<p>does it matter for colleges that you are in the AP class, but since they do not offer the credit, not taking the exam is ok?</p>
<p>S was accepted ED last year and took the AP exam for each AP class.<br>
His college awarded credit for almost everything except AP English Language taken in junior year. This year, when he decided to double major, the English Language grade was useful because it placed him out of an English course required for the second major. You never know.</p>
<p>My daughter will take the exams for the AP classes she took this year. She also has the option of taking the AP exam for French (she was in Honors French, not AP), but has decided against it and will take the college's placement exam in the fall instead. Her school grants credits towards graduation for scores of 4 or higher but does not waive introductory courses in the subject areas (i.e., she'll still need to take the required intro. class for Literature if she wants to take further coursework in the subject). Her school also won't let the AP credits be used to fulfill general education requirements.
However, she still feels the AP exams will be worth it, as the credits towards graduation will give her a little more flexibility for things like study abroad or taking a slightly reduced schedule one semester, etc. </p>
<p>I hope Hazmat doesn't mind, but he sent me this link this morning, on AP credit at the Ivy schools, and since it fits this topic, I thought I'd pass it along:</p>
<p>so (maybe I am repearing myself) what are the parents view on undecided student? </p>
<p>take the AP Eng exam or not take it because it doesn't count for NYU, and study more for other subject exams?</p>
<p>Thank you.</p>
<p>Jhpark,
I personally wouldn't drive myself crazy about it. I would, however, check with NYU and the high school to make sure that they are OK with the student not taking the exam, and if they are, no worries. :)</p>
<p>DS is taking his AP exams as that he is undecided. He is in EA at some schools that grant limited if any credit at all and in at other schools where he would receive a substantial amount of credit coursework (78+units). Since he is not the type to put "all his eggs in one basket" he figures he will take them. He will also take into account what will be the significance of those credits at each respective school when making his final decision. It will play a very small part, but a factor none the less.</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>Probably due to my D's own expectations of herself, she plans to take all AP exams for which she is eligible (5, I think). Although her SCEA school doesn't give individual credit for scores, it may award "acceleration credit" between the freshman and sophomore years if the student wishes. She is considering the combined BA/MM program at the school, and if she receives the appropriate scores on all her exams this year, could complete both in 4 years instead of 5.</p>
<p>Our school charges $110/exam payable before the school year starts. If you don't take the exam you don't get weighted credit which can affect the GPA for graduation honors. State U (where most kids go)pretty free with AP credit, however.</p>
<p>S plans on taking 4 of them as a senior this spring, although he's into his ED school. The teachers highly encourage the kids to take them, although it's not required. The vast majority of the kids take the test who are in the classes.</p>
<p>One thing to think about, if your student will be attending a college which accepts even some of their AP credits, is that students with more college credits often get earlier registration times. I know my daughter was able to register for classes earlier than other freshmen, which resulted in her getting first choices for all classes in her schedule. This was not true for many of her classmates who came to college without AP or community college credits. It was worth $246 (3 AP tests) for this benefit alone.</p>
<p>D's HS requires students take the test, so she will take 2 AP exams this spring. She's going to a college that grants college credit for a 3 or above. She only has 3 APs, so she will skip freshman level English courses as a result and one other course.</p>
<p>D will take the tests even though no college credit is available. Seems like a double check on comprehension and retention is a good idea ( esp. Calculus) before encountering a more rigorous version next year. Small price to pay in relation to future charges.</p>
<p>The cost to us for my son to take his AP exam is 52 dollars per test.</p>
<p>Wow... I like my school district. The county pays for all AP tests. That's probably why so many students take AP's. A free shot at getting college credit! (But if you don't show up, you have to pay for it)</p>
<p>Thanks for all the responses! Our public HS charges $82 per test, payable next week. I was shocked to hear that some of you had to pay up front in the fall! My daughter's SCEA school, like QuiltGuru's daughter's, will give some sort of acceleration credit, but my daughter doesn't think she will be interested in this. However, it seems that some of the tests might possibly help with placement. My son has several admits already, but he is waiting for many more decisions, so our hands are tied - he really has to take the tests as he may wind up getting credit depending on where he goes. With 7 tests this year to pay for between them ... that's $574. Last year we also had to pay $574 ... and $82 the year before that. So that's $1230 in AP fees to the College Board ... which really ticks me off - especially if no credit is received in college. With all the SAT and SAT II fees as well, not to mention the Profile fees for almost 20 schools, I feel like I've bought at least one person at the College Board a vacation home.</p>
