Should You Take AP Stats or AP Pre-Calc?

Are you wondering, "Should I take AP Stats or AP Pre-calc?" Choosing between AP Statistics and AP Pre-Calculus can be difficult for high school students trying to decide on an AP math course. The decision you make could impact your college applications, college courses, and even your career path. So how can you make the best decision for you? You'll need to understand what each course covers and the factors to consider when choosing a class. Keep reading for all the information you need to make the best choice!

Why Taking AP Statistics vs AP Pre-Calculus Matters

If you're struggling to decide between the two classes, you may wonder: does it really matter whether you take AP Stats vs AP Pre-calc? It can! The classes you take in high school have the ability to create a stronger high school transcript, which can impress college admissions counselors because colleges love to see high school students excelling in AP classes.

Moreover, depending on what you end up majoring in, taking one class over the other and doing well on the AP exam can get you college credit. This can help free up your college schedule, complete your graduation requirements faster, and more time to take classes you're especially interested in. 

Finally, taking the class that's right for you can also be the difference between a school year that's enjoyable and one that's stressful and full of assignments and exams that overwhelm and confuse you. 

In order to make the right choice with AP Stats vs AP Precalc, you'll need to have a good understanding of what each course will focus on and how that relates to your academic strengths and career goals. We focus on that in the next section.

Overview of AP Statistics

AP Statistics is designed to teach students how to collect, analyze, and interpret data. It emphasizes real-world applications and critical thinking over abstract math concepts. The course applies mathematics to practical problems, such as analyzing survey results, studying population trends, and making business forecasts. Students learn how to interpret numbers in meaningful ways and communicate their findings effectively.

The AP Stats curriculum has nine units:

• Unit 1: Exploring One-Variable Data
• Unit 2: Exploring Two-Variable Data
• Unit 3: Collecting Data
• Unit 4: Probability, Random Variables, and Probability Distributions
• Unit 5: Sampling Distributions
• Unit 6: Inference for Categorical Data: Proportions
• Unit 7: Inference for Quantitative Data: Means
• Unit 8: Inference for Categorical Data: Chi-Square
• Unit 9: Inference for Quantitative Data: Slopes

The AP Stats exam is a total of three hours long and contains two sections: multiple choice and free response. You're allowed a graphing calculator for the entire exam.

Overview of AP Pre-Calculus

AP Pre-calc is the newest AP class, introduced in the 2023-2024 school year. Anyone who’s taken Algebra II (or the equivalent) can take this course, no matter what year of high school they’re in. It focuses on building a strong foundation in mathematical reasoning and advanced algebraic skills.

According to the College Board’s news brief, they decided to develop AP Precalculus because thousands of students graduate from high school every year unready to tackle required college-level math classes. AP Precalculus was designed to make sure more students are ready for the upper-level college math classes they may need to take, especially calculus.

What will you learn in AP Pre-calc? The AP Precalculus curriculum is divided into four units:

• Unit 1: Polynomial and Rational Functions
• Unit 2: Exponential and Logarithmic Functions
• Unit 3: Trigonometric and Polar Functions
• Unit 4: Functions Involving Parameters, Vectors, and Matrices 

The AP Precalculus exam has two sections. The first section contains 40 multiple-choice questions and accounts for 62.5% of your total AP score. The second section contains four free-response questions and makes up 37.5% of your total score. Both sections are further divided into a section that requires a graphing calculator and a section that doesn't allow calculators.

Should I Take AP Stats or AP Pre-Calc? 5 Factors to Consider and 1 to Ignore

Choosing the right math classes in high school can be a difficult decision. If you're struggling to decide between AP Stats vs AP Pre-calc, there are five important factors to take into consideration, as well as one factor you should absolutely not be worrying about.

#1: What Are Your Career Goals?

For most people, the most important consideration in deciding "Should I take AP Stats or AP Pre-Calc" is which course better matches your academic/career goals. For students who plan on majoring in a STEM field, AP Pre-Calc may be the better choice. This is because you'll likely need one or more calculus classes to graduate, so taking AP Pre-Calc will help prepare you for those classes. After taking AP Pre-Calc, you may go on to take AP Calc AB or AP Calc BC or a calculus class in college. However, some STEM majors need to take statistics in college as well, so you may want to take AP Stats to feel better prepared for that course.

If you have a good idea of what college(s) you're most interested in and what you want to major in, you can look into the degree requirements for those majors and what AP credits those schools take to see if taking one class over the other could give you college credit and/or help fulfill your graduation requirements.

If you plan on majoring in a non-STEM field, like business, humanities, social sciences, etc. AP Stats is often the better choice. Many social science and business degrees require one or more statistics classes as part of their graduation requirements. AP Statistics can give you a head start, either by fulfilling part or all of this requirement or helping prepare you for the statistics courses you'll take in college. AP Stats is also more relevant for these fields. Social science and business careers frequently require data analysis, survey interpretation, or other areas of statistics. The skills you learn in AP Statistics will give you practical skills that you'll need to excel in these fields.

What if you aren't sure what you want to major in? AP Statistics and the skills it teaches are more relevant to a larger number of majors and career fields, so that may be your better option.

Note that, if you're, say, planning on majoring in political science but really want to take AP Pre-Calc, that's totally fine. These aren't hard and fast rules; they're just suggestions if you're struggling to decide which class to take. No class will be a "waste" regardless of what you end up studying. Keep reading for other factors to consider. 

#2: Are You Planning to Take AP Calculus?

If you plan on taking AP Calculus AB or AP Calculus BC in high school, then taking AP Pre-Calculus is the more obvious choice. You'll be taking pre-calc anyway, so taking it at an AP level will help prepare you for an AP Calculus class. You could, of course, take pre-calculus (either AP or not), AP Statistics, and an AP Calculus class all before graduating, but that would require you to have enough space in your schedule for all three of those classes (and the desire to learn a lot of math).

