AP Test Results

[Anonymous]

Allow me to brag for just a moment because I’m very proud. My son has serious disabilities and has been behind his peers for several years. He worked his a** off this year in AP Govt and got a 5 on the exam! The look on his face when he saw his score is a memory I will never forget.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Allow me to brag for just a moment because I’m very proud. My son has serious disabilities and has been behind his peers for several years. He worked his a** off this year in AP Govt and got a 5 on the exam! The look on his face when he saw his score is a memory I will never forget.

Sweet!! Congrats! Many more to come!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Allow me to brag for just a moment because I’m very proud. My son has serious disabilities and has been behind his peers for several years. He worked his a** off this year in AP Govt and got a 5 on the exam! The look on his face when he saw his score is a memory I will never forget.

Wonderful!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Allow me to brag for just a moment because I’m very proud. My son has serious disabilities and has been behind his peers for several years. He worked his a** off this year in AP Govt and got a 5 on the exam! The look on his face when he saw his score is a memory I will never forget.

Congrats!

Kennedy? I heard they doubled the natural average for 5s this year.

[Anonymous]

NP. I hope someone gives me a clear answer to this.

If a student already takes AP or magnet class, is it beneficial for him/her to take the AP exam for college acceptance purposes? Let's say (s)he is not interested in college credit for the course.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP. I hope someone gives me a clear answer to this.

If a student already takes AP or magnet class, is it beneficial for him/her to take the AP exam for college acceptance purposes? Let's say (s)he is not interested in college credit for the course.

Depends on the high school and the colleges. My kid aspires to go to a specific college that doesn’t take AP credits. But it does use AP for placement purposes or for issuing a language exemption, for instance. His school is private and the kids don’t take AP classs because they’re not offered. But they take tests anyway because if anything, they’re over prepared for it. They submit them to colleges if it will enhance their record. At big public schools AP are a known quantity, so the expectation is that the smart kids will take those classes. It’s a signal that they’re a smart kid. For my kid, the colleges probably won’t care as much. Cause it’s just not an option.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:NP. I hope someone gives me a clear answer to this.

If a student already takes AP or magnet class, is it beneficial for him/her to take the AP exam for college acceptance purposes? Let's say (s)he is not interested in college credit for the course.

Depends on the high school and the colleges. My kid aspires to go to a specific college that doesn’t take AP credits. But it does use AP for placement purposes or for issuing a language exemption, for instance. His school is private and the kids don’t take AP classs because they’re not offered. But they take tests anyway because if anything, [b]they’re over prepared for it. They submit them to colleges if it will enhance their record.[/b] At big public schools AP are a known quantity, so the expectation is that the smart kids will take those classes. It’s a signal that they’re a smart kid. For my kid, the colleges probably won’t care as much. Cause it’s just not an option.

I am sorry even the elite colleges are dumb a$$ colleges. They don't know your kid's private school prepares its students way above AP course level and so they insist on AP test scores be submitted if an applicant wants enhanced record. What a crap

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP. I hope someone gives me a clear answer to this.

If a student already takes AP or magnet class, is it beneficial for him/her to take the AP exam for college acceptance purposes? Let's say (s)he is not interested in college credit for the course.

I recommend your child look into whether their desired college requires specific AP credits as prerequisites. So if an engineering program wants a 4/5 in AP Calculus or AP physics she should take those exams.
My personal opinion is that a Blair Magnet kid should generally take the Magnet course rather than the AP math or science. For non Magnet courses such as English and History the AP classes have a stronger peer group.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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Anonymous wrote:OP here. We are surprised too about the 3. We thought she’s score a 4/5 based on prep tests. Anyways, I’ve always told DD study first for school (get As) next is prepare for SAT and third priority is APs.

These are probably the best priorities for most kids. Doing well in school is probably the most important task. There is no need to take too many AP courses. You can signal academic rigor and ability to handle AP exams without taking tons of APs. A couple in sophomore year and three or four per year in 11th and 12th should be plenty for a high achieving kid.

You are kidding, right? That is 10 APs!! Is that a normal average amount?

high performing kids (like magnet kids) take ~16 or more APs.

I posted earlier about my kid who took only six APs and got into a top 20 (his first choice) because he went to a private school that does not offer APs in freshman and sophomore year. This is normal in my opinion, and the MCPS approach is ridiculous. My kid was able to have a normal high school experience is still have successful college admissions. An MCPS student, however, in order to get admission to a top 20 would have to take 10 or more APs. Someone asked me how I know this, and I will respond by saying I have many friends with kids who just went through the admissions process, and kids with ten or more APs and SAT in the high 1500's were being rejected left and right from top schools. Sad.

ok, so the answer to the question is: you don't know this.

