Like peanut butter and jelly, these AP® courses are valuable alone but even better when paired together. Taking AP courses gives you the opportunity to not only earn credit, advanced placement, or both but also to build the skills you need to be successful in high school, college, and beyond. An ideal way to hone these skills is to expand your learning by taking AP courses that complement each other.
Courses in the first list below are companion pairings that have cross-curricular benefits. The skills and content you’ll learn in one course are relevant to and will benefit you in the other course. Courses in the second list below offer a more focused course sequence within a single subject area. The content and skills taught within each course build on each other across the two-course pairing.
If they’re available in your school, consider taking these connected AP courses.
Cross-Curricular Companion Courses
AP Biology with AP Environmental Science
AP Biology with AP Psychology
AP Art History with AP World History: Modern
AP U.S. Government and Politics with AP Macroeconomics
AP English Language and Composition with AP United States History
AP Human Geography with AP Environmental Science
AP Physics 1: Algebra-Based with AP Precalculus
AP Physics 1: Algebra-Based with AP Calculus AB
AP Research with AP Statistics
AP Statistics with AP Precalculus
AP Computer Science Principles with AP Computer Science A
AP Computer Science Principles with AP Precalculus
AP Computer Science A with AP Calculus AB
Focused Sequences of Courses
AP English Language and Composition* with AP English Literature and Composition*
AP Seminar** (grade 10 or 11) with AP Research (grade 11 or 12)
AP Seminar (grade 10) with AP English Language and Composition (grade 11), then AP Research (grade 12)
* Please note that colleges typically will only grant credit for one of the two AP English courses.
** AP Research is the only course the AP Program requires students to take in a sequence, after AP Seminar.
“AP helped shape my career path so I’m having a really fulfilling college experience. The AP courses I’ve taken, like AP Calculus AB and AP Physics 1, helped me learn about the field and decide if the concepts I learned were important to me. Exploring those courses helped me not only build skills but also confirm what I wanted to do in the future.”
Patrick, AP Alum Majoring in Bioengineering and Electrical Engineering, and Computer Science
Pre-AP Connections to AP Courses
Some schools offer Pre-AP® courses, which help you develop the skills needed for future success in AP. The courses in the chart below are directly mapped to specific AP courses and often include strong connections to more than one course. Discover which AP courses may be a natural next step for you, and schedule time with your counselor to find out which ones are available to take next.