<p>This on top of almost $2000 in application fees between the two of them (see my other thread that I am about to write on application fees) ... and they haven't even started college yet!</p>
<p>Anyhow, I digress. MomOfWildChild - how do the scores impact your son's final grade if scores don't come until July? In my kids' school, AP scores don't count at all toward the final course grade - and the kids are not required to take the tests but are very much encouraged by the teachers to do so. I believe that in the school profile report that is revised each year, the school reports the number of 4s and 5s obtained.</p>
<p>And yes, CalMom, I agree. We don't care at all about the AP Scholar awards either. It was nice for them to put on college resumes (though I truly don't think it mattered) but I think that's a College Board scam to get kids to pay for the tests senior year.</p>
<p>Carolyn,
I think your daughter made a wise choice regarding the AP French exam. One of my kids took it last year after taking AP French ... was thrilled to get a 4 and is a very strong French student. She had excellent preparation for the test as well. The AP French test is known to be the one of the most difficult (if not THE most difficult) of all the AP exams.</p>
<p>Twinmom, my daughter says that her school has a policy of subsidizing the APs for students who take more than 3, so she is going to try to get the money that way. But the money comes from PTA funds, so I'm not all that happy about that either -- I mean, should the PTA really be paying money for an AP exam that a kid is only taking because the school requires it? Given my attitude and my daughter's attitude toward the test, its not likely that she will score all that well -- I mean, why bother? If I were her I'd just go in and put in a cursory effort. </p>
<p>It would be different with a test she cared about or that could give her some benefit. We don't feel that way about her other AP classes. She actually tried to drop her AP Lit class but its school policy that once in an AP class, you can't drop. </p>
<p>My son's high school partially subsidized all the exams - he only had to pay $40 per exam -- but that was a different district. And a different time, financially - back in those days the state of California paid money to kids for their test scores. So that AP Scholar status could have been worth some cash, though his school didn't offer enough AP classes for anyone to qualify. But he got $1000 in an interest-bearing account for some other test score. By the time my d. started high school that pay-for-scores program was ancient history.</p>
<p>My d. got fee waivers for most of the colleges she applied to. Her counselor was very liberal in giving them out. I feel bad asking for subsidies & waivers because I don't see myself as "low income" ... but the figures you listed really sum up the problem. I mean, it would be no problem at all for me if it was a $25 test. But you take the high fees & multiply them, and its rough going.</p>
<p>Calmom,
The PTA aspect is interesting. While a nice gesture which helps families, I agree with you that I would question a PTA subsidizing test- taking.<br>
I've never heard of being paid for test scores. Maybe it's just before my time - or regional.</p>
<p>Sorry, didn't follow that last point about being paid for test scores or otherwise inappropriate subsidization. My family has contributed to a fund to subsidize test fees for those who wanted to take tests for whatever reason but faced financial obstacles. What is the problem, specifically?</p>
<p>In 2001 and 2002 the state of California had something called "Scholarshare" where they paid awards to high school students who obtained certain score levels on various standardized tests. See <a href="http://www.scholarshare.com/gsp/%5B/url%5D">http://www.scholarshare.com/gsp/</a></p>
<p>They no longer do this. My son graduated from high school in 2001 and they gave him $1000 because he scored well on the STAR test. Students who scored high on AP math & science exams could get an award of $2500, but my son's high school didn't offer any math or science APs. </p>
<p>As far as the PTA money for AP exams -- California schools don't have any money for extras. So basically public schools are subsidized by whatever private funds the PTA can raise -- this is simply how things are done in this state. My daughter attends high school in a large urban district. As far as I can tell, everything college-prep related comes from the PTA -- the PTA also pays the salary for the college counselor. My son's high school was a different district - I don't know where the funds came from for the AP tests at his school but I do know that he didn't have anything like a college counselor - there was one guidance counselor for the whole school who handled everything and didn't have a clue about college applications other than the state college system.</p>