#3: Which Class Will You Do Better In?

Despite both being AP math classes, AP Stats and AP Pre-Calculus cover very different types of math, and one will often play to your own individual academic strengths more than the other.

AP Stats teaches students how to apply math to practical problems, such as analyzing survey results, studying population trends, or making business forecasts. The course focuses on understanding and interpreting patterns in data, and you'll spend a lot of time analyzing trends, reviewing experiments, and drawing conclusions based on evidence. If you like logical reasoning and working with real-world problems, you may especially enjoy AP Stats.

Additionally, if you struggled with algebra and geometry classes, especially how abstract they felt, you may feel much more comfortable with AP Stats because so much of it is tied to problems relevant to everyday life. Students who have struggled with math classes in general also often find statistics more enjoyable and manageable because it's quite different from the pre-algebra→ algebra→ geometry/trigonometry track they've been on up until then. While the course does require critical thinking, it emphasizes applied mathematics rather than heavy computations.

On another note, you're allowed to use a calculator for the entire AP Statistics exam, while you can only use it for half of the AP Pre-Calc exam, so that may be another factor to consider.

AP Pre-Calculus covers topics that are much more abstract than AP Stats. This course is designed to deepen your understanding of mathematical functions and concepts while preparing you for the rigor of calculus. It focuses heavily on problem-solving and analytical thinking and builds on knowledge you've learned in your algebra and geometry classes. If you like theoretical math like functions, limits, and sequences, and/or you did well in algebra/geometry, AP Pre-Calc may be the better choice for you.

#4: What Do Your Classmates Say About the Courses?

The quality of your AP math teacher can be the difference between acing the AP exam or failing it. If you're unsure of which class to take, a great deciding factor can be the opinions of students at your school who've taken one or both of the classes. Did they find it a lot easier/harder than they expected? What was the homework load like? Did they like the teacher? Did they feel prepared for the AP exam?

Talk to other students about how they like their AP math classes. Older siblings and their friends, as well as older friends from clubs and sports, are a good place to start. Don't trust student word-of-mouth entirely, but if you hear similar comments from multiple people, it's probably true. Also, ask your guidance counselor about the teachers' AP test passing rates if they've been teaching the class for a while. If they have a high passing rate (above the national average) that's a good sign. If one of the teachers has a markedly lower pass rate, you might want to consider taking the other AP math class.

#5: How Important Are AP Credits?

Pre-calculus is generally not considered a college-level course. Because of this, many colleges don't offer AP credit for it or they offer fewer credits than they do for AP Stats. For example, the University of Michigan gives students who earn a 4 or 5 on the AP Stats exam three college credits, but they don't award college credits for the AP Precalculus exam, regardless of how you scored.

This shouldn't be the only factor you use to make your decision, but if you're struggling to choose and are also trying to earn a lot of college credits from AP exams so you can graduate college early, get a double major, etc. AP Stats may be more appealing.

(Note that AP Calculus classes often earn you a lot of college credits if you do well on the AP test, so if you're planning on taking an AP Calculus course after AP Pre-Calculus, the lack of credits you get for pre-calc won't matter as much.)

Factor to Ignore: Which Will Impress Colleges More?

Students often worry about choosing the most "impressive" high school classes, especially AP classes. So you might be trying to figure out which class will look better on your transcript.

However, the truth is that college admissions teams rarely look at classes in a vacuum. When they see a particular class on your transcript, they'll look at how it fits with your other courses (are you taking a lot of math and science classes, or leaning more on the humanities/social sciences?), what grade you got in the class, and, if you provided your AP scores, how you scored on the AP exam, among other factors. 

As we mentioned above, pre-calculus isn't generally a college-level course while statistics often is, so you may think AP Stats will look more impressive. However, if you feel confident that you'd do better in AP Pre-Calc because it better matches your academic strengths and/or the teacher is much better than the AP Stats teacher, then AP Pre-Calc may be the better class for you. Also, if you plan on taking an AP Calculus class, then you absolutely don't need to worry about AP Pre-Calc not seeming as "impressive" because it'll be clear it's a pre-req for an AP Calculus class.

Always remember that an AP class that you do well in (both in terms of grades and the AP exam) will always be an asset on your transcript, regardless of what specific AP class it is.

Summary: Should I Take AP Stats or Pre-Calc?

AP Statistics and AP Pre-Calculus are two courses students have the option of taking in high school. AP Stats emphasizes analyzing data and solving practical problems while AP Pre-Calc focuses more on abstract math concepts and preparing students for calculus classes. 

AP Stats may be the better choice for you if:

• You plan on majoring in humanities/business/social sciences or you aren't sure what you want to major in
• You prefer math that's more related to real-world situations
• You didn't feel confident in/enjoy your algebra/geometry classes
• The class and teacher at your school seem good (no obvious red flags in terms of student word-of-mouth or AP test passing rate)

AP Precalculus may be the better choice for you if:

• You plan on taking a calculus class in high school or college
• You plan on majoring in a STEM field
• You enjoyed/did well in your algebra and geometry classes
• The class and teacher at your school seem good

Whether you choose AP Statistics or AP Pre-Calculus, both courses offer valuable skills and knowledge that'll benefit you in high school and beyond. 

What's Next?

If you take AP Pre-Calculus, you may end up taking an AP Calculus class after that. Wondering whether you should take AB or BC Calculus? Our guide lays out the differences between the two classes and explains who should take each course.

Which other math classes should you take? Check out our guide to the math classes you should take in high school.

Getting strong SAT/ACT math scores is important for college. Get tips for a perfect SAT math score or a perfect ACT math score.