case study students are expected to be comfortable with. It might be good for them to skim over the case study the night before the test.

"More important is that they have been reviewing all along. They don't try to do it at the last minute.

"There are some good AP review books I suggest the students use. The nice thing about an AP review book is it tackles all the various things you've learned throughout the year and mixes them together."

Mike Landsberg, Franklin Regional AP European history teacher, who himself scored a 5 in high school. Most of his students score a 5.

Mr. Landsberg said the secrets to success are "putting in the time, putting in the effort."

"What I basically tell them at the beginning of the year is, if you do what I suggest, you do it when I suggest you do it, you'll be prepared."

Lately, his classes have been reviewing, including going over document-based questions, which he covers throughout the year, but "always give students more anxiety." This type of question requires students to incorporate primary documents into an essay.

"Hopefully, you already know the majority of the information. You know what your strengths and weaknesses are. The last minute stuff is looking at the areas you know you're a little bit weaker."

Mark McCloskey, Mt. Lebanon AP European history teacher. Most of his students earn 4s and 5s.

"I just feel the secret is for the kids to experience the kind of testing they will face in the AP exam. The exam is divided into subjective essay and also multiple choice. Within those essay sections there are free response questions. Then there are document-based questions. They're given a list of different documents, paintings, cartoons, charts, graphs, maps. Each document is relevant to the question in some way. Students have to judge what that relevance is.

"The students really need to experience all these types of examining techniques throughout the year."

He said students may still need some review.

"Because it's a yearlong course, there are going to be questions on the Renaissance and on the plague and those kinds of things they had at the beginning of the year."

Even so, he said, "I feel generally speaking students who have performed well throughout the course are not going to have any great difficulty scoring pretty high on the test."

Sharon Volpe, North Allegheny AP calculus AB and calculus BC teacher. Most of her students earn 4s and 5s.

"We review for three weeks before the test. My kids just do practice problem after practice problem. I have all the old free-response problems [that have been released by the College Board]. I think when they get to the day of the test, there are no surprises. They've seen every type of question."

Luke Lester, North Allegheny AP statistics teacher. Nearly all of his students take the AP exam, and most earn a 4 or 5.

Mr. Lester's classes review for two-and-a- half weeks before the exam. He has developed his own materials, using resources such as past tests. The students do all of the AP statistics tests ever released.

"It's just like -- I hate to be trite -- a box of chocolates. The curriculum is so wide, you never know what you're going to get on the test."

He said there are many variations on questions.

"Every set of data is unique. If you just saw the scoring rubric, [you'd see] there's six different ways you can pursue some questions. Hopefully, you can find one of them. You've got to read about it and think about it. It takes a lot of problem-solving."

Adele Selinger, a Fox Chapel Area teacher of AP biology and AP environmental science, whose students typically do well on AP exams.

Mrs. Selinger said the secret is "really buckling down and taking the class seriously from the get-go. Students often don't understand the level of rigor in an AP class is going to be higher than the level of rigor in their general classes, even honors classes. We teach it as if it were a [college] freshman level class."

She recommends review books, reviewing class materials and taking practice tests. She makes herself available to give students extra help.

Alton Newell, vice president of enrollment at Washington & Jefferson College

Mr. Newell recommends reviewing notes, spending time in study groups with friends and getting a good night's sleep.

"Understand that you made a good decision by challenging yourself academically and don't let the score be the only indicator of whether it was a good decision or not."

Advice on whether to take credits for AP

David Hornyak, director of advising for the Honors College at the University of Pittsburgh

"It really depends on the student and the individual situation. If the AP course has given them a strong foundation in the subject, then oftentimes it's good for them to take the credits and run with them and move into more advanced classes. Sometimes it's not in their best interest to do that."

Students who have the solid preparation and can move directly to advanced courses, Dr. Hornyak said, can "really take a major to the fullest, take it and do some really interesting things and get involved in research, for example. It gives them flexibility."

"The students who really talk to their adviser and think about whether or not they have the good preparation from the AP courses, they do fine."

"The important thing is to sit down and talk with their adviser about whether or not it is in their best interest to use the AP credits, take them and run with them, or else get a better foundation through a college-level course."

Alton Newell, vice president of enrollment at Washington & Jefferson College

Mr. Newell said that in some cases, students can "place at a higher level but they may struggle. My response back to students is always: why not start at a level where you're very comfortable and can perform well? Graduate schools tend to look at your grade point average. So why not get in a course you can perform well and get an A than a course you're struggling to hang onto to make a B?"

He also said, "I would strongly discourage any of our science kids here unless the department is totally behind them to exempt our introductory courses because the rigor is by and large going to be greater than what they're accustomed to."

