Reply to What happens when elite schools shift away from test scores, grades, and AP?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]AP exams allow schools to judge across school districts/states.  An A at Walter Johnson in MCPS may or may not be the same as an A at Walter Johnson in Des Moines, IA[/quote]

The elite colleges make an effort to get to know the high schools across the country. They surely know what an A means at various schools. They send their admissions rep to visit schools in every state.

Our independent school does not offer AP courses, per se, yet our kids took AP exams and got college credit. My best friend's daughter is at a highly competitive public high school taking AP classes that consist of mindless memorizing and test prep. No papers, no projects, just read and memorize, read and memorize. It seems to me, and to my friend, that the AP classes are a complete waste of time. Her child is learning very little, aside from how to go through boring books and memorize a lot of information quickly, all of which will be forgotten as soon as the AP test is over because it means so little to her daughter. My kids did not have that experience. They wrote papers, they did projects, they were required to think about what they were learning. No rote memorization or plowing through loads of information just because it "might be" on the AP test. No learning about the trick questions on AP tests.

My children got a great education, and yes, by the way, did well on the AP exams. But that's not an accurate measure of their education, their capacity for learning or thinking. My friend's daughter, who's very bright, will probably get 4s and 5s too on her AP exams, but she's not going to end up nearly as well educated as my children (my friend and I agree on this). The AP exam measures acquired knowledge, but little else. I don't think AP exams matter, and I respect schools that disregard them in their admissions process. [/quote]

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