Reply to Test Optional?

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "Test Optional?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]There are some kids who are great students but have terrible test anxiety and TO is a good option.  I still don't think it helps much for the top schools though, unless you are submitting APs.  Best advice is to put the time into prepping for SATs and APs.  Don't rely on TO.
[/quote]

How does the "test anxiety" brigade manage to do well on AP exams but not the SAT?  :roll: [/quote]

Because AP exams are held in your school, during the regular school day, possibly in your actual class you've been in the whole year, with your friends all around you and possibly your teacher as the proctor. Calms you down if you have anxiety.    SAT is on a Saturday, sometimes at your school but in the cafeteria or other lecture hall, sometimes at a different school or testing center, with strangers sitting around you, a proctor you just met, room could be too cold, too hot, sun in your eyes, proctor refuses to draw down shades, etc... etc....   amps up the anxiety and hence the propensity to make silly mistakes, run out of time etc...     My DS who notices every small thing around them came out of a sitting talking about how frustrating and distracting it was for testers in the room to be audibly cursing regularly during the sitting. [/quote]

I hate to break it to you, but college exams are often in a different place and at a different time than class.  So perhaps the SAT score is more predictive of future success than the AP exam score.[/quote]

And I hate to break it to you, but AP tests are subject specific and kids can do really well on one type of AP and not another. For example, kids can get 4s and 5s on English, History, Language, etc and then score a 2 on Calculus. (I was one of those kids. And for a further news flash, you can be successful in college and avoid the subjects you hate or don't do well in.) Whereas standardized testing measures two areas, counts them equally, and combines the score. Totally different objective and type of test. [/quote]

My kid isn't going into STEM, but scores equally as well--5s on all AP exams and straight As.  I think now that schools are tired of the grade inflation--everyone has A averages--they are looking at a bigger score/gpa profile.  My kid has a 35 ACT (one sitting, not composite) and reported all the exams he took (mixture of STEM/Eng/Hist) through end of Jr year--5s on all. And his uw4.0-and unhooked he's getting in everyhere this cycle which shocked us because our counselor was trying to get him to apply to much lower profile schools and thought he had too many 'reaches'.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics