are AP exams really necessary?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"The problem with APs, is that it has become the de facto “most rigorous” course load at a high school.

Although a college may not accept the credits, most still make the “rigorous” consideration (for admissions) based on how many your student took while in high school."

So don't take the exams.

As a former college counselor, it doesn't look great to admission folks when someone *doesn't* take the exam. This is especially true if most students take the exam at your high school.

This is what I really want to know, but if the college counselor is also the one who said that a college might revoke the acceptance depending on the AP result, I am now doubting the credibility of the initial post. My kid will take a ton of AP classes because they are the most rigorous offering at her school. We aren't going to particularly care about the AP credit for college. While it would be nice to register earlier than others if that is a side benefit, to us there aren't too many other benefits. Will the selective colleges she is applying to care that she got 5's on her AP exams? Is it one of the factors they look at? Given that all those College Confidential posters list their great AP exam scores on their "chance me" threads, I assume they are providing that information to colleges, and so isn't that an added plus to the colleges in looking over a particular admissions file?

PP here. Nope, that post about "revoking based on a poor AP result" was NOT me.

I asked that question about admission being revoked on the basis of a poor result. I am not a college counselor by any stretch of the imagination.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If a student does take an AP exam and scores very poorly on it (1 or 2) would a college revoke admission?

No

Then what is the point?

- shows rigor
- bumps up wtGPA
- get college credits (varies by school)

A 1 on the AP exam shows rigor? Anyone can get a 1 right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If a student does take an AP exam and scores very poorly on it (1 or 2) would a college revoke admission?

No

Then what is the point?

- shows rigor
- bumps up wtGPA
- get college credits (varies by school)

+100

In general, you don't want to raise flags on your application. Take the test if you're taking the class.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If a student does take an AP exam and scores very poorly on it (1 or 2) would a college revoke admission?

No

Then what is the point?

- shows rigor
- bumps up wtGPA
- get college credits (varies by school)

A 1 on the AP exam shows rigor? Anyone can get a 1 right?

The final grade in the class is the important part and taking the effort to take the most rigorous offering.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If a student does take an AP exam and scores very poorly on it (1 or 2) would a college revoke admission?

No

Then what is the point?

- shows rigor
- bumps up wtGPA
- get college credits (varies by school)

+100

In general, you don't want to raise flags on your application. Take the test if you're taking the class.

Question is, should seniors who have already applied and been accepted to college bother to take an AP exam?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If a student does take an AP exam and scores very poorly on it (1 or 2) would a college revoke admission?

No

Then what is the point?

- shows rigor
- bumps up wtGPA
- get college credits (varies by school)

A 1 on the AP exam shows rigor? Anyone can get a 1 right?

The final grade in the class is the important part and taking the effort to take the most rigorous offering.

O.k. but the class grade is not standardized. The AP exam shows how well the student has mastered the standardized AP material.

Students could get "As" in the class but "2s" on the exam. Students could get "Bs" in the class but "5s" on the exams.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If a student does take an AP exam and scores very poorly on it (1 or 2) would a college revoke admission?

No

Then what is the point?

- shows rigor
- bumps up wtGPA
- get college credits (varies by school)

+100

In general, you don't want to raise flags on your application. Take the test if you're taking the class.

Question is, should seniors who have already applied and been accepted to college bother to take an AP exam?

Good question - I know that Senioritis is real, but there's a life lesson in completing something you started.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If a student does take an AP exam and scores very poorly on it (1 or 2) would a college revoke admission?

No

Then what is the point?

- shows rigor
- bumps up wtGPA
- get college credits (varies by school)

A 1 on the AP exam shows rigor? Anyone can get a 1 right?

The final grade in the class is the important part and taking the effort to take the most rigorous offering.

O.k. but the class grade is not standardized. The AP exam shows how well the student has mastered the standardized AP material.

Students could get "As" in the class but "2s" on the exam. Students could get "Bs" in the class but "5s" on the exams.

There are myriad reasons why kids don't do well - testing fatigue, anxiety, poor test taker in general. The teacher could have just done a poor job of preparing the class.

The good news is that the AP score is just one data point, one piece of information. Grades are really more important.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If a student does take an AP exam and scores very poorly on it (1 or 2) would a college revoke admission?

No

Then what is the point?

- shows rigor
- bumps up wtGPA
- get college credits (varies by school)

+100

In general, you don't want to raise flags on your application. Take the test if you're taking the class.

Question is, should seniors who have already applied and been accepted to college bother to take an AP exam?

Good question - I know that Senioritis is real, but there's a life lesson in completing something you started.

Yeah. Take honors instead of AP if you don't want to deal with AP exams. Done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think if you take an Ap class, and want to get the GPA bump for it, you should have to take the exam -- or take a similarly lengthy challenging final exam administered by your teacher.

If you skip the exam the high school should not weight your grade for that class.

A final exam is part of the course.

Public schools abuse the AP system. They give a full one grade higher for these courses but there is no final. I think the AP final needs to count as part of the actual class grade. So easy to to just not bother. Pisses me off.

