<p>So hi everyone!</p>
<p>I heard that your AP test scores are a pretty good indication of what you would have gotten in college had you taken that course.</p>
<p>5: A-B
4:B-C
3-C
2: D-F</p>
<p>Is this true? I'm posting this in the college section because I hope there's some college students out there who can share their experiences of whether or not their AP scores in high school reflect their current grades in college.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>No</p>
<p>the grades you receive in college courses are not like the ap scores</p>
<p>profs are like teachers-some are good at teaching-some are bad-some are easy graders-some will fail you and not care</p>
<p>Some advance college courses I have taken have been a lot easier than some classes I took in HS b/c of the profs.</p>
<p>I know people who failed the calc AP exam in HS and passed calc 1 and 2 with flying colors in college the same goes for the chem exam and the lit and lang exams</p>
<p>Your AP scores are not a good indication of the grade you would’ve receive in the respective college course.</p>
<p>I got a 4 on the Calc AB exam and got an A in Calc 1 when I took it this past year (2 years removed from HS calc, figured it best to retake). That’s the only AP class where I’ve taken the equivalent course at college, so that’s my only point of reference. Of course, a big part of that is the fact that I had already learned the material previously.</p>
<p>In terms of AP classes in general compared to college classes, my hardest AP classes were about the same amount of work as my easy (i.e. low workload) college classes, at least this past year. Granted, other than Calc my APs were in social sciences and humanities, while a lot of my classes were for CS.</p>
<p>Edit Just remembered another example: I got a 2 on the Spanish Language exam, but placed out of the language courses when I took the Spanish placement test at my school; I was recommended to go directly into composition (sixth quarter of the sequence), whereas based on my AP scores and amount of years taking the language I should’ve been placed in the fourth quarter at the absolute highest. Scores really aren’t a good indication.</p>
<p>Given the variations in colleges and instructors as far as how difficult they make the course and how they grade, the AP score cannot be mapped reliably to a grade. About all one can say is that (a) a higher score likely maps to a higher grade, and (b) the minimum score the college requires to pass out of a class (which may be a 4 or 5) maps to at least a passing performance in the class.</p>
<p>If you are considering skipping a college course based on AP credit, it would be a good idea to review the college course’s old final exams to see how well you know the material from the college course’s point of view.</p>
<p>Depends on the college and the class. For instance, my math department says that a 4 on the Calc BC exam is equivalent to a C in the class. Before you begin a sentence with “I don’t think…”, here is the evidence: <a href=“https://web.math.princeton.edu/~adeptrep/lowerdiv/104/MAT104[/url]”>https://web.math.princeton.edu/~adeptrep/lowerdiv/104/MAT104</a></p>
<p>College courses are harder and if you are at a top university, the curve is going to be much, much harder.</p>
<p>Okay so mixed reports here. Some people are saying that its easier than expected; other people say that the college classes typically give lower scores than AP test scores. </p>
<p>Honestly, I kind of expected this, considering the diversity of colleges out there.</p>
<p>I go to a state flagship and found that college classes are a million times easier than any AP class I have taken! Even if I got a 4 or 3 in subjects I struggled in, I got an A in the class in college. Definitely not an accurate reflection.</p>
<p>But then again, I don’t go to a prestigious/rigorous school and I purposely seek out the best-rated professors or Easy A professors.</p>
<p>Re: <a href=“https://web.math.princeton.edu/~adeptrep/lowerdiv/104/MAT104[/url]”>https://web.math.princeton.edu/~adeptrep/lowerdiv/104/MAT104</a></p>
<p>That page conveniently links to old final exams of the course, so you can check your knowledge against what that course teaches and expects.</p>
<p>I got a 1 on the AP Euro exam sophomore year of high school.
I took the same class my sophomore year of college and got an A.</p>
<p>Perhaps your study skills were a lot better four years later. Or the quality of teaching and coverage of the material was better at your college than at your high school.</p>
<p>I agree. Going to an A from a 1 is pretty unheard of.</p>
<p>Unless you’re going to a community college. I know students who have gone from being straight-C students to straight-A students at community college.</p>
<p>In addition to what has been discussed above, something else to consider is the strengths of the students and the whole host of factors that go into AP tests and their college counterparts. AP scores are determined by a students performance on a long test on a single day, and some students just don’t perform well under those situations for a variety of reasons. Also, not ever student prepares thoroughly for the exam, has access to prep books or other preparatory materials specific to this particular exam, or has a teacher who is very good at preparing their students for the exam.</p>
<p>Students who underperform on the AP exam may do much better in a college course. They may be more adept at studying or managing their time, just from experience or age. They may be more dedicated now that they are spending a huge sum of money to take this class. They may do better because they have seen the material before are therefore better prepared for the college course. They may do better in courses that include multiple things in their grade (such as a midterm and final exam, written papers, projects or presentations, participation in discussion sections, etc), rather than just one test.</p>
<p>The opposite can be true, as well.</p>
<p>So that scale, in my opinion, is essentially meaningless. There is WAY too much variation in students and schools to generalize something like this, and the situations (taking an AP test vs. taking a quarter or semester long college class) are also very different.</p>
<p>I only know AP Lit and Lang well enough to comment on them, but even getting a 5 does not mean that you are producing A level work. The bar is set too low for reasonable comparison IMHO.</p>
<p>Re: #14</p>
<p>An AP test is like basing your entire grade on the final exam, which may help some students and hurt other students. For some subjects, college courses traditionally include other means of evaluation (e.g. term papers, labs).</p>
<p>Re: #15</p>
<p>The English AP tests may be particularly vulnerable to over or under estimating the student’s qualifications relative to college English composition courses, since the latter may not use final exams at all (as opposed to grading based on a series of writing assignments where the student can read, research, write, and revise over a longer period of time than a final exam).</p>
<p>^However, especially on the science/math courses, colleges still take a sizable chunk of your grade from your final. For instance, for my math courses, my final was worth 45% of my grade and the midterm 35% or so. For science, it was 40% final and 40% exams (there was no midterm in that particular class).</p>
<p>^Most of my classes in college were 40% midterm and 60% final, but even then, you still have two exams (at least) that determine your final grade. I’ve never had a class where the entire class was determined by just one test (which is essentially what an AP score is), unless the professor gave students the option of having their final count for 100% of their grade to help students who did very poorly on the final. They’re still two completely different situations, which is why it’s difficult to correlate them.</p>