How badly did I screw up? Long read, but hear me out.

Test Preparation AP Test Preparation
1

<p>The material covered on an AP exam is challenging by itself. But even getting to the point of taking the exam was more stressful than I could have imagined. </p>

<p>I went at a high school that I did not attend for an exam, and arrived before the proctors let students into the room where the test was held. Once the doors opened, I asked a proctor for applicable forms for the test, who then made a phone call to the AP coordinator. The AP coordinator relays that I should have picked up an AP student pack from her earlier, and to come now. </p>

<p>It was then that I remembered sending an email about this, and the AP coordinator did indeed tell me to do so, but in the hustle-and-bustle of life, finals and everything in between, I forgot that exchange ever happened. Oops. Hopefully it won’t matter too much. </p>

<p>I went straight to the AP coordinator’s office, and she proceeds to tells me that the proctors have already begun giving instructions and I cannot take the test. I’m stunned, not only by seemingly losing this opportunity, but also at the absurdity of the situation. If she knew that there was such a rule, and that I was on my way toward her, wouldn’t it have been logical to for the AP coordinator to tell the proctors to hold on a little bit before beginning? Note that there never an issue with the exam starting on time. There was no chance that my delayed would have led to a start time beyond the hour interval prescribed by the College Board. Also, intuitively and based on past experiences, people who have come in a little late for the SAT and past APs were still able to take the exams if they arrived before the actual testing actually started. I was fairly sure that it was acceptable, if frowned upon. </p>

<p>After some back and forth, I realized that it was hopeless to argue with her, took my Scantron and student pack, and unbeknownst to the AP coordinator ran to the testing room I was able to fill out all of the paperwork, complete the exam, and hand in the exam documents to the proctors. </p>

<p>After the exam, I was able to look more thoroughly into proper AP testing procedure (<a href="http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/ap/2013_14_ap_coordinators_manual.pdf"&gt;http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/ap/2013_14_ap_coordinators_manual.pdf&lt;/a&gt;) and it seems like I am fully in the right to doing what I did. Let me address potential problems:</p>

<h2>1. Lateness</h2>

<p>First, this is what the College Board says about lateness in the 2013-2014 AP Coordinator’s Manual:</p>

<hr>

<p>Closing the Exam Room/Latecomers</p>

<h2>No students may be admitted after the start of the exam unless unusual circumstances warrant it and the multiple-choice section has not been completed. In this instance, latecomers can test in a separate room as long as additional proctors monitor them during the entire exam, including all breaks</h2>

<p>Without context, there is some ambiguity in what is meant by “start of the exam”. The AP coordinator’s interpretation of it - when the proctors start distributing materials and giving instructions - differs from what is implicitly specified by the manual:</p>

<hr>

<h2>Once students have been seated, materials distributed and the preliminary paperwork completed, announce the starting time and begin administering the exam. Students may not open the shrinkwrapped exam packets before the mandatory starting times. Close the doors to the exam room promptly at the announced starting time.</h2>

<p>Note that the distribution of exam materials is completed BEFORE the start time of the exam. When I entered the room, testing had not yet started and my entry was still legitimate. Therefore, the AP coordinator reasoning for preventing me from the examination is unsound, imprudent, and ultimately should not have occurred in the first place. </p>

<h2>2. Disregarding the AP coordinator’s instructions to not taking the exam</h2>

<p>The reasoning behind the AP coordinator’s actions were based solely on my lateness, which I demonstrated was flawed in the previous paragraph. Without a sufficient reason specified by the College Board, the AP coordinator does not have the authority to deny a student the opportunity to take an exam. The proctors and other test-takers did not report any College Board specified misconduct or violation on my part. Therefore, the AP coordinator’s actions were unjustified from the beginning and she has no support if she decides to withhold my exam documents. Her instructions to not take the exam are moot.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>I did not sign into the school
It is standard procedure to sign in to the school as a visitor. I did not to sign into the school, because of negligence on my part as well as by the school (for not recognizing I was not staff or student and ushering me to sign in). However, I did not refuse to or deliberately evade doing so and I would have gladly obliged if prompted by the staff. Regardless, this is unrelated to the AP testing, has no bearing as a violation of College Board testing procedure and more of an oversight by all parties involved.</p></li>
<li><p>I needed to have filled the test packet / Scantron before entering the testing room
This was one of the complaints of the AP coordinator to me. It is customary in the high school to have a preadministration session to fill out exam documentation well before the exams begin. It is a good time saving measure, but not one mandated by the College Board. I was able to obtain the exam materials before the actual examination period began, so I was eligible for that exam.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>Based on these reasons, I was right to take the AP exam. I regret that I have inconvenienced staff and fellow test-takers by arriving unprepared and not meeting the AP coordinator earlier, but in the end, I did not commit any violations and was still eligible, irrespective of moral considerations. </p>

