DS (class of 2019) got a letter from College Board on Saturday saying he was one of 16 people to earn every possible point on the Spring 2018 APUSH exam. Nice to hear, but I can’t understand why it took them so long to give him the information. Probably a minor thing as far awards/honors go, but it would have been nice to have been able to put this on his college applications. Any ideas as to why it would take so long to notify? These tests were graded last summer.
Googling “every possible point” “AP exam” gives newspaper accounts with comparable time delays. One perfect Calculus BC exam in spring 2012 that was reported in December, and a 2015 perfect Latin exam, also in the spring, that was reported the following January. An eight month delay seems typical.
Interesting, since Trevor Packer often says “XX students earned every possible point” when he tweets score distributions in July. Maybe they’re using the delay to extract more money from test-takers. 
Regardless, I doubt that putting this in a college application would be the best use of space/time.
Well, in that case, it sounds like the OP may have a valid gripe.
Edit: I wonder if they are actually discouraging this use in applications. If the claim was made, then some schools might want confirmation directly from College Board. Maybe easier for them to delay the notification long enough to avoid the hassle.
“That’s not how it works” is apt here. They should either provide information to everybody about exactly what they scored or to nobody.What is the justification for providing information to only those who “earned every possible point”? The AP scheme has harmed education in the US because school districts are held captive by a profit making enterprise (even if the business itself is so-called “nonprofit”) that has bilked the American public. Students taking the tests and earning a “5” often assume they “did well” and are ready for a course in the same topic at the next level once they get to college. Wrong! Many who think they nailed the test could have gotten only a 70% on the multiple choice part of the tests. It is those students who ought to be informed, not those who score “every possible point”. The testing corporation decided that getting 70% correct and 100% correct were the same and all deserve “5”. So they should not be providing any more information than that, unless they are willing to give the actual scores to all students.
“Edit: I wonder if they are actually discouraging this use in applications”
That’s what I was wondering too. Strange that this letter should all of a sudden show up on March 22nd. Too late to even give schools an update.
“What is the justification for providing information to only those who “earned every possible point”?”
I think they do it because it’s so rare. For APUSH, only 16 perfect scores total. Some AP exams, it’s even rarer. Sometimes local media picks up the story and AP gets free publicity. DS doesn’t want any part of that.