<p>Opinions sought: college accepts AP tests and gives an A for a 5, B for a 4, and credit for a 3. Kid has four 4s on AP tests, so could have 12 credit hours on day 1 with a 3.0. I think kid can/should take a couple of those classes at college and make an A, but kid says "what did I do all that work for and why should you pay for classes I already got credit for?" </p>
<p>What do you think?</p>
<p>Is your child wanting to go to grad school/med school/going to be on a scholarship where the GPA matters?</p>
<p>I’m surprised the school gives actual grades that are used in calculating college GPA, usually schools only give credit. Colleges sometimes say they consider a 5 an A etc., but don’t actually use it in the college GPA. You’d have to look at the school policy on this, if kid got credit for specific courses, would they average the two grades? I would only have my kid retake if they were a prereq for other courses in kid’s major or minor and kid didn’t feel s/he has a solid grip on the subject matter. Retaking could delay graduation too if kid gives up the head start they have now.</p>
<p>It really depends entirely on the situation. Most schools do not include any grade for classes that are satisfied with an AP class. </p>
<p>If a student takes classes that are not required for his major it makes sense to skip those classes. Why pay for something you already did? However, if the classes are required for his major it might make sense to retake the classes to ensure that he didn’t miss anything crucial. </p>
<p>As someone already mentioned some graduate programs require high GPAs for entrance. In those cases it might make sense for a student to take easy classes and get good grades.</p>
<p>Some graduate programs (medical) do not accept certain classes that are satisfied via AP credit. They must be taken in college for credit.</p>
<p>Only you can assess your child’s needs.</p>
<p>In general, if the student needs science or math for his major (engineering, pre-med, sciences) I would want my child to re-take the class. Getting an “A” from a 5 on an AP exam but being behind on the knowledge the college class includes in the freshman classes is generally not advised. Now, if it is AP French or US History of Psych, then I think that’s great, generally speaking.</p>
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<p>This is often a waste of time and tuition for a student who knows the material well.</p>
<p>However, it is not always obvious how well the student with AP credit knows the material from the college perspective. Fortunately, many colleges now have test banks or course home pages on their web sites where you can download the old final exams for the courses that may be skipped (search their web sites for “[course number] final exam”). A student with AP credit that allows skipping an important prerequisite course should try the final exam of that course before deciding whether to retake or skip the course.</p>
<p>In some cases, there is a more formalized placement testing procedure for students with AP credit.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t sacrifice a GPA for a few AP credits.</p>
<p>If the college really does assign grades to AP scores, but there is no immediate need to have the courses for prerequisite purposes*, then it may be best to defer the decision on whether to retake. It could very well be that 12 credits of 3.0 may be helpful if the student has a rough transition to college and does poorly in the first semester. It would also be a source of regret if the student retook the course and got a B or worse on the retake. On the other hand, if the student gets a 4.0 and is aiming for medical school, s/he can always retake the course later to try to raise it, if the school’s retake policy allows grade replacement of AP credit.</p>
<p>*If there is a prerequisite need, see post #6.</p>
<p>I don’t know any college that gives grades for AP test results. They don’t even factor in grades from like colleges. My son gets credit for courses taken elsewhere but they do not get included in his gpa, nor do his AP classes that got counted for college credit. Most colleges will base GPA only on their own courses.</p>
<p>but, the issue here is whether your student is going to take the test or not, and my advice is for him to take it. He doesn’t have to submit the test scores to his college. In fact, in order to get AP exam counted for credit at college, you usually have to go through some process. But to be safe, you can just not have the scores sent anywhere but to you. You have to specify which college gets them, and if you don’t the grades just stay with College Board.</p>
<p>The reason I say he should give it a go, is because there is no way to know what the future will bring to him. He may transfer, switch to a program, apply for work somewhere,… any number of possibiliites where whipping out that test score could give him credit for a course that could give him a leg up, take care of a requirement, save taking a course. That happened with my son, with some courses that his college did not take into consideration for credit. He went for a certificate later elsewhere, and that program accepted AP results from 3 on up for a number of things and he was spared having to take those courses and was able to knock a year off the program–get it done in a year plus a summer and then one part time course. You never know when something like this can come up in the future.</p>
