Same here! Too many other choices.
Talking to you, Northwestern.
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The costs of AP Tests have always been high. I donât think thatâs something new within the past couple years.
Were there a lot of low scores with the online APs?
No more than any other year. But some students did not perform as wrll as they anticipated
Yes
Scores werenât the issue in our house, but uploading answers was. It all worked out eventually, after a makeup exam, though others were not so fortunate. (Not to derail the thread, but that was $94 for a 45 min test. Actually thanks for reminding me, I need to write a check for $500-something for my seniorsâ AP exams.)
I thought one of the differences would be that the AP test format is not all multiple choice, and itâs graded by high school teachers?
So not as âdisembodiedâ as SAT subject tests are, and there would be a curriculum to go with it, and an actual teacher teaching the material face to face (hopefullyâŠ). As of now, prep for SAT testing is on the kid and their families. It might go some way towards equalising the preparation for that particular year for that particular test - it canât address inequities older than the kid, of course, but as an academic readiness measure (and only as that) it would be impartial. And as such, very valuable for colleges, if only for placement.
I assume places like Caltech can afford to just not bother with the math SAT because who cares about algebra considering they expect students who apply to have AP calc?
Whether that measure reflects the kids real potential, as far as admission decisions are concerned, would be for the colleges to determine, as they do already.
Considering a lot kids apply to colleges nationwide, some national standard would make sense. It is an issue all nations with strong regional educational disparities grapple. Some schools donât even bother with nationwide, they go worldwide and opt for the IB program, which doesnât sit right with all US parents either.
I figure the CB has a chance now to consolidate the AP, SAT, pre AP letter salad into a national smorgasbord of nationally comparable high school curricula and corresponding tests, at about 4 different levels (from junior year regular level to senior year two years accelerated level) that high schools and students are free to choose from - because I realise that a prescriptive national diploma, like the French baccalaureate, would never fly in the US!
But some standards in curricula, delivery and testingâŠI think teachers ought to have to step up to that. Not just standardised output testing.
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My son had many issues uploading the answers. They timed out on upload 3 out of 5 test.
They had make up test and had a work around for this issue. If you timed out they sent you an email and you had to take a snap shot of your answers and sent back to that email within a small time frame. That worked with the exception of his AP Stats. He had 2 pages of answers and they only looked at the first page so they thought he only answered half the questions. He kept the email and it was obvious they missed the second page of answers but there were no appeals. His teacher pushed it at the regional level but no love there either.
It did make for an interesting essay for some admission prompts.
I never understood why AP exams arenât required. Whatâs the point of offering a standardized AP course, but then assigning students grades not based on any standard?
Cost is a different matter, of course. If theyâre required, their volume should drive down the cost, especially if states can negotiate pricing for all their schools.
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Your second paragraph is the answer. There are plenty of students that canât afford the cost of the tests.
I donât think cost is the main issue. Fee waivers/reductions could be granted, if costs are problematic. The bigger issue is variable access to AP classes. Some high schools offer no AP classes or few AP classes. Others offer dozens of AP classes.
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Many counselors believe that cost is one of the primary issues affecting APs. Many schools limit how many APs waivers they will let a given student use as well. Note there are no 100% AP fee waivers, CB only offers a cost reduction.
I agree that variable access is also an issue. The reality is that many of the âbetterâ HSs limit access to AP tests (e.g., canât take them until junior year) or donât offer them at all (see Wash DC private schools decision of a few years ago). These schools believe their course offerings are superior to what CB offers via the AP curriculum.
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One issue (for seniors) is that AP exam scores are not released until early July, after most schools have already finalized transcripts. And many schools give separate grades for first and second semester anyway, no single course grade. Maybe that doesnât matter for juniors because junior scores would still be available for apps, though Iâm under the impression that most APs are taken senior year.
I do think cost could be an issue unless the price were much lower or the school district gets a bulk deal. We just paid $95 for each AP exam, for this May.
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For AP scores to be widely used for US college admissions, it may require a British-type system where AP scores in the final year of high school are predicted and used for admission, and admission to colleges made contingent on meeting the predicted scores. But that would be a really high stakes high stress way of doing things compared to the usual way things are done in the US. And then all of the rescinded students will be here asking about gap years or how to transfer to their desired colleges after starting at the local community college.
But even then, not all college-bound high school students take many (or any) AP courses or tests, because they are not taking advanced (college frosh) level material in high school.
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Some individual HSs offer larger fee reductions/waivers, including 100% of cost in some cases. The fee structure is certainly influential, even among families that can afford the cost. For example, if the colleges a student applies to says they donât care about AP scores, the student/family may conclude that there is no reason to spend hundreds of dollars, and many hours of prep + time to take the test.
However, the fee structure can be modified and controlled, and probably would be better controlled if AP tests were mandatory. The bigger issue in my opinion is that many HSs offer no AP classes or few AP classes, and itâs far more complicated to add AP classes to those HSs than it is to update fee structure. In theory the kids could self study, but requiring AP scores still puts students at HSs that lack AP classes at a severe disadvantage.
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For seniors taking AP exams, why couldnât we adopt the idea from Oxbridge (i.e. use predicted scores subject to confirmation by actual scores)?
Edit: @ucbalumnus Sorry, I didnât notice you essentially raised the same point. I presume most US colleges will give students some leeway in meeting the predicted scores. The most selective may insist on some minimum scores.
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Because grades and scores often donât correspond here. Iâm not sure I believe teachers could/would predict scores with great accuracy.
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I think teachers will get better at it after a couple of iterations, if theyâre mandated to give predicted scores. Theyâd look foolish if their predicted scores are consistently off.
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Presumably, a given high school or teacher has some history, where (for example) A students in a given AP course typically earn 4-5 scores on the AP test. Of course, sometimes the history is embarrassing for the high school or teacher, when A students in a given AP course typically earn 1-2 scores on the AP test.
Here is the 2019 AP report from the Houston Independent School District:
Figure 7B on page 18 shows how course grades in AP courses correspond to scores on AP tests. Something like this for a particular high school or teacher can be used to predict AP scores from course grades.
Of course, taking the AP test would still be a much higher stakes higher stress event than it is now, with rescission of college admission being the penalty for missing the predicted AP scores.
With the movement to access, inclusion, and diversity in higher ed, I donât see AP tests becoming required, or even recommended by many colleges. Itâs relatively few colleges that even consider AP test scores in the admission process right now, I donât see things moving the other way, at least in the short term.
IMO The decreased focus on tests is here to stay, and that includes APs. With that said I eagerly await Georgetownâs new testing policy, lol.
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