<p>Still, I’m afraid that the AP coordinator will see my name on exam documents and would choose not send in my exam materials or express to the College Board that I had violated test policies. If her reasoning behind denying me was simply a misinterpretation of the rules, hopefully I can convince her by what I have to stay. But, I get a feeling it won’t be so easy. </p>

<p>When I initially tried to reason with her for not letting me take the test, her response amounted to "I am the AP coordinator and this is how I run things here", so I feel like an appeal to logic will simply not be enough. </p>

<p>I could contact the school’s administrators but I fear they may be of the same ilk (this is the same high school that denied the formation of a Secular Student Alliance for years until a student threatened to speak the media). I could also contact the College Board, but I feel like a localized solution would probably be more manageable.
Finally, I could just let it slide and hope that the AP coordinator overlooks my exam documents and life proceeds regularly scheduled. It’s a large school with hundreds of AP exam documents being completed daily, so it won’t be a stretch to not be too discerning. </p>

<p>Let me know what you guys think. Is my reasoning flawed and should I just complied and left without taking an exam?</p>

<p>Or should I just let it slide, take my chances, and hope that the
AP coordinator does not notice?</p>

2

<p>I think you’re fine. I’m pretty impressed that you were so resourceful! If the AP Coordinator comes at you, just show her what you found in the manual about official start times. But in all likelihood, if you go to a big school they won’t notice, and if you go to a small school they still probably won’t notice.</p>

3

<p>The AP coordinator has the authority to set rules for the testing center they are responsible for, no matter what the collegeboard says as long as their rules don’t conflict with the collegeboard rules. It seems that you failed to abide by the rules several times and are hoping for loopholes to get you out of a bind you got yourself into. I don’t know how much you inconvenienced your AP coordinator and the test proctors but it would have been annoying for a student to walk in late, have not filled out the proper paper work, and have broken a rule of the testing center. Did you break any collegeboard rules, no, but you did break the rules and flat out disregarded the AP coordinator’s policy. He/she had every right to withhold your exam AND not give you a refund if you had to pay for the exam. It’s bad enough when kids who legitimately through no fault of their own delay exams for those who are ready (had one girl who needed a break between morning and after noon exams and also had a girl with no answer sheet given to her today), but when a person doesn’t follow the rules that the coordinator specifically tells them to follow (hell, he/she even contacted you specifically) it just is a blatant disregard for the test givers and test takers in the room. I believe she will submit your exam to AP but if she does you should definitely get down and thank her because she would have gone out of her way to help you when you only did what was convenient for you.</p>

4

<p>@jimmyboy23 OP’s not at fault here. The AP coordinator was being unreasonable, so the student left to go to his/her test. The AP coordinator should have made sure OP’s materials were ready beforehand, and should have followed up on getting no response from the email (as it’s quite possible the email was sent to the wrong address, not delivered, etc. etc.) </p>

<p>Don’t blame OP for assuming the coordinator would have some sense of decency. </p>

<p>OP, good stuff. Worst comes to worst, contact CollegeBoard. Although you made the decision to take the test, the best possible option might’ve been to demand a retest on one of the makeup days. </p>

5

<p>@Vctory if this was just a case of “oh I forgot to sign in on the log sheet, I’ll do that right now” I could see your point. I could even see not going to the pre-bubbling (even though they probably would have done it with the OP another day before the exam just alone in an administrator’s office). What we have here though is a case where it’s hard for me to buy that in the hustle and bustle he failed to meet this many simple rules the AP coordinator had in place. What we have to understand is that this was just a continuous failure to meet the requirements and then expecting others to pick up the slack showing disrespect and disregard for the AP coordinator. I do think the coordinator showed decency by letting him have opportunities to make up for his mistakes, and I also think the coordinator will be decent enough to submit his exam. This is obviously just my opinion, but multiple mistakes in terms of registering for the exam, signing into the exam room, being late, and then flagrantly disregarding the coordinator’s demand that he leave the testing site, I believe that all constitutes his exam not being sent.</p>

