<p>My HS sophomore is taking 2 AP courses-Euro history and Spanish. She's not worried about euro, but is totally stressed about Spanish and wants to know whether she should take the test. She is committed to finishing the class, and will almost certainly get an A. She is concerned that she will not do well on the test and that this will hurt her chances for her "dream" college. Is there a downside to doing well in an AP and not taking the exam?</p>
<p>Colleges prefer that those who take the AP class take the AP test, especially if the student has an A or a B in the class. Colleges won't judge you negatively if you did poorly in an AP test, they can only say "Hey, at least you tried." and go from there. If you did well in the AP test, they will say "Awesome, she tried and she succeeded!"</p>
<p>Summary: Taking the AP test doesn't hurt, and you'd be amazed how you'd do.</p>
<p>Especially if you have a hard AP teacher.</p>
<p>Man, I thought for sure I'd fail AP Chemistry for 2007. I was so happy to get a 3...=]</p>
<p>What would happen if you took the AP test and didn't take the class? I explained it to them in a letter that I had scheduling problems, but I'm not really sure how they would take the actual score into consideration.</p>
<p>Thanks so much! We really appreciate your advice, and daughter feels a lot better.</p>
<p>My S & D both took AP English comp test, tho the school didn't offer that course. S got a 5 & D got a 4 anyway. My S also took the tests for US Gov and Environmental Science (without taking any courses for either again). He got 5s in both. </p>
<p>You don't have to tell the colleges how you did on the AP exams if you aren't happy with the scores anyway.</p>