The good folks at Challenge Success recently released their white paper, The Advanced Placement Program: Living Up To Its Promise? It attempts to answer questions like, “Does taking AP courses inherently boost a student’s chances of college admissions?” (Spoiler alert: it depends on the college.)

For families who would rather not read and weed through all of the data, page 10’s “Suggestions for Students” has some good advice that might help you decide if AP courses are right for you, and if so, how many—and which particular courses—to take. And I appreciated their sensible, student-friendly advice like,

“Don’t take AP courses just to get into college. While many elite colleges will expect applicants to have enrolled in rigorous and challenging courses, particularly in subject areas of interest to the student, AP enrollment alone will not guarantee your college admission. Moreover, taking AP courses and doing poorly because you are taking them for the wrong reasons or are not interested in the subject or are in over your head or are spread too thin will not reflect well upon you, nor will taking AP courses that cause undue stress, limit your ability to participate in other meaningful activities, or impact your ability to get enough sleep each night. It’s best to enroll in AP courses only in areas that are of real interest to you and in which you are prepared and able to work hard.”