<p>My son is a junior who will be applying to U of W Madison next year. He is taking AP Calculus and AP chemistry this year. Is it important that he actually take the AP tests in these subjects? In other words, are chances of admission to Wisconsin and other public and private universities in its tier anyway affected by not taking the test?</p>
<p>I didn't send my AP scores to Madison when I applied because I forgot to and I was accepted,</p>
<p>but it wouldn't have mattered for me anyway since I had all 5s.</p>
<p>Regardless, he should take them.</p>
<p>I took AP Chem and AP Calc and never took the tests and I got in. I don't think it really matters.</p>
<p>The Director of Admissions at UW came to talk to my high school yesterday.</p>
<p>He said that anything you submit them to they will look at (so they could get a positive impression from good AP scores), but he never said that not submitting the scores would hurt an applicant in any way. </p>
<p>As long as he takes the classes and gets good grades, I think he'd be fine.</p>
<p>Take the AP tests- a 4 or 5 can give you credit for specific UW courses, this can mean meeting some requirements for other courses (prerequsites) or for graduation. This gives you more freedom in planning your elective courses, or can mean saving time in graduating. It also can give you a higher class standing, which means an earlier registration time after first semester. But don't hesitate to take a college course at UW that relaces the AP course. </p>
<p>Examples are- meeting literature credit, science, humanities, social science breadth requirements for L&S. Taking some of the science Honors sequences in chemistry, math or physics are worthwhile even if they cause a loss of AP credits due to repeating a first semester course (the difference in knowledge gained is significant).</p>
<p>I would add that another benefit of taking the AP test is showing how much of the material you mastered, getting an A from your HS teacher may not correlate with learning the material sufficiently to get a 5 on the AP exam.</p>
<p>Good AP test score is optional - it provides further evidence of ability to do college-level works and the real benefit of not doing pre-req courses at UW. Could be a tie breaker. </p>
<p>bkk, if your son's time is scarce, I would focus on improving his class rank, GPA and standardized test scores (in that order) to be competitive especially if he is a WI student. Then worry about the AP tests.</p>
<p>When you take the AP tests before senior year you will not know which college you are attending, therefore you do not need to have scores sent to any college. When applying to colleges you can put down any of the test scores you wish, I know of no need to put down bad scores. Once you are admitted and choose to attend a college you will make sure they get the official scores you want them to receive. Unlike SATs, the college does not need/get official full disclosure of scores to influence an admissions decision unless you choose to do so. I would presume a junior taking Calculus is probably doing well and should take AP tests, otherwise he would have to repeat it in college, he may have all 3 intro calc courses done by then- perhaps through a local college, but the AP test would be needed to get the college credits ...</p>