6

<p>@Vctory 1. It’s not possible the email was sent to the wrong address as it was a reply email and even then it is a moot point because the OP acknowledges that he got the email and chose to ignore it.
2. The AP coordinator tried to accomodate him much more than should be necessary. A college level student should not be hand held through the test-taking process. He was told when to pre-bubble his answer sheet, was told he could make up that pre-bubbling if he just showed up to his/her office and asked for it, and he was told when to show up for the exam (which it appears he did meet this requirement at least initially) and that is all the information he needed to take his exam without issue. It is my opinion that the OP just couldn’t be bothered to actually meet the coordinator halfway</p>

7

<p>@jimmyboy23‌ Let me clarify a few things.

  1. The day of the test was the only day I could come in. There was literally no other way I could have made it. I asked her to allow me to fill out the paperwork today, and she simply said it was OK.</p>

<p>“I believe she will submit your exam to AP but if she does you should definitely get down and thank her because she would have gone out of her way to help you when you only did what was convenient for you.”</p>

<p>She already submitted an irregularity report against me. Nope. </p>

<ol>
<li><p>She never said where I could get the paperwork. I thought it was going to be in the testing room. It was actually with her. Remember, I was already at the testing room before the doors were open for this particular exam. It was not my disregard for her. It was just miscommunication, which the coordinator then took as an offense to her, and in her spite, denied me to take the exam and is still trying to deny me my test score. Think about it. How many academic personnel would continually try to disenfranchise a student, when there is no benefit to themselves? She is not a good person. </p></li>
<li><p>The delay I caused my peers was probably a good 3 minutes. That’s not to say that I’m not apologetic, but it’s not like I held everything up. All the coordinator had to do was hand me some forms, too. I was not causing her any excessive work. </p></li>
</ol>

8

<p>I would contact the college board and explain your situation. I can not pass judgement either way, just offer advice.</p>

9

<ol>
<li>Like I said my opinion is that you were in the wrong multiple times and were just negligent but I wasn’t there for your entire ordeal so maybe I’m misunderstanding some reason as to why these problems weren’t fixed well in advance of them becoming problems</li>
<li>What I could use clearing up is how long in advance was the pre-bubbling. My school did the pre-bubbling about a week or two before any exams started so, if that was the case then I would need to hear a reason why you weren’t able to solve a problem that was recognized well in advance. If that is not the case and it was one day before your exam then that is definitely unusual as your school would have had to do several different pre-bubbling sessions which would defeat the purpose. Also, that is an odd conclusion since you acknowledge that in the email you explicitly state that she gave you a directive to pick up the student packet before ever going to the exam room and you stated that you just chose to ignore her whether you forgot or not that puts you in the wrong.</li>
<li>The amount of time is not really the issue it’s that there was a disturbance that you caused by not being prepared to take the exam, and it took students who may have spent the previous fifteen minutes to get into the mindset of taking the exam and distracted them with unnecessary drama that would take them out of that mindset. Now whether anybody was truly bothered by the fiasco is definitely an issue; if nobody was bothered then you have nothing where you are in the wrong, but I don’t believe that you or I know for sure that everyone in that room was not bothered by the delay/disturbance.</li>
</ol>

<p>Overall, my problems are that:

  1. You caused the issue by not following the rules. It wasn’t out of your control and everybody else seems to have followed the rules to the coordinator’s liking otherwise this would be a whole different discussion
  2. You could have fixed the problem in advance by getting your student packet and doing the pre-bubbling on your own time. It is not the job of the coordinator to be tracking down every student that did not follow the rules (she did more than enough by responding to your email). I’m not sure if your coordinator is also a guidance counselor or other administrator but at my school he is and he is in charge of 1600 students. Do you think he would have the time to make sure all of your AP materials were in order?
  3. If worse comes to worse, my suggestion would be to self study this exam next year if your school district allows it (yes; even though it is collgeboard policy to allow self-studying it is up to your district to decide if that is a policy they wish to allow). You will probably get a lower score but you still have the chance to end p with college credit.</p>