Friends with kids who just graduated from MCPS with very high test scores and GPAs with many many APs. I went through the agony and stress these parents went through with their kids who worked their buts off in school but are going to UMD or other no name SLACs because they couldn't get into their top choice schools.

So answer is I DO know because this is first hand knowledge.

Don't think college admission is the end game. It's not. While you may believe kids who worked their butts off wasted their time, they actually haven't. They learned valuable traits that are necessary in college and after college.

- dp

Of course it's not an end game, but it certainly helps a kid with career placement coming out of a top 20 school vs. a school with a lesser reputation. It was a tough year for college admissions. Lots of kids who would have gotten into certain schools last year, did not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Allow me to brag for just a moment because I’m very proud. My son has serious disabilities and has been behind his peers for several years. He worked his a** off this year in AP Govt and got a 5 on the exam! The look on his face when he saw his score is a memory I will never forget.

Congrats! You must be very proud!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Of course it's not an end game, but it certainly helps a kid with career placement coming out of a top 20 school vs. a school with a lesser reputation. It was a tough year for college admissions. Lots of kids who would have gotten into certain schools last year, did not.

You have to get good grades in high school so that you can get into a good college so that you can get a good job when you graduate from college...

So much for learning for learning's sake.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Of course it's not an end game, but it certainly helps a kid with career placement coming out of a top 20 school vs. a school with a lesser reputation. It was a tough year for college admissions. Lots of kids who would have gotten into certain schools last year, did not.

You have to get good grades in high school so that you can get into a good college so that you can get a good job when you graduate from college...

So much for learning for learning's sake.

I think it's good that pp's kid went to a private. he probably couldn't survive in a public.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Of course it's not an end game, but it certainly helps a kid with career placement coming out of a top 20 school vs. a school with a lesser reputation. It was a tough year for college admissions. Lots of kids who would have gotten into certain schools last year, did not.

You have to get good grades in high school so that you can get into a good college so that you can get a good job when you graduate from college...

So much for learning for learning's sake.

I think it's good that pp's kid went to a private. he probably couldn't survive in a public.

Well, the truth is that PP's kid never needed to survive in a public school, and will quite possibly build a career well ahead of my kid. We are not all born to the same circumstances.
Signed - public school mom.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Of course it's not an end game, but it certainly helps a kid with career placement coming out of a top 20 school vs. a school with a lesser reputation. It was a tough year for college admissions. Lots of kids who would have gotten into certain schools last year, did not.

You have to get good grades in high school so that you can get into a good college so that you can get a good job when you graduate from college...

So much for learning for learning's sake.

I think it's good that pp's kid went to a private. he probably couldn't survive in a public.

Well, the truth is that PP's kid never needed to survive in a public school, and will quite possibly build a career well ahead of my kid. We are not all born to the same circumstances.
Signed - public school mom.

Well, maybe, maybe not. Future is what your kids make of, not they are thrown into. I think it's comical PP is making such a big deal about college admission at age 18. It says nothing about how his future will play out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. We are surprised too about the 3. We thought she’s score a 4/5 based on prep tests. Anyways, I’ve always told DD study first for school (get As) next is prepare for SAT and third priority is APs.

These are probably the best priorities for most kids. Doing well in school is probably the most important task. There is no need to take too many AP courses. You can signal academic rigor and ability to handle AP exams without taking tons of APs. A couple in sophomore year and three or four per year in 11th and 12th should be plenty for a high achieving kid.

You are kidding, right? That is 10 APs!! Is that a normal average amount?

high performing kids (like magnet kids) take ~16 or more APs.

I posted earlier about my kid who took only six APs and got into a top 20 (his first choice) because he went to a private school that does not offer APs in freshman and sophomore year. This is normal in my opinion, and the MCPS approach is ridiculous. My kid was able to have a normal high school experience is still have successful college admissions. An MCPS student, however, in order to get admission to a top 20 would have to take 10 or more APs. Someone asked me how I know this, and I will respond by saying I have many friends with kids who just went through the admissions process, and kids with ten or more APs and SAT in the high 1500's were being rejected left and right from top schools. Sad.

Just for some perspective a kid scoring 1550 or above is in the top 0.5%+ of students in the country. That’s approximately 10,000 kids out of over 2 million who take the SAT per year. It is amazing that so many of your friends have such high achieving kids.
In any case it is hard to know what gets a kid into a top 20 school. There is a little bit of randomness when you are applying to a top school once you have qualifying stats unless the applicant has a hook