What's the difference between AP courses and regular courses?

Hi Megane,

The AP courses are designed to follow the AP Curriculum created by the College Board. The courses are designed to prepare the learner for taking the AP Exam for that subject.

The regular courses typically include more information that the AP courses, since they might have content that isn't part of the AP Curriculum.

If you're planning on taking the AP Exam, I would suggest taking the AP course. Otherwise, the regular course would probably be best.

Thank you! I have one other question... My account does not allow me to track progress for the AP courses. Is this a flaw with my account, or does Khan Academy not track progress for the AP exams?

Currently tracking for any course that isn't part of the math content isn't available to be tracked from the Progress Tab on your account. There also is not yet a way to directly track your progress towards the AP Exam, but the unit tests (if there are some for the course) serve as a good progress indicator.

I was actually referring to the courses that we are asked to choose to personalize our account. I once had the option to choose to take an AP course, but now those options have disappeared. 

If you go to your Home Page and click on "Edit" next to "My subjects" you should be able to select an AP course to learn.

That's what I'm referring to, sorry for not being more precise. I've clicked edit on my courses multiple times, but for some reason I don't have the option to choose an AP course. All it's showing me are the regular courses.

Thanks for the additional information and screenshot!

This is definitely an interesting issue.... Have you tried clicking the "Back" button in that pop-up and making sure your grade level is set to a high school grade level. If it is set to a high school grade level and still isn't displaying the AP courses, then you'll need to submit a bug report so the developers can take a look at things internally.

I just clicked the "Back" button, and yes my grade level is set to a high school grade level, grade 12 to be specific. I unclicked it, then clicked it again, and it still won't show me the AP courses. I think I might need to submit that bug report. Thank you so much for all your help! :)

I see that no one answered your acronym explanation question, something that has happened here to me multiple times.

AP stands for Advanced Placement.

I walked someone through a missing courses situation some time back. I think the conclusion I came to was that the person was from a country other than the U.S. or was set up with a language other than English. I don't know if Advanced Placement (AP) courses are meant for countries other than the U.S. (or at least not for all countries) or are available in languages other than English (or at least not for all languages). It could be that this is why you are not seeing the AP courses.

Thank you so much for your response! 

That does make sense. My account is set in English, but I'm not from the U.S. Where I'm from however the SATS are given, so I don't know if that makes a difference. But the strange thing is that I remember seeing those courses earlier this year, but never paid much attention to them. Now that I'm looking for them again, they've vanished. I submitted a bug report and someone told me that the AP courses aren't included in the Personalize Khan Academy feature, but the person who commented before you sent me an image showing the AP courses in his Personalize feature.