Skipping AP exam?

[Anonymous]

My DS is taking his first AP class as a 9th grader. He has enjoyed the class and done well so far but is not at all prepared for the AP exam (which is this week). Is it better to not take the AP exam than to take it and risk failing? Do students have to submit AP exam scores for college admission or only if a student is trying to get college credit for the class? Does it look bad to colleges if he does not take the exam? Thanks!

[Anonymous]

Computer Science Principles isn't considered to be a difficult exam and he has all day Tuesday to prep. Try it. You don't have to report scores if it doesn't work out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Computer Science Principles isn't considered to be a difficult exam and he has all day Tuesday to prep. Try it. You don't have to report scores if it doesn't work out.

How do you supposedly know which exam?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Computer Science Principles isn't considered to be a difficult exam and he has all day Tuesday to prep. Try it. You don't have to report scores if it doesn't work out.

How do you supposedly know which exam?

How do you know so little about APs yet feel compelled to post?

Computer Science is the only AP left that a freshman would be taking.

- NP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Computer Science Principles isn't considered to be a difficult exam and he has all day Tuesday to prep. Try it. You don't have to report scores if it doesn't work out.

How do you supposedly know which exam?

How do you know so little about APs yet feel compelled to post?

Computer Science is the only AP left that a freshman would be taking.

- NP

Couldn't a freshman be taking AP Physics? I actually think it's part of the courseload at the engineering magnet or a 9th grader could have just chosen to take it.

[Anonymous]

Well, if you were looking at his record in a college admissions office and saw in his transcripts that he had taken one AP that year but not submitted the score, what would you conclude? Especially since you can have one AP sent for free each session?

It sounds as if your kid wasn't ready to have taken this class, or he wasn't mature enough to keep up so that he would be prepared for the exam.

[Anonymous]

To answer the OP's question, you can choose not to submit if the score is that. Moreover, most admissions officers would say that they pay much less attention to freshman year than they do to sophomore and onward.

Taking or not taking this test really only matters if your child is shooting for the absolute most rejective schools in the country. Since so many parents on this board are hyperfixated on that level, that's the advice you're getting, but it actually doesn't matter beyond the top 10 undergraduate programs, and even then only if you are applying for a very selective major.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To answer the OP's question, you can choose not to submit if the score is that. Moreover, most admissions officers would say that they pay much less attention to freshman year than they do to sophomore and onward.

Taking or not taking this test really only matters if your child is shooting for the absolute most rejective schools in the country. Since so many parents on this board are hyperfixated on that level, that's the advice you're getting, but it actually doesn't matter beyond the top 10 undergraduate programs, and even then only if you are applying for a very selective major.

I would say T50 would look at the fact that a student took the class but not the exam.

My kids took AP Gov and AP CS freshman year. One DC got 5s on both; the other DC got a 2 and 3.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To answer the OP's question, you can choose not to submit if the score is that. Moreover, most admissions officers would say that they pay much less attention to freshman year than they do to sophomore and onward.

Taking or not taking this test really only matters if your child is shooting for the absolute most rejective schools in the country. Since so many parents on this board are hyperfixated on that level, that's the advice you're getting, but it actually doesn't matter beyond the top 10 undergraduate programs, and even then only if you are applying for a very selective major.

I would say T50 would look at the fact that a student took the class but not the exam.

My kids took AP Gov and AP CS freshman year. One DC got 5s on both; the other DC got a 2 and 3.

The schools might notice, but the question is whether it would be disqualifying, and nothing I've ever seen suggests that a child who does poorly on a single AP exam as a freshman, but does well moving forward, would be particularly hurt by that in college admissions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Computer Science Principles isn't considered to be a difficult exam and he has all day Tuesday to prep. Try it. You don't have to report scores if it doesn't work out.

How do you supposedly know which exam?

How do you know so little about APs yet feel compelled to post?

Computer Science is the only AP left that a freshman would be taking.

- NP

Couldn't a freshman be taking AP Physics? I actually think it's part of the courseload at the engineering magnet or a 9th grader could have just chosen to take it.

Yes, or even APUSH or APNSL. It depends on the HS.

[Anonymous]

He should take it. If if a college makes him report all scores - who knows what the landscape on the will be in a few years - they don't have to count APs towards their US News type stats. So a poor AP score freshman year probably won't hurt.

Just try. And don't teach your kid not to challenge themselves or hedge their bets by skipping exams. That's not a good lesson to teach. Teach them to try their best.

[Anonymous]

That poster trying to say college board assigns test dates. Unless school is closed that Tues in your district, test dates were set by College Board so would know which exam is held in that day.

[Anonymous]

He absolutely does not have to take the exam. There will be other AP exams in 10, 11 and 12th grades for him to ace.

[Anonymous]

Definitely take the exam - the experience will help him on future exams, and his peers who took one this year will be in a better place. It is easy to deal with the score later if it is a problem (including contextualizing growth across the four years.) - AP teacher

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well, if you were looking at his record in a college admissions office and saw in his transcripts that he had taken one AP that year but not submitted the score, what would you conclude? Especially since you can have one AP sent for free each session?

It sounds as if your kid wasn't ready to have taken this class, or he wasn't mature enough to keep up so that he would be prepared for the exam.

Wow! You are a nasty person.