<p>So I applied for AP Chem at my school, and APs are really hard to get in to at my school cuz you need to take an exam and having an A+ is not enough.
I got the application form, and I filled it out. It asked your grades in subjects like math, chem, bio, and english. It also had a questionnaire that asked some questions like What makes a good honors student, why do you think you deserve to be in this class, etc. I did not bs it, and I answered it correctly and truthfully. I had all As except for bio, which was a B.
I turned it in, and I took the placement exam. I did pretty well, and it was a scantron test. On the front page of the test, it told you to put a heart next to your name on the scantron if you have read the long paragraph of instructions. Many people didn't. I did.</p>
<p>I pretty much thought I had a really good chance of making it in because I did everything right and well. Much to my surprise (and extreme dismay) I did not get into the class. I asked the AP Chem teacher what I did wrong and she said that I did everything right, but the recommendation from previous regular chem class was not good.
In the regular chem class, I worked with a group of very talkative and "not-so-hard-working people who don't really care about grades." We goofed off a lot and I guess she didn't really like that, but we would always turn our work in and usually receive a decent grade. I aced most of the tests (maybe like 1 or 2 I got a B).</p>
<p>My question is, what should I do? Should I talk to the AP Chem teacher again? Or my counselor at school? I'm a junior and I don't want to take AP chem senior year because I might forget everything for the placement test. Plus, I still have a lot of classes.</p>
<p>Hey! I’m kind of in the same scenario (except it’s Bio, not Chem).
I think it’s better to talk directly to your counselor (or have a parent talk for you), because it’s more likely that she’ll be able to talk with your previous chemistry teacher and convince the AP teacher you let you into the class :)</p>
<p>Yeah my parents talked to the assistant principal but nothing happened. haha the ap chem teacher probably even developed a grudge against my family and me now probably. life happens. I’m taking an outside class for AP chem now and just take the test when it comes around.</p>
<p>@ryanxing- you see, there are only 56 spots for AP chem at my school. They can’t just take anyone</p>
<p>This sounds exactly like my school. Thank God I got into Chem, Psych, and Calc for senior year. Previous years? Pfft not so lucky. I got ****** out of apush, english lang, and bio in past years for similar reasons</p>
<p>Talk to the teacher and your guidance counselor</p>
<p>Wow, I feel so sorry for you. It’s like passing a college app to get into the AP class of your choice :S We just have it based on free choice and a minor counselor opinion.</p>
<p>Same thing happened to me for AP Lang too. The funny thing is, I told my english tutor the week before the placement test that I was gonna try out for AP lang. he was like ok so he brought a sample AP test to work with me. he explained in depth the things about it and stuff. The day of the test, it was the EXACT SAME prompt and i was like woooowww this is awesome. so i did everything my tutor told me to but didnt get in lol. probably cuz i did bad on the CR part of the test</p>
<p>In our school, all of the AP’s are just based off of obtaining certain grades in previous classes.</p>
<p>The only class that requires a recommendation is AP Composition/AP English Literature</p>
<p>Even if you weren’t in honors you could get in based on grades alone.</p>
<p>For example you could get into AP Biology by getting an “A” in Biology, a “B” in Chemistry, and an “A” in English, or a “B” in Honors Bio, a “C” in Honors Chem, and a “B” in Honors English.</p>
<p>I think AP classes accepting almost anyone is a double-edged sword. At my school, almost anyone can take AP Euro (except for me, because my US history teacher is an idiot). A lot of kids that didn’t care/didn’t possess the ability took it and cut out a lot the kids that had legitimate chances at passing the AP for it.</p>
<p>I didn’t get into honors science in 6th grade until 2nd semester because of the “Renzeuli Scale”. The teacher fills it out based on how “much effort you put into science, enthusiasm for learning, interactivity in labs”. I had the best test scores but I was 1 point off on the Renzeuli Scale so I didn’t get into Honors Science.</p>
<p>Why can’t we just use grades and placement tests? So much more fair than recommendations.</p>