<p>How important are the AP Scores?</p>
<p>I heard somewhere that colleges don't look at your scores until after you're in college, but a teacher told me that you had to self-report anyway, and that it would be a major error to lie.</p>
<p>So let's say you take 4 AP's, and get 3's on all of them, while getting A's in the classes.</p>
<p>How much would colleges care at this?</p>
<p>You self-report the scores on a list of Academic Honors. Then when you're accepted to a college, the college may ask you to submit the official scores.</p>
<p>Well, your scores on AP tests basically mean that you've learned a lot about the subject matter and that you've challengedd yourself. Also, if you do well on exams like AP English, which require substantial amounts of writing, it tells colleges something about your writing ability. If you bombed the SAT Math but got a 5 on AP Calculus, colleges will know that you can do math and have very good reasoning and thinking skills, even though you performed poorly on the SAT Math. </p>
<p>You shouldn't think about AP scores with the mindset of "How will colleges look at this?" The whole purpose of AP classes is to challenge people of uncommon intellectual ability, people who will be bored in regular classes because they're too easy for them. Doing well on AP's are for many colleges helpful because you can get placed in more advanced courses in freshman year. So don't think about AP's as part of some strategy to get into a very selective school. It's an opportunity to really challenge yourself.</p>
<p>AP tests are a national measure of excellence. Getting A's in classes isn't so much. Some teachers are such easy graders, but AP scores actually tell you about how much you know about a subject.</p>
<p>So getting a 5 on an AP Test impresses colleges more so than the A in the class?</p>
<p>^^</p>
<p>Yes, because any old fool can get an "A" in an AP course, but not everyone can get a 5 on the corresponding AP exam. Some teachers of AP courses have very lenient grading policies and some are extremely harsh. It's all relative, you see.</p>
<p>Remember as well that at a lot of colleges, a 3 on an AP is sufficient to waive out of some intro courses, and perhaps even get credit for the courses. So a 3 is nothing to be ashamed of.</p>
<p>Yes, AP scores are self-reported, and your teacher is correct "that it would be a major error to lie."</p>