I’ve had this question lurking in the back of my mind all summer. What does one do when his/her AP score(s) are terrible DUE to the teacher? I took Calculus AB this past year (junior year) and ended up with a pretty low score. I usually score excellent on these tests. My teacher… well, it was her first year teaching the class. She was polite and all, but she simply could not control the classroom. Most of our class time was spent simply doing busy work since “there weren’t enough people to teach, and she wouldn’t waste her time” (it was basically half-seniors, half-juniors- seniors were always at assemblies or trips). The rest of the class time was spent reviewing homework. Most of the time, when she didn’t understand a question, she would PROMISE to get back to us. Even the sequence of lessons was lousy. She would throw in bits and pieces of vital information suddenly (even when the lesson was about something completely different). We ended up not knowing or understanding several formulas and methods because ‘she didn’t understand them, and she would never put anything she didn’t understand on our tests.’ Our review for the AP Exam was lousy and consisted of a mass of Kaplan packets that she couldn’t even help us with herself. Most people received 1s and 2s. I thought it was funny at first- no one in the class knew what to do (the free response for our class must have been the laugh of the year for the graders- pictures, song lyrics, etc.). But now I’m worried. I’m at the top of my class and I’m reaching for the Ivies. I feel like this just ruined my chances. This one test.
FYI: Let me just lay it down, it is what it is- I got a 2
Is there any consolation? Any thoughts would be much appreciated. I’m kind of new to this. Thanks
I second bodangles. If you were really struggling and wanted to do well, there are many resources out there that would have helped you. Anyways, what was your grade in the class?
Just don’t report the score. If you’re taking BC this year (senior year), just be sure to study for it and take practice tests, etc, and you’ll get a 5. If you’re not taking BC, you still might wanna take the AP exam for AB, just because having a calculus credit already under your belt might be nice.
@bodangles Perhaps he didn’t know he was under-prepared at the time, due to not being on CC, not having helicopter parent who know their stuff, or not going to a particularly competitive school.
@ThatOneWeirdGuy Who doesn’t bother to even take a practice test? That would have given him a benchmark. Anybody who wings a big test deserves whatever grade they get, IMO (not saying that he did).
Yeah, just don’t report the score. Aside from that, there’s not much you can do. Anyways, AP scores also hold a relatively insignificant influence over your admission chances; getting a good ACT/SAT score and writing great essays will matter so much more.
However, this is good learning experience; you won’t always have good teachers in high school or college and you have learn to how to take matters into your own hands. If you take BC next year, or if you have another poor teacher for an AP class, you need to at least self study a portion of the material. Find a good review book; if you check the individual threads for each AP class, there will be a bunch of recommendations, many from people who scored 5s on those tests. There are also a lot of youtube videos out there that are great resources.
Try to put yourself in the shoes of someone with a different upbringing and culture surrounding them for two seconds.
You didn’t even offer anything constructive in your comment. Obviously he’s going to prepare more next time, but he’s asking what to do after the fact.
@bodangles There’s no reason to be like that. The OP came here for help not put downs from strangers. Different schools have different academic environments. The OP had a terrible teacher in the first place. Many kids struggle with AP even when they have support from a teacher. OP might have been misinformed by their teacher about the true difficulty of the exam. It was probably too late when they realized how unprepared they were.
I think we expect too much from the teachers. Our school system has many teachers who cannot teach.
A lot of times, going to class is just a waste of time. You could learn a lot more by self-study. Of course the majority of students cannot study the subject without a teacher. It’s a reality that we have to cope with.
Next time I will definitely think about what kind of different upbringing makes one blame others for poor test prep.