<p>P.S. In response to your rhetorical question, I could definitely see any administrative personnel punishing any person who blatantly defies a direct order and disregards their authority. Now is this an excessive punishment? That I could see you having a valid argument.</p>

10

<p>@jimmyboy23 you appear to be ignoring the fact that they took the exam at a high school other than their own, so they didn’t have access to the school unless they specifically took a trip there.</p>

11

<p>@guinagirl96 The way I am interpreting his recall of events is that the AP coordinator’s office is at this school. That being said, taking a trip to another school shouldn’t be too inconvenient that you can’t make the trip over the course of 1-2 weeks before the exam. In my town even going all the way to the other side takes 20 minutes at most and going to the complete other side of the county takes 40 minutes. Neither of those drives should be too inconvenient to make throughout the course of the time period leading up to the exam. Once again my problem is that the way I am interpreting this story is that he was aware of wrong doing (not being present to pick up his stuff; which there is nothing wrong with) and then afterward being told it was necessary to fix it and he was told how to fix it (through the email), but simply choosing not to. What I think the OP might be trying to say through hs subsequent posts is that the teacher said it was okay to grab the stuff from her before the exam started. So she seems to have even tried to have accommodated him the day of the test. Now, I will extend benefit of the doubt and say that if it was just a miscommunication that he showed up to the wrong area then I am okay with that, but it still doesn’t erase the fact this problem wasn’t solved in advance, he was late to the exam and was insubordinate to the coordinator and took the exam against her wishes. I really think this case boils down to the wide variety of administrators; from the super strict to the super lenient. The OP doesn’t seem to realize that people are not always going to be lenient and this is probably a good learning opportunity for him to realize that he needs to cater to administrators and constantly be on top of things by contacting them and asking questions until you are absolutely certain of what is going on. Remember, is the OP in the wrong? Yes, he was late for the exam and used deception, by not telling the proctors he was banned, and the fact he took the exam put him further in the wrong by being insubordinate to an administrative officer. This was just a case of the OP getting a stricter administrator than usual and getting the short end of the stick, but ultimately you’re going to have a hard time selling to me that 30 or however many other kids were in that test room were able to follow the directions adequately and one person was just floored by the administrator being unreasonable. That is a tough leap of logic to make without being there. </p>

<p>P.S. To the original poster, I feel your pain man, you feel cheated, I get it. I am in a similar situation to a lesser degree where my stat teacher gave me a D on a practice exam for having the flu even though I offered to come in after school to make it up. Some administrator’s are just more strict than others and next time you will get all your stuff ready in the weeks leading up to the exam rather than scrambling at the testing location in the minutes leading up to the exam.</p>

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<p>OP you seem like you’ve been reasonable and your AP coordinator is being awful. I’d contact collegeboard and get it in writing from the proctor and the students that you didn’t cause any irregularities in timing or test-taking environment.</p>

13

<p>I’m rooting for you, OP. </p>

<p>At my school, the proctors read the script instructions before every test just in case someone shows up late. The exam doesn’t start until the proctor gives the ok. Besides, the cover of every exam says that the test should begin between times like 8-9 or 12-1.</p>

<p>The school sign in is total bs. My own school can’t keep track of my own attendance, so I doubt that the school you went to will even care. I went in to complain that they marked me absent, and the lady in charge wouldn’t stop flossing while I was talking to her. Ugh.</p>

<p>The proctor goes over the script to make sure that all the bubbles are filled. They don’t just start the test.</p>

<p>If college board tries to deny you your scores, fight back. You haven’t really done anything wrong.</p>

14

<p>Don’t email the AP director, and just hope your test is sent in. In a large school, I doubt they’d notice you took the test. </p>

15

<p>It does bother me that you didn’t email back the AP director about when you could bubble in your booklet. Okay, you couldn’t get over to that high school days early, but you did show up way before the test, so you could have told her that was a possibility and avoided all this hassle. Remember that for next time. </p>

<p>Our school isn’t as hard a$$ed about the AP experience as this one. Like the poster above states, the rules are read beforehand and that gives slowpokes a chance to show up. There is a sign in list for the test, and if any kid is missing, frantic calls are made to locate him asap. </p>