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Questions regarding Advanced Placement

 
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Old 07-09-2014 at 04:17 PM   #1
Imperious
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Questions regarding Advanced Placement
So I took the AP French exam and I got a 4, meaning I am eligible to get the credit for first year French? I kind of did AP French just to see where I was at and for the challenge and I'm not sure if I want to be skipping first year French because I feel like i might miss a lot. Am I allowed to take first year French even though I did the AP? If not would I be eligible to take second year french in first year? And also I'm guessing I would have to go into solar in august and remove my french course and add some other random courses?
Old 07-09-2014 at 08:45 PM   #2
VitaSoy
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I took AP in high school - I got a 4 in chemistry and I chose not to exchange it.

The incentive for a free credit is great but it may not the best idea if it's a subject that you want to continue pursuing. Also if you did so well in AP french, I think you'd have a pretty high chance on getting a high mark in that 1st year course which can only help your average.
Old 07-09-2014 at 09:44 PM   #3
Imperious
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Okay, thanks I thought it was mandatory that you had to redeem the credit. I guess I will take the first year course
Old 07-09-2014 at 09:58 PM   #4
allanandthera
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Imperious View Post
So I took the AP French exam and I got a 4, meaning I am eligible to get the credit for first year French? I kind of did AP French just to see where I was at and for the challenge and I'm not sure if I want to be skipping first year French because I feel like i might miss a lot. Am I allowed to take first year French even though I did the AP? If not would I be eligible to take second year french in first year? And also I'm guessing I would have to go into solar in august and remove my french course and add some other random courses?
If you are in life science and you can be granted a free 6 credit course why not take it? You are essentially getting 2 credits without paying any money, not only that you can further decrease workload in first year and get a better GPA. Not like you are going to take french for 4 years for a French minor, which, tbh, has no value proposition to your life science degree.
Old 07-09-2014 at 10:36 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by allanandthera View Post
If you are in life science and you can be granted a free 6 credit course why not take it? You are essentially getting 2 credits without paying any money, not only that you can further decrease workload in first year and get a better GPA. Not like you are going to take french for 4 years for a French minor, which, tbh, has no value proposition to your life science degree.
having a minor in a different language is great, being bilingual especially french in canada have great value no matter what your degree is
Old 07-10-2014 at 12:19 AM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by marido View Post
having a minor in a different language is great, being bilingual especially french in canada have great value no matter what your degree is
But we are talking about value proposition here... Yes an extra language helps, yes knowing another language can open your mind, yes it can open doors of opportunity. But the value it gives to your degree is lesser than that of other things and its' opportunity cost is not worth it.

Of course, I am radical when it comes to this but I am brutally honest. I don't need a minor to show people that I can speak Mandarin, Cantonese, English, or French at all. You just need to know how to speak it, you can learn it on your own without having to pay thousands of dollars for the number of courses to get a minor in French.

On the other hand, University can provide you minors where you cannot learn on your own or will not be recognized unless you do it and there are relevant minors for certain degrees. If I am an accounting student, having a minor in computer science, math, economics or even geography will definitely help. It is a skill set that needs to be learned through an institution. If you are a life science major, guilty of great vagueness I admit, I would presume having a minor in something like chemistry or even business would be very more effective than a minor in languages.

Think about being hired, I am not sure if it is different in business but how would a pharmacy company think when hiring you. If you want to differentiate yourself, do it on a personal and more efficient manner. Again, I never took any mandarin courses or Cantonese courses, but I will probably get a job in Asia as likely than someone who took a minor in Chinese languages.

My Rad 2 cents.
Old 07-10-2014 at 08:50 AM   #7
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Advanced Placement Exams
I was just wondering about how important are AP exams to McMaster. Is it imperative that I get 4s or 5s in the AP exams to get in or is it just needed for transfer credit?

Thank you
Old 07-10-2014 at 10:23 PM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by allanandthera View Post
But we are talking about value proposition here... Yes an extra language helps, yes knowing another language can open your mind, yes it can open doors of opportunity. But the value it gives to your degree is lesser than that of other things and its' opportunity cost is not worth it.

Of course, I am radical when it comes to this but I am brutally honest. I don't need a minor to show people that I can speak Mandarin, Cantonese, English, or French at all. You just need to know how to speak it, you can learn it on your own without having to pay thousands of dollars for the number of courses to get a minor in French.