<p>Wow have never heard of a college giving grades that went into GPA for AP classes. As much as your S does not want to retake the classes, I would recommend (as others have) retaking anything that is a pre req for his major/minor. Credits like English might be best to take the “B” as I have heard some horror stories on some of the grading in basics classes from D’s friends this fall.</p>
<p>None of the Us that S applied to gave grades for AP credits or even if you transferred the credits in from another U or CC or elsewhere. It would have boosted S’s GPA if they had offered to give him grades for his APs, since he mostly had 5s.</p>
<p>S actually took the courses he had completed his APs in college, even though he had received 5s. He had no regrets about re-taking the courses, and most of his engineering classmates also took the courses again, even though they also had taken the courses as APs. If the student wanted to get out of re-taking, they had to challenge the engineering department, which wanted to have everyone repeat and my understanding is that most of the students opted not to challenge.</p>
<p>I think you should ask for the school policy to give grades in lieu of AP scores in writing before you make any decisions. That is a VERY unusual policy.</p>
<p>I agree that would be unusual to assign grades/gpa for AP test results - my son started with 45 credits from AP/IB tests and since a film student, had no need to retake any of those. Looking at his transcript/GPA, none of those hours equate to a grade or figure into his college GPA; it simply says EC(earned credit) next to those classes. I would check specifically with the college/university he is planning on attending for final confirmation on that.</p>
<p>I too have never heard of a school giving AP credit grades.</p>
<p>I have also never heard of colleges applying grades to AP credits. Most colleges won’t even consider transferred grades from other colleges in calculating their GPA. I think you should take the credits and move on - the credits can be used to satisfy core requirements, or move you to higher level class, or maybe get you to graduate earlier, or help you out if you need to take less than a full load any semester. The only exception to this rule is generally the beginning level course to your major - so a BIO major would want to take the intro bio class in his college instead of the AP credits (sometimes they won’t even give you credit in that case). Thanks to AP credits my daughter was able to meet all but one of her college’s core requirements and came in with sophomore level status (an advantage at registration time).</p>
<p>Never heard of this either. Do you consider 3.0 a good GPA? In general it is, but if you have a merit scholarships it could have a higher requirement. I have Ds at 2 different schools each requires a 3.3 to keep scholarship. If you’re ok with 3.0 then it might help to satisfy some gen ed requirements. Maybe take credit for ones where no further study need (not skipping a pre-requisite).</p>
<p>I have not come across schools that give grades for APs either. (Some don’t even give credit, just the option to take a higher level course). Not sure what I’d do here. Credit is nice, and it does give flexibility down the road for changing majors or dropping classes. But there is a GPA hit, and you can’t know now whether it will move it up or down.</p>
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What school?</p>
<p>Wkipedia says, “Typically this appears as a ‘CR’ grade on the college transcript, although some colleges and universities will award an A grade for a 5 score”</p>
<p>I too have never heard of a college giving grades for AP scores, just credit.</p>
<p>With regard to taking the credit, I think it only makes sense to assess the situation, depending on the college, major, student, how well they feel they know the material, etc.</p>
<p>My D was in an accelerated math program in middle and high school, that concluded with AP Calc BC in 11th grade, followed by Georgia Tech Calc II and Calc III via a distance program, in 12th grade. She got As in Calc II and Calc III - and Georgia Tech is not exactly a soft school. This experience makes me roll my eyes a bit, to be frank, when I not infrequently read comments here on CC and elsewhere to the effect that it’s foolish for a student to think that a 4 or 5 on AP Calc BC will equip them to move on to Calc II at college. Time and money spent on Calc I is the smart way to go! Doubtless for some, this is true. Not always, however. I have the counter-example.</p>
<p>D, now a college freshman, has “APed out” of other courses, so far with decent results. She’s hoping to graduate in three years, thanks to this fast start. It remains to be seen, of course, how this works out for her in the long run.</p>
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<p>I agree that the “always repeat the AP credit” method is a waste of time and tuition for the best-prepared students. Fortunately, the ready availability of old final exams at many colleges’ web sites means that one does not have to guess whether to repeat or skip, since the student can just try the old final exam problems to check his/her knowledge against the college’s course that s/he is considering skipping. This is a resource that was not really available a generation ago (when many of the people saying “always repeat the AP credit” were in college).</p>
<p>Note that a lot of students with 5 on BC go straight to calculus 3 in college.</p>