Not at my children's public high schools. They have a final AND the AP exam. Joy.

BASIS charter schools factor the AP exam scores into students' final grades (they re-calculate / re-issue report cards in July).

You have to take at least 6 AP classes + exams to graduate. If you decide to take more AP classes and skip the final for any, you must take a final exam that counts heavily in your final grade.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If a student does take an AP exam and scores very poorly on it (1 or 2) would a college revoke admission?

No

Then what is the point?

- shows rigor
- bumps up wtGPA
- get college credits (varies by school)

A 1 on the AP exam shows rigor? Anyone can get a 1 right?

The final grade in the class is the important part and taking the effort to take the most rigorous offering.

O.k. but the class grade is not standardized. The AP exam shows how well the student has mastered the standardized AP material.

Students could get "As" in the class but "2s" on the exam. Students could get "Bs" in the class but "5s" on the exams.

There are myriad reasons why kids don't do well - testing fatigue, anxiety, poor test taker in general. The teacher could have just done a poor job of preparing the class.

The good news is that the AP score is just one data point, one piece of information. Grades are really more important.

Grades are pretty meaningless if a kid with a brutally hard teacher is getting a B in class and a 5 on the exam and a student with an easy peasy "let's play Go Fish and eat pizza" teacher is rubber stamping As across the board, the students aren't motivated enough to self study and they all earn 1 or 2 scores on the exam.

Grades are subjective to at least some degree. An excellent student can easily be made to look worse than a meh student...which is sort of the point of having a standardized measure in the first place. Or at least that's what I thought was the reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think if you take an Ap class, and want to get the GPA bump for it, you should have to take the exam -- or take a similarly lengthy challenging final exam administered by your teacher.

If you skip the exam the high school should not weight your grade for that class.

A final exam is part of the course.

Public schools abuse the AP system. They give a full one grade higher for these courses but there is no final. I think the AP final needs to count as part of the actual class grade. So easy to to just not bother. Pisses me off.

Not at my children's public high schools. They have a final AND the AP exam. Joy.

BASIS charter schools factor the AP exam scores into students' final grades (they re-calculate / re-issue report cards in July).

You have to take at least 6 AP classes + exams to graduate. If you decide to take more AP classes and skip the final for any, you must take a final exam that counts heavily in your final grade.

At our school they pretty much all take the AP exams. That gives students/teachers the incentive to prepare for those exams .

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:"The problem with APs, is that it has become the de facto “most rigorous” course load at a high school.

Although a college may not accept the credits, most still make the “rigorous” consideration (for admissions) based on how many your student took while in high school."

So don't take the exams.

As a former college counselor, it doesn't look great to admission folks when someone *doesn't* take the exam. This is especially true if most students take the exam at your high school.

This is what I really want to know, but if the college counselor is also the one who said that a college might revoke the acceptance depending on the AP result, I am now doubting the credibility of the initial post. My kid will take a ton of AP classes because they are the most rigorous offering at her school. We aren't going to particularly care about the AP credit for college. While it would be nice to register earlier than others if that is a side benefit, to us there aren't too many other benefits. Will the selective colleges she is applying to care that she got 5's on her AP exams? Is it one of the factors they look at? Given that all those College Confidential posters list their great AP exam scores on their "chance me" threads, I assume they are providing that information to colleges, and so isn't that an added plus to the colleges in looking over a particular admissions file?

PP here. Nope, that post about "revoking based on a poor AP result" was NOT me.

OK, thanks very much for the information, college counselor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think if you take an Ap class, and want to get the GPA bump for it, you should have to take the exam -- or take a similarly lengthy challenging final exam administered by your teacher.

If you skip the exam the high school should not weight your grade for that class.

A final exam is part of the course.

Public schools abuse the AP system. They give a full one grade higher for these courses but there is no final. I think the AP final needs to count as part of the actual class grade. So easy to to just not bother. Pisses me off.

Not at my children's public high schools. They have a final AND the AP exam. Joy.

BASIS charter schools factor the AP exam scores into students' final grades (they re-calculate / re-issue report cards in July).

You have to take at least 6 AP classes + exams to graduate. If you decide to take more AP classes and skip the final for any, you must take a final exam that counts heavily in your final grade.

That is how it should be m8nus the must take 6 AP’s part.

[Anonymous]

Have you all seen the statistics on AP testing results? ABYSMAL. We are talking only 5-9% getting a 5 and that is with a curve.

I am not sure the point of AP classes in high school. High school teachers can not teach them like college professors and the kids don’t have the time to digest them.

Public’s really need to start follow private school lead and offer advanced honors courses that prepare the kids for college courses, not try to cram a college course in from Aug to April and having kids take multiple AP tests and missing other classes during school time to do it. It is just way too chaotic to have juniors taking SAT or ACT, SAT subject tests, AP finals, other finals, and term papers all in the span of 1-2 months. These kids aren’t LEARNING anything. It is anxiety induced memorization.