<p>You should probably look up the likelihood that they do change AP scores before you spend the 50 dollars. Although getting 3 college credits would be nice, it would be a total waste of money if they seldom change AP scores.</p>
<p>You're right, fudgemaster; although it's just $25 total that I'd split with son, still you're right. They seem on the website to indicate the only productive change is when their computer erred and hand-scoring improves it, and even that applies only to Multiple Choice. Interestingly, there's a big time window into October to request a rescore. I will look up what percentage MC is relative to the rest of the test, to figure out if there's any likelihood for big change, and also confirm with my S that he really thinks it was all the DBQ.<br>
I'm also rethinking if it's fair to ask him for half of the $25. He feels badly enough, why charge him to find this out? I don't want to rip him off. Will proceed with care.</p>
<p>I was following this thread as I waited for my S's junior year scores, which finally arrived yesterday. After getting a disappointing 3 on AP Euro last year as a sophomore, he did much, much better on the three this year. </p>
<p>We still don't get why he got the 3 in AP Euro last year, because he had a fantastic teacher, did really well in the course, and got one of the higher grades in the course. I know from my D, who took the course a few years earlier, that the grades generally did correlate with the results of the AP exam. The best explanation we've figured is that the course is now taught in the fall semester (we have a 4/4 block schedule, with 4 courses each semester), and while the students reviewed the material in the spring before the exam, the material just wasn't as fresh then as it was at the end of fall semester. I think overall the course's scores at our school dropped when the course was moved from spring semester (when my D took it) to fall. That sounds like a variation on what happens when a course is taught over two academic years, although I think teaching AP US over two years may have more academic benefit, even if a top score on the AP exam isn't one of the benefits. </p>
<p>So, I guess I'm just here to advise the OP and anyone else who got a disappointing score on a first AP exam, especially as a sophomore or earlier, not to worry that it necessarily indicates how the student will do on subsequent tests. Especially on history exams, I think a student can have a really good grasp on how to approach and analyze history, and if he's confronted with a need to know facts about a period (or two) in history that he didn't know as well, it can have significantly negative results on the AP exam. Lots of possible explanations for the scores, of course.</p>
<p>p3t--will put your talking points on a card and study them seriously. (Just kidding about the card part.) Your points are all ones that I want to cover when we talk, if she does indeed need a little pepping up.</p>
<p>I don't have the kind of problems with a 3 on an AP test that D could have. She likes to do well on tests, homework, etc. and so won't be happy about a 3 (I think). Plus she has the "misfortune" of having an older sibling who did very well in school. I don't compare them, but it's hard to get kids to not compare.</p>
<p>ellemenope - We have the same problem with a younger sibling following in the footsteps of a very successul older sister. And because of that, my S was probably more discouraged than he should have been with last year's 3 in Euro. That's one reason we're so happy with this year's scores, which really erased a lot of his feelings of inadequacy from last year's score. The best I could tell him last year was that a 3 was a fine score. I could have used a few more talking points! </p>
<p>One other thing that was relevant to his case was that he had a few friends who just decided not to take the exam at all, because they felt ill prepared for it, so I was able to help him some by pointing out that not only did he not bail out on the exam, he took it and passed it. I also told him that in my observation, students who have at least one AP history exam under their belts tend to do better on subsequent ones, so he should be better off later on than those who didn't take the first one.</p>