On the other hand, University can provide you minors where you cannot learn on your own or will not be recognized unless you do it and there are relevant minors for certain degrees. If I am an accounting student, having a minor in computer science, math, economics or even geography will definitely help. It is a skill set that needs to be learned through an institution. If you are a life science major, guilty of great vagueness I admit, I would presume having a minor in something like chemistry or even business would be very more effective than a minor in languages.
I totally disagree.

You seem to be assuming that OP already speaks fluent French, which I assume (s)he does not since (s)he felt uncomfortable about skipping first year French.

Speaking French is a HUGE asset in Canada, especially if you ever seek government work. Obtaining a French minor is a good way to work towards fluency and stay in practice -- I took French every year up to my second year of university, which was about 4 years ago now and despite speaking it quite well then, I'm pretty out of practice now (which sucks because I'm looking for jobs at the moment... there are a lot of jobs both in public and private sector that want bilingualism and I'm just not there anymore).

Almost any minor can be learned outside of school. I'd say French is actually one of the more valuable ones, and I'm someone that pretty much believes that most minors are a useless and should be taken for interest only.
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Old 07-10-2014 at 11:59 PM   #9
allanandthera
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kudos View Post
I totally disagree.

You seem to be assuming that OP already speaks fluent French, which I assume (s)he does not since (s)he felt uncomfortable about skipping first year French.

Almost any minor can be learned outside of school. I'd say French is actually one of the more valuable ones, and I'm someone that pretty much believes that most minors are a useless and should be taken for interest only.
Again I said before, I think knowing french as a language is an asset. But you can learn on your own and probably will be just as effective as going to a 2 hour lecture for years. It is something that can be learned outside of school and will not impact the fact that you know french.

What I am trying to say is that the OP will be wasting many credits towards a skill that doesn't need a minor to show. You in fact are wrong when minors are useless. For example an economics student will want to do a finance minor or accounting minor and take many courses that will allow them to do a designation. These are things where, yes you can learn outside, but it won't be recognized. CPA Canada or CFA Canada doesn't care you learned finance on your free time, it needs to be verifiable, you have to show that you took the courses. However, a company in France will never require a French minor or a anything to show you did higher education in it, they just want you to know the language. An agricultural company may want to see that you took GIS courses in your geography minor; saying "I know GIS as it is a personal hobby" will not cut it.

Similarly, if the OP has a degree in Life Science, a pharmaceutical company might want to see a minor in chemistry to show that you , in a verifiable and systematic manner, know chemistry well.

Telling the OP or anyone to do a minor in languages when they are not being a linguist, is, to be brutally honest, wasting their time.

Again, value proposition.
Old 07-11-2014 at 02:37 AM   #10
Kudos
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Most minors are, to be brutally honest, a waste of time on their own. Everyone thinks that minors matter -- they don't. Academic advisors tell you this, and so do people who hire in the corporate world. 24 units just isn't enough class time for anyone to become trained in any subject in a useful way. An accounting or finance student needs more class time than that for a designation. And frankly, many people won't even get a job based on their major (especially if they're in humanities/soc sci/life sci)... even in the best of economic times, only a little over half of university grads actually work in a job related to their degree. The point is to pick up skills along the way that can translate to a career.

My point was that while a French minor itself may be useless on paper, the act of gaining the minor by continuing in the language will not be, because that will bring OP much closer to fluency in a second language if that's her goal.

A guy I used to see majored in French at Mac -- he's probably had the most success at finding work of any of my non-STEM field friends because there's a severe shortage of bilingual people in this part of the country.

tl;dr only minor in something if you have an interest in it, it's not really worth it otherwise.
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Old 07-11-2014 at 11:48 AM   #11
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We kind of diverged from the original topic but whatever.

It's sad and true that most minors are just for bragging rights. Hell, your program name doesn't even show up on your diploma, let alone your minor (just Bachelor of Science).

IMHO, minors should be taken out of interest or as an employable skill. I got a GIS minor because the geospatial industry is booming (so I'm told) and it's a useful skill to have in environmental science and ecology related fields. (@allanandthera, GIS & geography minors are two different things)
Old 07-12-2014 at 01:16 PM   #12
Imperious
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So if I did redeem the credit would I be eligible to take second year French in first year? And yes I want to be continuing my French studies



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