Mr. Newell said some students find the "notion of getting all these credits very attractive" because they think they can finish college early.

"The reality is the majority of our kids do not use those credits to graduate early. They use them to pick up a double major, satisfy elective requirements, in some cases, major requirements as well."

If they do take some credits for AP, he said, "I tell them you are never going to have four better years for your whole life. Use it to pick up a second major or use it to allow yourself to study abroad in something that doesn't have anything to do with your major."

He said he understands the motivation of some students who want to save tuition dollars.

"I encourage kids to take a big picture view of this. If they truly at the end of 3 1/2 years have gotten out of a W&J education what they want to get out of a W&J education, fine. Most of them don't do that. Most of them go ahead and stay for four years."

He said, "I just don't think college is something to be raced through."

David Hawkins, director of public policy for the National Association for College Admissions Counseling

Mr. Hawkins said, "I generally think that if you earn credit -- given the fact that so much of the awarding of credit for AP courses particularly is ultimately determined at the department level -- I think it's pretty safe to accept credit.

"I do think colleges have though through enough of the decision to award credit that you can pretty reliably take them up on it."

Mike Steidel, director of admission at Carnegie Mellon University

"Most of the kids are not looking to skip the freshman year.

"What we're trying to do is challenge them to the best of their ability. If they're ready to get to the next level of a particular class, the preference here is they would essentially take other classes that would allow them to explore.

"You'd have to get more than five courses of credit to think of graduating a semester early. Most students have one or two classes but not half a year."

Paul-James Cukanna, executive director of admissions and enrollment research at Duquesne University

Mr. Cukanna recommends generally taking the credit.

However, he said, "A lot of times in science and sometimes in our pharmacy program or any of our science programs here, we find that students will take the AP course in high school and the AP test and still elect to take the course here.

"It's just the experiential part of learning. They're in a lab and they would be with students with whom they're in the program. There are benefits to taking certain courses. We find the sciences students choose to do that.

"The other thing is teaching style, pedagogy, course sequence, subject matter, sequences. It's simply better to begin the sequences at the university with a group of students in your program."

Carolyn Stewart, Franklin Regional calculus and computer science teacher

Mrs. Stewart said, "Some students choose not to take an AP exam because they know they won't get credit.

"Some colleges will give you credit if you take the next course in sequence and do it successfully. They may not want to take another math course.

"Or they're going to take calculus 1 at college over again and get a sure A. They know they're going to have a really, really difficult freshman year with some really intensive courses. They feel nice about having a course that will be easy for them. ... I've had upon occasion students say what I want to do in the future I need an outstanding GPA. I need all the A's I can get. This is a sure one."

For students in her calculus 3 class, she said, "I would feel sad if they didn't skip out at least one term of calculus because they've had so much and they're so good. They're really able students.

"But the bigger reason is that there's so much you can do and learn at college that if you will skip out of a few things, that may allow you to major in physics and English. Or it might let you major in chemistry and music or it might let you major in chemistry and music. It may free you up so you can work in other courses you couldn't take otherwise.

"If you take the AP courses and have the luxury and the money, the luxury of still doing four years in college, you can get double majors, you can take courses you would never be able to take otherwise.

"A few students would choose to graduate early and continue on with an advanced degree or go into the world of work. That means college years are three, instead of four. In some cases, that's a huge savings."

Because of issues surrounding computer languages, she feels less comfortable suggesting her computer science students skip the introductory classes.

"Every year, three or four students go to CMU. It's such a wonderful world. It's such a demanding world. The students there are really, really good. I don't feel comfortable recommending them to skip out.

"The students taking computer science [in college], they're more often people who had it before, like it, maybe do it on the side, maybe they've studied on their own.

"Some of my students study really hard for AP history. I'm pretty sure they want to be an engineer. I said, 'Wow, I think you're studying harder for history than for the calculus exam. [They said,] 'That's because I don't want to take any more history.'"

Mark McCloskey, Mt. Lebanon High School European history teacher whose students average above 4 on the AP exam

"The argument I hear sometimes from students if they're going into college and that's their major area of interest is they don't really want to bypass any courses. Some students have said an introductory survey course [in college] is less inclusive than a course in high school. A college course is a single semester. Ours lasts over the whole year. They've taken advantage of that and gone into very specific things."

For European history, he said, the course at college may be redundant. "It's better to take advantage of it and get onto more focused studies."

Adele Selinger, a Fox Chapel Area teacher of AP biology and AP environmental science, whose students typically do well on AP exams.

Mrs. Selinger said she doesn't recommend science majors take AP credit for science for introductory courses.

