July 28, 2019
Everyone knows you can get college credit from taking AP exams. What not everyone knows is that in Texas, you can also get high school credit from taking AP exams, according to an obscure provision in the Texas Administrative Code (the published set of rules and regulations from all of the state agencies in Texas).
According to Title 19 (Education) Part 2 (Texas Education Agency) Chapter 74 (Curriculum Requirements) Subchapter C (Other Provisions) Rule 74.24 (Credit by Examination) section (c) (Assessment for course credit in Grades 6-12) (link)
(8) A student in any of Grades 6-12 must be given credit for an academic subject in which he or she has had no prior instruction if the student scores:
(A) a three or higher on a College Board advanced placement examination that has been approved by the school district board of trustees for the applicable course;
(B) a scaled score of 50 or higher on an examination administered through the College-Level Examination Program and approved by the school district board of trustees for the applicable course; or
(C) 80% on any other criterion-referenced test approved by the school district board of trustees for the applicable course.
The important provision is (8)(A) which indicates that you can get credit for a high school class if you get a 3 or higher on its corresponding AP exam.
Most students take a whole-year or semester-long AP-level course and then take the AP exam in May of that year. In this case, claiming high school credit wouldn't make sense because it would be redundant. However, if you want to self-study for an AP exam without enrolling in the class, this will help you out.
Although you can exempt out of any class which has a corresponding AP exam, this policy is most helpful for exempting classes required for graduation. Instead, you can pursue elective / non-required classes that you are interested in taking but wouldn't have room for in your schedule. Most likely, you would do this for a class such as United States History (the first required course that has an AP option) by taking the AP United States History exam at the end of your sophomore year (instead of as a class during your junior year).
You can also claim credit for classes not required for graduation (such as Calculus or Music Theory), but this is less necessary because these will have no effect on your GPA, and colleges will already see your scores on these exams on your AP transcript as well.
First, go to the CollegeBoard website and find your AP scores (link). Click "View your scores" and after logging in, click the button to "Download score report" and print the following page out (or save a PDF). Next, go to your registrar and show them this page along with the PDF of your AP scores. He/she will record the classes you successfully exempted as "Passed via Credit by Examination" on your high school transcript. This credit is treated the same as if you had taken the class for the semester/year.
Before or at the beginning of the school year, go to your counselor and let him/her know that you received high school credit over the summer. Most schools have policies to prevent kids from switching courses after a certain deadline (usually June), but receiving credit over the summer should be a valid exemption to this policy. At that point, you'll be able to make any schedule changes you want.
It only makes sense to do this before your senior year - if you want to do this for a class required for graduation, you'll need to have the credit by June of the senior year, but AP scores from your senior year come out in July which is too late.
Make sure to budget enough time to study for both the content and structure of the AP exam - the exams are not meant to be easy but if you put in enough time/work you'll be able to pass.