AP tests—why??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Only for the college credit. I really don’t think AP test scores matter for admission. The senior year ones arrive too late so it would only be the ones before that in an application. The class grade matters obviously but 4/5s are not going to impress anyone.

This doesn't sound like an informed opinion. Many public school students start taking APs in grade 9. By end of junior year, they could have 10 AP scores registered.

You should read through the rest of this thread rather than fixate on one post which doesn’t include the details.

If your school’s advanced track of coursework is designated AP, then of course anyone taking advanced coursework will rack up lots of APs. That isn’t the point of this thread.

The question is not about taking the most advanced coursework at your school, but do the AP exam scores matter for college admissions?

Does including 10 AP exam scores help or hurt you? If you got less than a 5 on any of these exams, doesn’t that open you up to scrutiny? For example you got an A in the class but a 3 or 4 on the exam, that looks weak. Anything less than a 5 is a red flag for a competitive application.

The issue at private schools without AP classes is that they are not required to take these exams.

My own kids did not include the exam scores in their college application but later used them to get college credit.

If you have a strong college application the AP exam scores are not going to help you and could hurt you.

So basically private school kids shouldn't do AP exams, because they can't hack the competition and won't stand out compared to their national peers and private school is a haven that allows you to say that your special snowflake is the biggest fish in a tiny pond.

Because AP exams aren't even that hard, so I think you sound pretty ridiculous. My kid had to take select AP exams for UK applications and got all 5's with minimal self-prep to familiarize themselves with rubrics and content standards. The non-AP material they covered in their classes was so much more worthwhile. Essays were expected to be more sophisticated than formulaic DBQ's and LEQ's, and they took proof based math well beyond BC calc.

That's cute how you say that they aren't that hard, based on your child's experience with a few AP exams. Check out the distribution of % of kids who get a 5 on each exam, and you'll have a better understanding of why that parent was saying that AP exams can hurt you if you don't excel at them.

My kid took 6 of the ones considered the most difficult, and found them super easy. The curve is extremely generous for a score of 5. While it's true that many kids do not get 4's and 5's, that's because of the variability in the quality of education in the schools, as well as variability in how motivated and prepared the kids are. Try taking foreign university subject entrance exams and then come back and tell me how hard AP exams are. Look, it's nice that they are standardized, but you seem to think they are the end-all-be-all of a great education. They are not. The AP curriculum is reasonable, and I'm glad some standard system exists in the US, but not everyone wants to a curriculum designed around APs, and that doesn't meant hey are getting an inferior education.

Also, it's absolutely ridiculous that some here are trying to turn this into a public vs private school debate, when there are extremely good and extremely bad schools in both categories.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Only for the college credit. I really don’t think AP test scores matter for admission. The senior year ones arrive too late so it would only be the ones before that in an application. The class grade matters obviously but 4/5s are not going to impress anyone.

This doesn't sound like an informed opinion. Many public school students start taking APs in grade 9. By end of junior year, they could have 10 AP scores registered.

You should read through the rest of this thread rather than fixate on one post which doesn’t include the details.

If your school’s advanced track of coursework is designated AP, then of course anyone taking advanced coursework will rack up lots of APs. That isn’t the point of this thread.

The question is not about taking the most advanced coursework at your school, but do the AP exam scores matter for college admissions?

Does including 10 AP exam scores help or hurt you? If you got less than a 5 on any of these exams, doesn’t that open you up to scrutiny? For example you got an A in the class but a 3 or 4 on the exam, that looks weak. Anything less than a 5 is a red flag for a competitive application.

The issue at private schools without AP classes is that they are not required to take these exams.

My own kids did not include the exam scores in their college application but later used them to get college credit.

If you have a strong college application the AP exam scores are not going to help you and could hurt you.

So basically private school kids shouldn't do AP exams, because they can't hack the competition and won't stand out compared to their national peers and private school is a haven that allows you to say that your special snowflake is the biggest fish in a tiny pond.

Because AP exams aren't even that hard, so I think you sound pretty ridiculous. My kid had to take select AP exams for UK applications and got all 5's with minimal self-prep to familiarize themselves with rubrics and content standards. The non-AP material they covered in their classes was so much more worthwhile. Essays were expected to be more sophisticated than formulaic DBQ's and LEQ's, and they took proof based math well beyond BC calc.

That's cute how you say that they aren't that hard, based on your child's experience with a few AP exams. Check out the distribution of % of kids who get a 5 on each exam, and you'll have a better understanding of why that parent was saying that AP exams can hurt you if you don't excel at them.

Not PP but I can speak from personal experience. AP exams are not hard. I got 5s on over a dozen of them, including one where I didn’t take a corresponding class but just read through an exam prep book in about a week. These exams are just not worth your time unless you want the college credit. Anything less than a 5 is a red flag.

I'm assuming you took these a long time ago, but the word is that the AP exams have gotten even easier in recent years, to "keep up" with declining college standards. https://www.educationnext.org/are-ap-exams-getting-easier/