AP Tests this week, how are we feeling?

[Anonymous]

My DS had two today and one yesterday. Knows he blew one of them (12th grader with good sense of things) and is considering cancelling the score. I wish you didn’t have to take two in same day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DS had two today and one yesterday. Knows he blew one of them (12th grader with good sense of things) and is considering cancelling the score. I wish you didn’t have to take two in same day.

Two in one day is totally brutal.

[Anonymous]

frq comp a was horrible per my kid

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DS had two today and one yesterday. Knows he blew one of them (12th grader with good sense of things) and is considering cancelling the score. I wish you didn’t have to take two in same day.

Why cancel? he's a senior, it can't hurt anything, only help

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:^^I messed up my reply. But ok I see what others are saying. Take the ap senior year for:

-potential college credit for gen ed classes you want to skip
-to double major or add a minor
-to free up schedule to graduate early or take fewer classes one semester

All good reasons. So, when they make it through junior year testing madness (PSAT, SAT, APs, final exams), it's a little more relaxed senior year in that good scores will impart some benefits but nothing that's critical for admissions.

yes, AP score-wise senior year could be more relaxed, as most will know where they are going and can look up whether a specific test will gain them anything. However, senior year is not more relaxed in terms of course choice: they need to select the same or higher level of rigor in their course selection as they have had in 11th. A drop in rigor, even a small one, is a problem for elites, and is hammered into our private school kids as half the college counselors used to serve on T25 admissions and still have contacts. They have been saying TO is fake news for private school applicants since 2022 for the elite colleges, unless you are hooked, and encourage reporting every AP score 3 and above (and have for years).

No one is talking about course selection. We're talking about taking the AP exam.

I'm the person pp responded to. They were probably confused because I said, "take ap senior year" for following reasons. I meant to say "take ap exam" for following reason." So I agree with their response that senior year rigor should be equal to junior year, but am wondering if a reported low exam score, an unreported score, or choosing to skip the exam entirely senior year, even if the student received an A or B in the class, would somehow disqualify a student from attending the school they have already committed to.

From reading another thread here on APs, I can see that I'm kind of confused on how and when in the process ap exam scores are reported or not reported/withdrawn?, both for junior and senior years, and need to do more reading on that.

It may be school-specific, but I would be very surprised if a school withdrew admission for any of those reasons.

[Anonymous]

Is AP comp computers?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My DS had two today and one yesterday. Knows he blew one of them (12th grader with good sense of things) and is considering cancelling the score. I wish you didn’t have to take two in same day.

Why cancel? he's a senior, it can't hurt anything, only help

It can hurt getting the Distinction Award.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^^I messed up my reply. But ok I see what others are saying. Take the ap senior year for:

-potential college credit for gen ed classes you want to skip
-to double major or add a minor
-to free up schedule to graduate early or take fewer classes one semester

All good reasons. So, when they make it through junior year testing madness (PSAT, SAT, APs, final exams), it's a little more relaxed senior year in that good scores will impart some benefits but nothing that's critical for admissions.

yes, AP score-wise senior year could be more relaxed, as most will know where they are going and can look up whether a specific test will gain them anything. However, senior year is not more relaxed in terms of course choice: they need to select the same or higher level of rigor in their course selection as they have had in 11th. A drop in rigor, even a small one, is a problem for elites, and is hammered into our private school kids as half the college counselors used to serve on T25 admissions and still have contacts. They have been saying TO is fake news for private school applicants since 2022 for the elite colleges, unless you are hooked, and encourage reporting every AP score 3 and above (and have for years).

No one is talking about course selection. We're talking about taking the AP exam.

I'm the person pp responded to. They were probably confused because I said, "take ap senior year" for following reasons. I meant to say "take ap exam" for following reason." So I agree with their response that senior year rigor should be equal to junior year, but am wondering if a reported low exam score, an unreported score, or choosing to skip the exam entirely senior year, even if the student received an A or B in the class, would somehow disqualify a student from attending the school they have already committed to.

From reading another thread here on APs, I can see that I'm kind of confused on how and when in the process ap exam scores are reported or not reported/withdrawn?, both for junior and senior years, and need to do more reading on that.

It may be school-specific, but I would be very surprised if a school withdrew admission for any of those reasons.

I’m not aware of any domestic college that would rescind for AP scores. Are there any that require submitting 12th grade APs?

For the international unis that admit based on AP scores, do any admit based on predicted or future AP scores? If so, that could be a problem.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:how was comp a today?

My kid who started frantically studying last night:

Says he cooked (i think that's good) on the free response. He got cooked (i think that's not good) on some of the multiple choice. Said he started bugging out at the end and just couldn't do anymore. Answered 4 or 5 multiple choice randomly. Thinks he probably got a 4.

FWIW he says other kids were the opposite: they thought multiple choice was better than the free response.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:The college board site says they start releasing results on July 8th.

