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does everyone assume the teachers are teaching to the test only?
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<p>Sometimes one can have the opposite problem :) D1's Physics B class uses a college textbook. Homework was problem sets drawn from the book, just like any college class. Tests were similar problems, again just like The Real Thing. The final, however, was from the type of multiple choice questions on the AP test. It was apparently a bloodbath. </p>
<p>On the other hand, last year in World History the textbook was specifically designed for AP, and was filled with examples of "document-based queries" or whatever the words are that correspond to the acronym DBQ. Which, of course, is not the way a college course is taught.</p>
<p>most adcoms dont look at the AP grade. You dont have to send the official AP report till you get to college. What they look at is the fact that you are taking an AP level class and your grade in it. So why not take the test and see if you get your 4/5 that will get you out of a boring core course? Most colleges will not allow you to place out with an AP from your major (ie Bio major will still have to take the intro Bio class, whether they got a 5 on test or not)</p>
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most adcoms dont look at the AP grade.
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<p>I disagree strongly. If the the AP score was not useful in admissions, they wouldn't ask for it. :)</p>
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D1's Physics B class uses a college textbook.
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<p>fwiw: One of the main standard AP Physics B text (listed on CB's website) IS a standard college text. That same book is used at Cal-Berkeley and Harvard, among many others.</p>
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He had done well in the course, had put in the work. I can't imagine that all that would be reduced to a D or F for his final grade because of that one bad day.
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I had a friend who had just that experience in college with calculus. It can happen. Many private colleges ask you to self-report your AP scores, though none ask for an official score report until you actually matriculate. I've heard of schools that will go back and change a grade if a student does well on the AP - not our school though. S2 got a B+ in AP World, but a 5 on the AP. Many of the kids who got A's did considerably less well on the AP.</p>
<p>I tend to side with MHMM. Adcoms can generally see on the transcript that the class is titled AP blah blah blah....the actual test score reports can sometimes be sent much later than admissions so would not weigh as an admissions factor. Many students take AP classes well into their senior year and after the application season. And again, some colleges/universities do not allow AP classes in lieu of the core classes. No schools "asked" for the AP test scores during the period my S1 was applying.</p>
<p>There can be good reasons not to take an AP test even if you took the course. Thirtysomething years ago, I had that experience in both AP English and AP Biology.</p>
<p>Halfway through the year, our AP English teacher left to go to graduate school and was replaced by someone who had no experience teaching the AP course. Then, a few weeks later, there was a fire in the science wing of the high school, which destroyed the laboratory materials and most of the books for the AP Biology course. Our teacher found things for us to do for the rest of the year, but they did not follow the standard AP curriculum. My high school transcript says that I got As in both AP English and AP Biology, but in fact I did not truly finish either course, and I certainly did not consider myself prepared for the tests. So I didn't take them. </p>
<p>I'm sure that such things still happen today.</p>
<p>My son will be taking the AP test in both chemistry and Spanish. We pay, but if he passes it is much less than the college courses. If he passes both, with extra credits he will almost be a sophomore when he enters college.</p>
<p>I look at it in this light...testing is a good practice for them to get ready for the next step.</p>
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Adcoms can generally see on the transcript that the class is titled AP blah blah blah.
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<p>D1 attends a magnet located at a large high school. The magnet and the regular school offer separate, but identically titled AP courses. The level of rigor is anything but identical. Making it even more complicated, there is some small amount of AP cross-registration, primarily a few regular school kids taking a magnet AP not offered at the regular school. </p>
<p>The issue doesn't end with high school. Schools across the country offer Intro Psych/Econ/Biology/Statistics/what have you, and the level of difficulty is all over the map. It's probably a safe bet that, for example, Caltech's freshman calculus course is going to be tougher than the one at Pasadena City College across the street. But sometimes PCC might get an instructor for an intro class who gives the students from Oxy and USC and UCLA, hoping to boost their GPA by taking a class at a local CC, a tougher class than they were expecting...maybe even tougher than what they might have gotten at their home institution (play evil laughter in background). </p>
<p>I offer no solution, only some observations.</p>
<p>I am in the interesting position of being both a parent, and an AP teacher. </p>
<p>As a parent, I assume my son will be taking the AP test at the end of the year.</p>
<p>As a teacher, I assume my students will also take the test.</p>
<p>Otherwise...why take the class?</p>
<p>I do know that acceptances can be conditional. I tell my seniors that they may be asked by schools that contact them to finish their coursewok with a maintained GPA and AP tests taken...</p>
<p>Hedda, various posters have answered your question of why take the AP class if you aren't going to take the test.</p>
<p>Students may take the APs because they are usually the most challenging offered by the HS, and that is one thing that college admissions committees are definitely looking at, especially at the schools that are the most difficult to get into.</p>
<p>Also, if you have been admitted to a school that does not give credit for an AP class that you are currently taking, why put yourself through a 4-5 hour exam for no reason?</p>
<p>And the third reason that I can think of, is that perhaps a student doesn't want the credit, but would prefer to take the basic college class to get a good grounding in the way his college teaches that course before going on to the more difficult level.</p>
<p>My S did not take tests for 3 of his 7 APs for just those reasons above.</p>
<p>There are plenty of reasons not to take the AP test, not the least of which is their cost. The reasons to take it could be getting college credit/placement, proving that you know the material (mostly important for home-schoolers), or hope that it will help with admissions, if taken junior year. If none of these apply, why spend time and money on it?</p>
<p>You are absolutely correct. And it is much cheaper than taking it in college and a good way to free time in college for other subjects or in some cases to graduate earlier.</p>