I’m a junior who’s been homeschooled all the way through. I was hoping to get some advice from homeschool parents about how I should report self-studied APs on my transcript and how I should count them in my GPA. In my sophomore year of high school, I self-studied 2 APs and received 5s on both. This year, I am self-studying 5 exams and hope to receive high scores. Due to financial need throughout my high school years, I have not been able to pay for official AP courses, but I have worked hard to study for these exams, and they have been a regular part of my course load throughout this year. How should I report these self-study courses on my transcript? And is it possible for me to calculate them in my GPA? Or can I only calculate the “real” courses I have taken (I took an official AP Latin class in sophomore year, and I am taking an AP Environmental Science class this year, along with several dual credits for both years)? If I can calculate them into my GPA, what grade should I give? Would you base it on the grade on the AP test?
I am a little worried because I don’t know if colleges will understand that I have put a lot of work into these classes, even through they’re not “official” AP-trademarked classes. I hope y’all can help me out!
Not a home school parent but if you took the AP test with the college board, you will send those scores to the schools you are applying so they will absolutely “count”. I wouldn’t worry too much about figuring out your GPA as the schools always recalculate on their own scale. Hopefully some home school parents will chime in.
You can’t use the trademark AP for the course without following the process for getting a syllabus approved by the college board. You can call them something like, “Advanced Biology (with AP exam).” And your exam scores can be reported to colleges to support the work you did. If you’re figuring a weighted gpa, you can weight them as an honors level class.
If you’re worried about it not being in class setting you could say “Advanced Biology Independent Study (with AP Exam).” Both my sons have indpendent study classes listed on their public school transcripts.
Ok, great! It’s good to hear that there is a way to report this on my transcript. One other question for homeschooled parents- what letter grades have you given your kids for self-studied APs? Should I base it on my exam results?
If all you’re doing is self-study, I think exam results is all you have to go on for a grade. If you were doing a co-op class or something with graded work, you could use your homework and unit test grades as the course grades.
@bookwarm13579 said, “How should I report these self-study courses on my transcript? And is it possible for me to calculate them in my GPA? Or can I only calculate the “real” courses I have taken (I took an official AP Latin class in sophomore year, and I am taking an AP Environmental Science class this year, along with several dual credits for both years)? If I can calculate them into my GPA, what grade should I give? Would you base it on the grade on the AP test?”
The vast majority of the courses listed on my kids’ transcripts are self-studied. They are just as valid and “real” as the classes that they took with another provider and are calculated in their gpas.
I get my syllabi approved by the College Board so I can use the AP designation on the courses my kids study that align with one of the AP exams. If you don’t have an approved syllabus, you can \list the class on your transcript as “XXX with AP exam.”
As a homeschooler, you or your parents determine the standards and rubrics you would use for assigning grades. You will explain your approach in your school profile that you will submit to colleges along with your transcript.
Some schools use unweighted grades only- add points for AP/Honors and they will ignore that. They will look at rigor- this would mean how many classes and their rigor taken in the same timeframe (eg in the typical nine month school year). So many variables. AP exams do not need to have the class taken- you show your knowledge by your AP exam score.
My older two homeschooled high school. For AP level courses (not true AP courses), I put the akin of:
Statistics w/AP test=5
on the transcript. There were courses at an AP level where they didn’t take the test (because we didn’t want college credit) and I just listed those as:
Advanced Bio or Calculus
I gave grades based solely on tests when they took the test. A = 5. I gave them based upon tests and labs when they didn’t.
I opted not to weight grades (or write out course descriptions) and just let my guys’ test scores (AP and ACT) and ECs stand for themselves - and related such on the counselor part of the app. They also had a couple of DE grades too.
No regrets. Plenty of acceptances and all with merit aid (note that all DE grades were As, ACT was pretty darn high, and APs were 5). My guys opted not to try for Ivy level schools, so YMMV if gunning for those.
My main goal was preparing them foundationally for college and they told me I succeeded.
That’s not the way homeschooling works. If homeschoolers were required to be in an organized class to report course grades for their work, they wouldn’t be homeschoolers. They’d be private school students. OP can report the course grade based on whatever materials their parents graded. The exam grade would be reported separately.