I got a 4 on the AP Computer Science A exam last year as a sophomore. How bad will this look if I apply to SCS? Would you recommend that I don’t list the score at all?
That’s not bad…plus, you were a sophomore. Many students are just taking their first APs as sophomores. It’s an adjustment.
No. They just want to see you taking the AP Tests for your AP Classes. Besides, it’s relatively hard to get a 5 on the AP Comp Sci exam due to the high cutoff. It won’t transfer, but it won’t hurt you.
30% of SCS freshmen have little to no programming experience and start off with 15-112, the intro programming course. While SCS admissions looks for how much programming experience you have, they also focus a lot on your math background because CS here is very theoretical-based. A 4 on the APCS exam is totally normal (it won’t let you waive 15-112 though). I think it would be better to show your programming / math skills through state competitions or hackathons, rather than just classes.