How important are AP scores?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Side note for those of you talking about humanities AND social sciences as your child's interest and relating that to math/science scores. Do note that socials sciences uses MATH - so don't discount the math part of your child's application. Personally, I'm not sure I'd submit a 3 on a math/physics test for a social science application. Either that, or say they are doing the more pure humanities major (history?) so they don't wonder whether the applicant has the math skills required.

I’m one of those posters. My kid got a B+ in BC calculus in 11th grade and has a perfect ACT math score - I’m confident he can handle the statistics piece of social sciences.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Side note for those of you talking about humanities AND social sciences as your child's interest and relating that to math/science scores. Do note that socials sciences uses MATH - so don't discount the math part of your child's application. Personally, I'm not sure I'd submit a 3 on a math/physics test for a social science application. Either that, or say they are doing the more pure humanities major (history?) so they don't wonder whether the applicant has the math skills required.

I’m one of those posters. My kid got a B+ in BC calculus in 11th grade and has a perfect ACT math score - I’m confident he can handle the statistics piece of social sciences.

I'm not saying he can't. I'm saying don't send in an AP 3 score with the application.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Only submit 5s or maybe 4s. In today’s water down environment, scoring 3 or lower in an AP exam means you didn’t learn anything.

AP scoring hasn't changed significantly from any other time. But I agree that 4s and 5s are what you should report. For IB, 6-8.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Only submit 5s or maybe 4s. In today’s water down environment, scoring 3 or lower in an AP exam means you didn’t learn anything.

Are you a teacher? Admissions officer?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Side note for those of you talking about humanities AND social sciences as your child's interest and relating that to math/science scores. Do note that socials sciences uses MATH - so don't discount the math part of your child's application. Personally, I'm not sure I'd submit a 3 on a math/physics test for a social science application. Either that, or say they are doing the more pure humanities major (history?) so they don't wonder whether the applicant has the math skills required.

I’m one of those posters. My kid got a B+ in BC calculus in 11th grade and has a perfect ACT math score - I’m confident he can handle the statistics piece of social sciences.

I'm sure your kid is fine in their math prep, but I have been surprised by how the statistics in undergrad social sciences have gotten a lot more sophisticated recently. My undergraduate kid is a poli sci major and his intro research methods course includes multiple linear regression with transformations--when I was an econ major in college we did t-tests, correlations and descriptive statistics. He uses R for his undergraduate research project, and is trying to learn structural equation modelling to be on another project. He will like end up with more stats knowledge than I did in grad school that had a quant-y reputation for econ. All of it may not be officially "required" but it's now a lot more expected.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Only submit 5s or maybe 4s. In today’s water down environment, scoring 3 or lower in an AP exam means you didn’t learn anything.

Or that you're a senior who knows their college won't give credit for it, so you didn't bother studying.

Or that you were sick or had some family tragedy around testing day.

Or that your teacher didn't do a good job of making practice tests.

Or that you have test anxiety.

Or that you have a learning disability that makes test-taking difficult.

Etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Only submit 5s or maybe 4s. In today’s water down environment, scoring 3 or lower in an AP exam means you didn’t learn anything.

Or that you're a senior who knows their college won't give credit for it, so you didn't bother studying.

Or that you were sick or had some family tragedy around testing day.

Or that your teacher didn't do a good job of making practice tests.

Or that you have test anxiety.

Or that you have a learning disability that makes test-taking difficult.

Etc.

One-third of AP Psych kids got a 1. Assume most of these kids took a class first and didn’t fail it. This area is not reality.