<p>I am going to be a freshman in the fall (so happy to have the admissions process OVER; hang in there hs seniors/juniors!) I was just wondering what everyones thoughts whether or not AP Scores are indicative of college success?
There are a GREAT DEAL of variables that coincide with both AP score performance AND college success.. but is it safe to say that there generally is a correlation between the two? Perhaps more so than high school GPA?</p>
<p>I mean the point can be made that individuals who score consistently in the 4-5 range are good scholars with good work ethic and therefore will achieve success in college. Thats a given. What about the students who have done well in their hs curriculum yet scored in the 2-3 range? What does that say? Bad luck? Should one maybe reevaluate his or her study habits completely or are ap scores not such an accurate predictor of future academic success?</p>
<p>Current college students sound in! (And anyone else!) Does anyone have any 'success stories' (scored poorly on APs in HS, but doing exceptional in college?) What about the other way around? Does anyone feel that AP classes did NOT adequately prepare them for college academia? (which is fairly common I presume)</p>
<p>ps. any research/analtyical data on the topic anyone can find would be extremely interesting!</p>
<p>Collegeboard constantly makes claims about this exact correlation, but I’m not sure I’ve ever seen the hard data. I’d be interested in learning more about this as well.</p>
<p>Success needs to be defined, really, for this to even be done. Nevertheless, I’m sure collegeboard will continue to make claims about all sorts of things. “Our purpose is to connect students to colleges”. “We’re a non-profit” etc etc.</p>
<p>This was published three years ago, but the findings show that science APs don’t really predict success in college science courses. They say that success in college science courses actually has more to do with how well math is integrated into the high school class, depth rather than breadth, and labwork with lab reports and unknown outcomes.</p>
<p>I’m sure there’s a correlation, but I wouldn’t worry if you have a couple less than stellar AP scores. It could be that the teacher didn’t cover all the necessary material, or didn’t cover the right material, or was a terrible teacher. You could have a wonderful grasp on the subject matter that was taught - just not on the stuff that was actually tested. If everyone else in your class got a 5 and you got a 1, it might be cause to examine your study habits, but I wouldn’t otherwise worry.</p>
<p>From a mathematics point of view, a lot of this is going to depend not only on the high school preparation but also on the particular college attended.</p>
<p>In my experience, any high school course that prepares you to take the AP Exam, and prepares you for nothing but that, is going to cause you to fare more poorly in college than you might expect. There are simply certain things that are not emphasized in the AP curriculum, many of which you will need to be successful in college.</p>
<p>On the flip side of this are the colleges whose expectations for what a calculus class is simply differes from what the AP program offers and what many colleges offer. These colleges believe that limits are only truly understood from the perspective of delta-epsilon proofs (which the AP doesn’t teach), and any sequence in limits that doesn’t cover these proofs is not only woefully inadequate but disservices the students tremendously. I would imagine that most AP students attending these colleges will find themselves to be a bit frustrated with the type of instruction offered at these colleges, and may find themselves doing more poorly.</p>
<p>Alternatively, I’ve seen more people get poor grades in classes that they’ve already earned AP credit for, not because they never knew the material, but because they didn’t apply themselves in the class. Then they get themselves into bad habits that are difficult to break.</p>