Reply to If AP scores don’t matter, why offer the test at all?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Bringing this over from a discussion that started on the SAT thread.

I’ve seen many people on DCUM claim that scores on AP exams don’t matter and are irrelevant to admissions.

I disagree, and think that in this test optional era AP scores should, and in fact do, matter a great deal.

We live in an era of rampant AP cours inflation and grade inflation in America’s public high schools. No one knows what a 4.0 even means anymore, and don’t get me started on the various absurd weighting schemes.

My own view is that regardless of the name of a class on a high school transcript, students should get no “AP bonus” in admissions unless they 1) actually take the test; and 2) achieve a score of 4 or 5 and 3) report this score to the school where they are seeking admission.

Like the ACT/ SAT, actual AP Exam scores provide important objective context to widely disparate high school quality and grading standards. It seems insane for students not to offer, and for colleges not to demand, this context. A B-average kid with several 4a and 5s reported is always going to look more impressive to me than a “straight A” student in multiple “AP” classes who doesn’t report a single high exam score.

As with college credit itself, the AP admissions standard should be: no test, no credit. If you claim to have taken a bunch of AP classes and gotten all As, but don’t report a single good AP exam score, I think it is a fair assumption that either grading standards or curricular rigor at your high school are low.[/quote]

OK.[/quote]

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