<p>This past school year, I took AP Chemistry and I received a solid B. I took the AP test (since the state that I lives in pays for all AP science and math tests) and received an embarrassing score of ... 1. The score made me concerned about college. I am planning to major in pre-med, which involves intensive studies in chemistry. Will I be able to make it through?</p>
<p>maybe your school just didn’t prepare you well enough for the test</p>
<p>^ Agreed. If a B correlates to a 1, it’s not your fault. You’ll make it through just fine.</p>
<p>How did you feel about the exam? If you think you did much better on the exam than your score reflects, you could get it rescored.</p>
<p>I really do not think that I got a better score than a 1. I mean, on most of the questions I only felt like I understood them about halfway. After reading these posts, I feel that my score was due more to the lack of practical approaches on how to achieve a sufficient score. Thanks for the information and insight!</p>
<p>At least you’re not applying to college as a potential chemistry major! My son was one of the top students in his AP computer science course but only scored a 2 on the exam. It’s going to be very awkward for him to apply to schools as a computer science major with that score. I am really p-o ed that his school let a 2nd year teacher with a business major teach the course. Only three kids in my son’s class even took the exam. I doubt the other two students did any better than my son did.</p>
<p>i wouldnt sweat it to much. i took calc AB this year and my teacher was horrible and i got an A in the class but a 2 on the test. i get the stuff he just did not prepare us for those kind of questions. i dont wanna be a math major but if your teacher screwed up you cant really help it you know?</p>
<p>I think you should get a rescore. From others I heard, a score of 1 means that you only bubble your name, address, other information and did nothing else.</p>
<p>Like another poster said, if a B in class leads you to a 1, it’s likely a problem with the way the class was run rather than a deficiency in your own chem knowledge. The way Econ was done at my school led to a dismal pass rate of about ten percent… Yet a majority of the students had A’s. Things like this are common at a lot of schools. Seems to me that there’s at least one AP teacher/class like that at every school…</p>
<p>Not sure if this calls for a rescore though. If you have money to burn, and you really feel like there may have been a scoring error, have it done… But I think only a very small number of rescored tests have a different outcome than the original score.</p>
<p>And getting a 1 doesn’t mean you did ‘nothing.’ While many people in my econ class made no effort and got bad scores, I do know others that legitimately tried and got 1’s.</p>
<p>^ No, the 1 range is actually quite wide.</p>
<p>**My comment is meant for the person above the one that’s above me.</p>
<p>I agree. Just because 1’s aren’t common here does not mean that they equate to “only bubbling in your name.” There are plenty of people at my school who actually do take the AP exams seriously but still end up with 1’s. This is due to our crappy school and their lack of studying.</p>
<p>That’s just what I heard from other rescoring threads. Someone said so. And it seems to make sense. A negative raw score or blank score sheet = 1.
By “nothing” in my previous post, I mean a blank score sheet.
I am just guessing what might’ve happenned. (You know, since it’s CB; and from other threads I read, CB got a lot of people scores wrong.) If the OP thinks s/he might did better than a negative score or a 0, than something might’ve gone wrong during the MC scoring process.
It was not meant as an offensive statement.
Rescoring is just an alternative. It is always up to the OP.</p>
<p>Since the OP wants to major in pre-med (and if OP is worrying that this score of 1 will affect his/her chance) and if s/he feel confident enough that his/her score should not be a 1, then a rescore might be an option. Otherwise, like others said, it is because of the instructor.
AP number is only secondary but it can tell something. (Doesn’t mean I say it does in this particularly case.) Good GPA/SAT/EC/etc can definitely shadow that 1 and the app reader can attribute that bad grade to bad teacher.</p>
<p>Getting a 1 (assuming that you didn’t misbubble) while receiving a B in the class does suggest a poor teacher, but it also suggests that you may have trouble learning chemistry-like material. This is an unfavorable indicator of your chance of succeeding on the pre-med track or in medical school.</p>
<p>well, the test itself penalizes u for getting wrong answers on the mc. I’m guessing maybe u guessed too much when u should of skipped. For myself, the first AP test I took was AP Euro and I got a 1 bcus I knew I answered every MC when i shouldnt have. The AP test I just took in Econ and Psych I passed and I probably skipped around 10 questions each. You lose 1/4 pt per MC so if there r 75 MC questions and u got like 60 wrong, thats minus 15 pts from teh 15 pts u got right which is 0 pts just from mc alone. But if u didnt score ne pts on FR, then u wouldnt pass.</p>
<p>Many students can still get a 3+ and skip a whole lot, i think maybe studying more head of time would’ve helped. Getting a AP review book and doing the practice problems helps a lot.</p>
<p>But its not the end of the world, it jus means u dont have credit yet, u dont have to send the score in, just means u have to take the class again in college and earn your credit.</p>
<p>Though what silverturtle said may be true, I would still suggest a rescore and still try and pursue with pre-med (at least try). You will know your chem abilities in college with general chem.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yes, if medicine is something that the OP is passionate about, he or she should of course still try to pursue it. I was merely suggesting that the low score certainly does have some indicative value.</p>
<p>^Of which I 100% agree, UNLESS CB messed up completely (including FRQs), which is, sadly, doubtful.</p>
<p>@silverturtle: very true
I would ask your peers their grades in the class/scores on the ap, if the grading correlation is low then your teacher may not had prepared you enough. You scored a 1 on the test, but that does not completely correspond to your success in med. Other faults that may had risen is that you were under prepared, bad test taker, or even that you were not able to grasp the material. I am saying that you should analysis why you scored low and fix it. Even if you really did not have a firm grasp on the concepts, I would not abandon your dreams yet. Simply develop different studying/learning techniques and work harder. Best of luck!</p>
<p>You shouldn’t worry too much though. Some people have never taken AP classes and can take a pre-med program.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>No need to rescore in my opinion. Obviously, the OP did not understand the fundamental concepts of chemistry taught in this course. Whether it be a bad teacher or not, the OP needs to really look at their self preparation and study habits throughout the year. More than likely these two areas were lacking because these are the two things that can make up for poor teaching. </p>
<p>Pursue the pre-med if that is your goal. However, this should be a wake up call because it will not be getting any easier, many profs will not care if they teach up to student’s standards or not. Be proactive, fix the problems that you have identified, and things should be fine.</p>