Advanced Learning (Honours/ Advanced Placement) Department

General Information
The Advanced Learning program consists of the Honours and Advanced Placement courses offered to students in grades 8 through 12. Advanced Placement (AP) is a program of university/college level courses and exams for high school students. For students who successfully complete external AP exams (with a minimum score of 4 on a 5 point scale), they may, upon admission to university/college, be granted credit and/or placement at most post-secondary institutions around the world. (Some institutions will also grant credit for a score of 3.) Pre-AP Honours courses offer advanced and motivated students the opportunity to learn in an enriched environment with similar students. Grade 11 Honours courses, in particular, help prepare students who intend to take AP courses at the grade 12 level. Please note that Burnaby South Secondary only offers AP exams to students enrolled at Burnaby South. If you are interested in becoming a Burnaby South student, please inquire at our front office.

Advanced Placement Course Offerings
In 2012-2013, Burnaby South is offering the following 17 AP courses. They include: Art 2D Design, Art 3D Design, Art Drawing, Biology, Calculus AB, Calculus BC, Chemistry, Chinese Language and Culture, Computer Science (online), English Literature, European History (new), French Language, Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, Physics, Psychology, and Statistics. For more details, click here.

AP Teachers
Burnaby South’s Advanced Placement teachers are dedicated to providing AP students with the best possible preparation for their AP exam and post-secondary studies. For a listing of the current AP teachers, please check out our AP Teachers' webpage.

Honours (Pre-AP) Courses
Pre-AP Honours courses are intended for motivated and advanced learners in grades 8 to 11. Honours courses begin at the Grade 8 level with English 8 Honours, Social Studies 8 Honours, Math 8 Honours and Science 8 Honours. For more details, click here. Students do not have to take all the courses on a 'pathway'. They may opt in or out of the program from year to year although this is not the preferred path. However, courses taken as a prerequisite for an AP course (such as Biology 11H for AP Biology 12), condense the grade 11 curriculum and introduce the grade 12 curriculum in one year. Students are then able to complete the grade 12 curriculum and the first year university curriculum in the AP 12 course. In essence, students are completing three years of curriculum in two years. It is very important, therefore, that students choose their courses carefully in grade 10 and 11 so that they have the necessary prerequisite(s) for the AP course(s) that they wish to take.

In 2011-2012, over 33% of the students enrolled at Burnaby South took one or more Honours/AP courses and over 36% of all Grade 12 students were enrolled in at least one AP or Honours course. For a pictorial view of all the Honours courses at Burnaby South and how they lead to the AP course, please click here.

Writing the Advanced Placement Examination
Students enrolled in AP courses are strongly encouraged to write the external AP examination in May. There is no fee for taking an AP course but there is a fee for writing this AP examination. Since this is an external exam administered by the College Board, we are obligated to charge the students the cost of writing the exam. The cost is $120 per exam (very inexpensive when compared to a university course). Regardless of whether or not the student writes the AP exam in May, the fact that they completed an AP course is acknowledged on their official BC Ministry of Education transcript. However, if the student wants to earn advanced placement credit at a post-secondary institution, they must write the AP exam and forward their results to their institution(s). In addition, it is strongly recommended that students write the corresponding provincial exam (if there is one) in June as well. Click here for statistics and powerpoint slides on how students generally do in University if they have taken the AP Exam.

Admissions and Credit for University/College
AP courses may be combined with other high school courses for the purpose of admission at most post secondary institutions in North America. Most have also stated that exam results will only be used in the calculation of admission averages if they increase the student's admission average. Please check with each individual post-secondary institution for their up-to-date admission policy.

Students who successfully complete an AP exam with a minimum score of 4 on a 5 point scale (some institutions only require a score of 3) may, upon admission to the university, be granted credit and/or placement at most post-secondary institutions around the world. For more detailed information about local colleges and universities, please click here.

Awards
Prior to the 2011-2012 school year, AP students were able to use specific AP exam scores to count towards earning a Grade 12 Graduation Program Examinations Scholarship.

AP scores of 4 and 5 will be counted as one, two or all three of the required exam scores needed to earn a scholarship. AP exam scores of 4 will be considered as an 86% and scores of 5 as 96%. A score on a Grade 12 provincial exam and a score on a Grade 12 AP or IB exam on the same subject cannot count as two separate exam scores. For example, a student cannot us a score of 86% on the provincial Grade 12 Biology 12 exam and a 5 on the AP Biology exam to count as two separate exam scores. This is also true for English 12 and AP English Lit 12. Please note however that Math 12 Principles and Calculus AB or Calculus BC are treated as two separate courses.

As of 2011-2012, the BC Ministry of Education has changed their Provincial Examination Scholarship requirements. The updated requirements can now be found on the BC Ministry of Education website: www.bced.gov.bc.ca/exams

AP also recognizes students who do extremely well on three or more AP exams. For more information, please click here.

How AP Students Do After Graduation
Advanced Placement students, when placed in advanced courses in university, tend to outperform other students. About 80% of these students receive As or Bs in subsequent course work even at the most selective institutions. They usually have higher grade point averages and are more likely to graduate with honours from university having had less of an adjustment to university work. As the local universities see the performance of AP candidates after they leave high school, they become more interested in recruiting these students to their campuses. For specific statistics about Burnaby South results, please click here to view the Results webpage.

Results from the past few years showed that Burnaby South students did extremely well. In 2010-2011, 70% of all exams written received a grade of 4 or 5, and 85% of all exams written received a grade of 3, 4 or 5. In addition, we had 40 AP scholar winners this past year. In 2009, we had a Grade 9 student write an AP exam and receive a score of 5 out of 5. We also had a student who successfully received 32 first-year credits at UBC, thus essentially completing his first year requirements before the start of his first day of post-secondary studies. In 2007 and 2008, two-thirds of all AP exams written at South received a grade of 4 or more. In 2005 and 2006, 75% of all exams written received a grade of 4 or 5. This corresponds to an "A" letter grade at local post-secondary institutions. These are just some of the highlights.

What Do Former AP Students Think?
If you really want to find out about the AP program, you should talk to former students. Click here to find out what a few former students have to say about the program.

For More Information
For more information on Advanced Placement in Canada, visit www.ap.ca. For information about AP credits at various post-secondary institutions in BC, visit www.bccat.bc.ca. For additional information about AP and Honours courses at Burnaby South, please contact Mr. Amos Lee, Advanced Learning Department Head, at (604) 664-8560, extension 1139, or by e-mail Amos.Lee@sd41.bc.ca,.