Given past experience, that doesn't mean ALL results will be available first thing on July 8th.

I have kids taking a few starting this week. One kid is really ill with Flu B so has anti-virals and anything else we can pump him with, to be well enough to take them.

There are make-up days at the end of the exam period. Don’t take it sick

Agree!

The make ups are not the same test and my kid heard they can have harder FRQs so be careful.

That would be deemed discrimination and not ethical.

In 2020, the makeup exam had crazy hard questions. My kid shared them with me when she got home and despite having a graduate degree in the fields I thought they were hard questions.

And yet you didn't see the original test questions, so how can you possible judge if they were in fact harder, or equally difficult?

Not PP but there are scenarios where kids might sit for both the original and makeup exam. For example, if scores for the first exam need to be cancelled for some reason (eg a fire alarm in the middle of the test), those students would see the questions on both the original and the makeup exam.

My own child will be in that exact circumstance for an AP test they took earlier this week.

And what that shows is only what is harder for one specific student, whose knowledge and skills may lean towards one test rather than the other. They could equally consider the make up test to be easier. I think you're trying to reinforce the idea the make ups are harder when there is zero evidence to that and also it would create a pattern of discrimination against the later test takers, as has already been noted on this thread. It’s just BS, basically. The tests are "different" and that is all.

I’m not disputing that the test are equal, I’m just saying that it is possible for a student to see both the original and the makeup test. The previous poster was quibbling that it isn’t possible to see both tests and that is not correct. Make-up tests are largely for students who missed the first test, but there are clear scenarios where a student might sit for the entirety of both if the scores from the first test are invalidated/cancelled through no fault of the student.

I'm the PP that said the 2021 makeup was harder, at least for the test my kid took that year. I'm not saying the makeups are always harder, but there are fewer kids that take it, so a little harder to norm, and they are always going to have to have different questions, so it's totally possible it might be easier or harder than the primary administration. The kids absolutely share questions after the test -- they are all basically immediately posted to reddit, discord, etc. So it's easy for the kids to compare questions after-the-fact, and they generally have a gestalt opinion about which test was harder. My kid shared the questions with me when they got home, and I did think they were quite difficult, and that is a subject area that I know pretty well. Of course, that was the pandemic year, so they may have had an unusual process for writing/vetting the test questions that year, since it seemed like the whole educational system was in free-fall the year leading up to that test.

And yet, you're probably not an AP teacher or a writer / grader of the AP exams are you. You're just a parent with an opinion. Pretty worthless really.

Well, I do have a graduate degree in the subject from an Ivy League school. And I thought it was a hard question for what is supposed to be an entry level college survey course. Of course, it is just my opinion and just a sample of one makeup test in a weird year. But there is definitely chatter every year among the people who follow APs about whether a particular test was more or less difficult than average — they can’t hit it exactly every single time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:how was comp a today?

My kid who started frantically studying last night:

Says he cooked (i think that's good) on the free response. He got cooked (i think that's not good) on some of the multiple choice. Said he started bugging out at the end and just couldn't do anymore. Answered 4 or 5 multiple choice randomly. Thinks he probably got a 4.

FWIW he says other kids were the opposite: they thought multiple choice was better than the free response.

my kid felt great about mcq but fell apart on frq, got 2 they think and the other 2 wrote frantically but thinks got them wrong, was really hoping for a 5,now in a bad mood

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DS had two today and one yesterday. Knows he blew one of them (12th grader with good sense of things) and is considering cancelling the score. I wish you didn’t have to take two in same day.

2 in the same day should not be allowed. At our school - maybe it's like this everywhere? - you can reschedule for the makeup if your kid has 2 in 1 day. But you have to pay an additional $40, after already paying nearly $100. The fee is only waived if you have 2 tests scheduled at the same time, or have some other excused absence.

[Anonymous]

My freshman took AP stats yesterday and said it was OK. HOW DID YOUR KIDS FEEL ABOUT THE STATS EXAM?

[Anonymous]

lol! I have no idea why that sentence appeared in all caps. It’s not that urgent!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:how was comp a today?

My kid who started frantically studying last night:

Says he cooked (i think that's good) on the free response. He got cooked (i think that's not good) on some of the multiple choice. Said he started bugging out at the end and just couldn't do anymore. Answered 4 or 5 multiple choice randomly. Thinks he probably got a 4.

FWIW he says other kids were the opposite: they thought multiple choice was better than the free response.

my kid felt great about mcq but fell apart on frq, got 2 they think and the other 2 wrote frantically but thinks got them wrong, was really hoping for a 5,now in a bad mood

Hopefully, they will do better than they think they did. GL to your kid!

Oh, one other thing my kid noted: Says he thinks it feels really weird to write code using pencil/paper. All year he's sort of relied on getting "dinged" (sorry for the non-technical term!) for errors and then going back to figure them out/fix them. And it feels odd that you have to get it right the first time on paper/pencil format.