Advanced Placement is a program run by the College Board (the makers of the SAT) that allows you to take special high school courses that can earn you college credit and/or qualify you for more advanced classes when you begin college.

So what are AP courses? They are designed to give you the experience of an intro-level college class while you're still in high school. Plus, you can get college credit for the class if you pass the AP exam.

AP classes were created in the mid-1950s as a response to the widening gap between secondary school (high school) and college. A pilot program in 1952 had 11 subjects, but AP didn't officially launch until the 1956 school year, when the College Board took over and named it the College Board Advanced Placement Program.

This program expanded rapidly over the years. These days, about 2.8 million students take AP exams every year in 38 subjects. It's also much more common for students to take multiple AP classes over the course of their high school careers.