Those students who met the SAT College and Career Readiness Benchmark had a
number of critically important academic characteristics that must be shared by all
students if our nation is to make meaningful gains in educational attainment.
Those characteristics happen to include (via the chart above and the text below) taking the PSAT and taking AP/Honors courses. Note that the correlation provided is just the taking of these tests/classes, not doing well in them.
The College Board's competitor, the ACT, published a report "The Advanced Placement Program Benefits Mainly Well-Prepared Students Who Pass AP Exams":
1. Taking AP Courses Alone Is Not Related to College Success.
Simple comparisons of outcomes for AP and non-AP students can be extremely misleading. They might simply show that whatever personal characteristics cause students to choose to enroll in AP courses—such as motivation and family support—also help them succeed in college. After taking these and other types of pre-existing factors into consideration, there was no evidence in NCEA’s research that merely taking AP courses is related to college graduation rates.
2. Taking AP Courses and Passing AP Exams Is What Matters.
On the other hand, we found that passing the corresponding AP exams is related to college graduation rates. That is, students who demonstrate that they are ready for college and that they can successfully complete an AP course and pass an AP exam in high school are also those who are most likely to graduate from college. In general, school systems that do a better job of preparing students for college and career produce more students who take and pass AP exams and also produce more students who later graduate from college.
based on a study they commissioned, "The Relationship between Advanced Placement and College Graduation"
http://broadprize.org/symposium/2006BroadSymposiumRelationshipBetweenAPandCollegeGrad.pdf .