"The first-level courses, whether it's biology or chemistry, that's where they set up their procedures, how a student is going to write a lab report, where you get the lab equipment, all the basics. If you take the second level course, your professor is going to assume you know all the foundational stuff. If you don't take that course, you may be putting yourself at a disadvantage.

She noted that some colleges will give a general science credit for AP, enabling the student to take both the AP credit and the introductory course.

For those who aren't science majors, she said she "highly recommends" they take the AP test.

"That way, if you get an acceptable score on it, that will give you a general studies credit in science. Then one semester when you know you have to take the really tough courses in your major, you can go with 12 credits that semester instead of 15 and have time to spend on the tough major course. That is where the AP tests are usually the most advantageous."

She said her students who are thinking of majoring in biology, premed or environmental science look at AP as "going to college with a leg up on their classmates."

She said, "I've had many students come back to me and say, 'Thank you, I did so well in biology. I didn't opt out. It was much more doable.' They noticed their classmates who hadn't had the AP biology were struggling when they were not because they had background in the course. That's what the AP course is for in a major student. It gives them a background that is at a higher level."

Cheng Khoo, director of admissions and records at West Virginia University

"What we do for those students who have questions, we ask them to take the placement exam. Based on the result of the placement exam, the students can decide whether they want to go to the higher level or repeat the lower level. The credits are not going to count twice."

Sharon Volpe, North Allegheny AP calculus AB and calculus BC teacher. Most of her students earn 4s and 5s.

Ms. Volpe said, "I have kids come back all the time. They tell me they got the college credit. ...Our kids will tell you how much they tutor other kids and how appreciative they are because they know more than their counterparts who haven't done well.

"I have kids who come back and tell me nightmare stories about how boring it was for the calculus BC students. I cover some things I know they'll need in calculus 1 or calculus 2 that we don't cover in our AP curriculum. I'll cover after the AP exam.

"I would never repeat calculus 1. It's boring. They've covered everything like the back of their hands."

Luke Lester, North Allegheny AP statistics teacher. Nearly all of his students take the AP exam, and most earn a 4 or 5.

He thinks it is safe for those who succeed in AP statistics to skip the course in college. "AP statistics is not a prep course. It's a replacement course. You'll get less in college. I teach it in college (Community College of Allegheny County). I have 180 days [in high school]. In college, you've got 15 weeks.

Advice on taking AP

Alton Newell, vice president of enrollment at Washington & Jefferson College

"I think any student in any accelerated curriculum, including AP or dual enrollment or IB (International Baccalaureate) or whatever the high school happens to call the accelerated curriculum, we do find they do better once they get here."

He recommends: "Take the most challenging curriculum that is available to you and for which you are recommended. Is it better to take the AP and make a C, honors and make a B or regular and make an A? It's better to take the AP course and make an A."

He said it might be worth taking the AP course if one bumps down one grade, but not necessarily if the grade drops two levels.

"There's a point of diminishing returns," he said.

"If the [high] school says you'll be over your head taking AP courses, in general, you probably shouldn't take them."

However, he said that some schools with open enrollment in AP have had some "really great success stories."

Paul-James Cukanna, executive director of admissions and enrollment research at Duquesne University

"I'm a big advocate of the whole AP program. It lets students get ahead on college-level work. It can help improve writing skills and sharpen problem-solving techniques that are also necessary for college-level course work. It's really advantageous."

"We always look at the depth and breadth and difficult of the academic curriculum. We notice when students take AP courses. We ask that on our application."

Cheng Khoo, director of admissions and records at West Virginia University

"At this point in time, our admissions criteria are based on the high school cumulative grade point average, SAT or ACT standardized test scores and core courses. If you meet those requirements, we admit you regardless of whether you take AP classes or not.

"In most cases, it doesn't help you [in admissions at WVU]. When it will help you is if you are on the borderline of our requirements."

"Personally, in the admissions and records office here, we like to see students take the tougher AP classes because it will better prepare them to be successful at the university."

Mike Steidel, director of admission at Carnegie Mellon University

Mr. Steidel said CMU admissions officers considers the difficulty of courses taken but doesn't necessarily look at the scores on AP tests.

"In all honesty, we really aren't looking for AP scores as part of the admissions process. We're looking for challenging coursework. The courses, absolutely. In terms of the test, it doesn't really matter to us."

Patrick Mannario, principal of North Hills High School, which offers 16 AP courses and plans to add three this fall.

"It's a national curriculum with a proven track record. It has prepared students for the rigor of college courses.

"Get as many kids as you can. You're preparing students with the best curriculum you could possibly have. If you're going to set the bar high, that's where it is. You want to get as many students to have that type of experience.