<p>I'm a HS senior and I was wondering what kind of impact your AP results have on the college admissions process. I took 2 last year as a sophomore (Chem and Euro) and got 4's on both, and am taking four more this year (US, Eng Comp, Calc BC and Bio), and am pretty worried about them. </p>
<p>Do colleges even see your scores, and if they do, what sort of impact do the scores have on top colleges (Ivies, and similar private schools)? Are 4's seen as bad, good, or ok?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>of course they see them. But its not something that will make you or break you.</p>
<p>EX If you have an app with a 5 and a 1... they'd note it in their head, but when/if they accepted one or the other it wont be becuase one got a 5.</p>
<p>Unless you took like 10 AP classes and have 5s in each exam</p>
<p>So if you self-study and do badly on an AP exam, will they hold it against you?</p>
<p>Generic,
It's not so much "holding it against you." It's more a matter of canceling out, in this respect: Colleges actually prefer to see the coursework itself. (I know that's not always possible, esp. if the h.s. doesn't offer it, but sometimes even when the h.s. <em>does</em>, because they're might be a scheduling conflict.)</p>
<p>They like to see the course, + the grade in that course. Terrific --icing on the cake-- if it's a jr. yr. course, & great exam scores resulted, that can be reported on your app. in fall. But because colleges vary so much in whether they're even interested in seeing the scores from CB, it's certainly not universally as imp. as the grade. In some cases (LAC's my D was interested in , & <em>some</em> Ivies, the college wants to get the exam result sent from CB, as a factor in admission). But more often than not, it's a placement factor, once admitted. (Waiving certain college course requirements, if allowed by policy)</p>
<p>Self-study AP's are a waste of time. Schools want to see that youre doing more with your time then imprinting your face in books. The time you waste self-studying can be put to better uses outside of school or in school clubs. </p>
<p>As for the test itself, keep in mind that unlike the SAT ACT or whatnot, its a test given once a year. So if you got sick during AP week, youre screwed, whereas if you get sick during SAT you can reschedule.</p>
<p>Apparently your scores are not that important as opposed to other things like GPA, SAT's, etc. 4's on your AP test are really great! Don't be so hard on yourself. If this gives you perspective, my friend's sis got a 1 on her AP Chem test and she is at UC Berkeley right now.</p>
<p>Scores of 4 and 5 are seen as good. </p>
<p>For admissions, the AP scores are not very important. No college requires a score report be sent to them, and only a few colleges ask for the scores on the application. If you have all 4's and 5's, you should write them on margin or in the supplemental info section of the online app. Having all 5's is impressive and it would help. The SAT II scores are immensely more important. Some of this is probably because the teaching of AP courses differs alot from hs to hs.</p>
<p>Taking the courses is very, very important, but the scores are not. The main purpose of the AP scores is to get credit for college courses after you are admitted.</p>