American universities are concerned about whether students dare to challenge themselves academically or choose simple courses for high scores. Therefore, if your school offers IB or AP courses, you should take as many courses as possible to show that you have chosen the most challenging course. Remember, only IB and AP are real college level exams.

In fact, your high scores in these two exams will allow the university to grant you credits; On the contrary, universities almost never grant SAT2 test credits.

The IB test score is between 1-7, and 7 is the perfect score; The AP test score is between 1-5, with the highest score of 5. For the admissions office, the two exams are equally important. Students in IB degree program take exams in June and May every year. Before the scores are published, students can choose to give them to six universities for free.

After the AP course, students can take the SAT2 exam in May, among which the most common ones are Calculus AB (the first stage), Calculus BC (the second stage), Biology, Chemistry, Macroeconomics/Microeconomics and Physics.

Comparatively speaking, SAT is mainly used as a supplement to the application materials, while AP and IB are closer to the college-level exams, because they measure your writing and problem-solving level in the fields of mathematics and science. For example, the calculus exam requires students to solve practical calculus problems, and their solutions are also in the evaluation criteria.