are AP exams really necessary?

[Anonymous]

With all the stress of Junior year (ACTs, SATs, Subject matter tests, keeping up your GPA), I have two exhausted and stressed out kids. I hear conflicting points of view—-are ACTs REALLY CRITICAL? Are you disadvantaged if you don’t take them? Is this all a massive money making scheme on the backs of our children?

[Anonymous]

I'm with you, OP. I'm not really sure why they're necessary. I told my daughter, who took an AP test today, not to stress about it. I think they're only beneficial to kids who go to schools where they are accepted and who want to graduate early. I don't think they are even considered for most schools as admissions data.

[Anonymous]

Both my children took enough to gain sophomore status and graduate a semester earlier than they would have without them. It was certain worth it for our family.

[Anonymous]

It is a money making scam for 90% of the kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Both my children took enough to gain sophomore status and graduate a semester earlier than they would have without them. It was certain worth it for our family.

During my junior year I took a handful, and my worst Ap test...was the one that wasn’t accepted st my desired Univ anyway... so for senior year, I researched ahead of time. My desired univ didn’t accept one of my senior AP options. So I took all Ap except for that one class, which was an easy A.

Got into my university(!) and skipped sooo many courses by having the credit already in my transcript.

All in all, between1 sophomore year Ap, I took 6 Ap, and had 5 count towards college credit.

[Anonymous]

So my kid took the APs that weren't the replacements for finals without studying. The scores are self reported so they can only help and there's no real pressure. Ended up that enabled DC to skip a few electives in college the made room for preferred classes.

[Anonymous]

I know several kids who went to university as sophomores with AP credit and found they weren't at all prepared. It stunned them and started college off on a bad note. Just be aware.

[Anonymous]

It just depends on where you get in to college. If you go to a state school, you might skip all of freshman year. At the elites, the APs are worth next to nothing. They simply don't believe APs are equivalent to anything more than their first semester intro/survey classes - what were known in my day as a "gut." Often, even if they provide credit, they don't count toward a major. Language APs can be useful to get into upper level classes that require a foreign language but you can always just take the placement exams at the school.

[Anonymous]

My kids were considered sophomores after their first semester of college, due to the AP credits they earned in high school. This enabled them to have an advantage when it came time to register for classes (because their state school let kids register based on the number of credit hours they had earned), and it would have enabled them to graduate a semester early. Instead, they both chose to earn a double major, and graduated after the normal eight semesters of college.

Were AP exams worth it? Absolutely! And neither of my kids were stressed out over the AP tests. They knew the material inside and out because of the great teachers that they had at their non-W, non-magnet MCPS school.

[Anonymous]

AP classes do not teach college level classes - at least at decent universities. Maybe at easy state schools that take in as many slackers as a normal public high school. But the wave of AP is coming to a halt as many colleges are removing them or only taking 5’s.

Even state schools only accept 3’s for intro classes and if you are already taking AP in high school, you wouldn’t be taking intro classes in college anyway.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids were considered sophomores after their first semester of college, due to the AP credits they earned in high school. This enabled them to have an advantage when it came time to register for classes (because their state school let kids register based on the number of credit hours they had earned), and it would have enabled them to graduate a semester early. Instead, they both chose to earn a double major, and graduated after the normal eight semesters of college.

Were AP exams worth it? Absolutely! And neither of my kids were stressed out over the AP tests. They knew the material inside and out because of the great teachers that they had at their non-W, non-magnet MCPS school.

My kid graduate double major in 4 years with no AP’s because they weren’t offered at private. Most kids double major or minor and get done on time since many of the classes are the same.

So unless you are getting done a full year earlier, the AP saved you no money starting off as a “college sophmore”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kids were considered sophomores after their first semester of college, due to the AP credits they earned in high school. This enabled them to have an advantage when it came time to register for classes (because their state school let kids register based on the number of credit hours they had earned), and it would have enabled them to graduate a semester early. Instead, they both chose to earn a double major, and graduated after the normal eight semesters of college.

Were AP exams worth it? Absolutely! And neither of my kids were stressed out over the AP tests. They knew the material inside and out because of the great teachers that they had at their non-W, non-magnet MCPS school.

My kid graduate double major in 4 years with no AP’s because they weren’t offered at private. Most kids double major or minor and get done on time since many of the classes are the same.

So unless you are getting done a full year earlier, the AP saved you no money starting off as a “college sophmore”

+1. I graduated from HS with AP English only. Took two classes one summer. Graduated from Wake Forest on time with a double major— and a minor. (Some interdisciplinary honors classes cross counted). Phi Beta Kappa and Summa. At the time, Wake was very proud of the fact that it had more undergrad divisional requirements than any college in the country, except for one of the service academies. I do not get the whole my kid took 10APs and somehow managed to graduate on time but got a second major thing.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

"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.

[Anonymous]

In DCPS the application (pseudo magnet) high schools require you to take the AP exam if you take an AP class but exam grades are irrelevant to the class grade. DCPS pays the fee.

The value I see is in learning how to study for a true final exam with lots of content before college.