During my daughter’s sophomore year (May 2019), she took the AP exam in US History. She received a 5 and took a screenshot of her score in July 2019. In October 2019, we logged into College Board, and her score had changed to a 3. We called College Board and even paid for a re-score. They insisted that they were correct, and her score remained a 3. She also took 2 SAT Subject tests in May 2019 in Calculus and US History. Those scores also changed (from a 780 to a 710 in Calculus and from a 760 to a 570 in US History).
Due to this problem, she had to re-take the AP exam in US History again this past May 2020. This past May 2020, my daughter took 6 AP exams – Chemistry, Biology, Calculus, Spanish, Language, and US History. On July 15th, we downloaded her score result PDF and took a screenshot of her score page. She received 5’s on all of her exams. Over the summer, she has been looking at the College Board website weekly checking her scores. They remained the same until the end of August. On August 24, 2020 she looked at College Board again, and the scores had changed from all 5’s to scores ranging from 1-4. We were shocked that this had happened again. We are trying to appeal to College Board, but they, of course, are insisting that they are correct.
Anybody have any suggestions? Her mother and I are frantic since college apps are coming up!
Just some more info, the College Board rep that I talked to over the phone regarding our appeal insists that there’s no problem… in his words “There’s no evidence of change to scores in our system”
How can this be? I submitted the July Score Result PDF and their website screenshot. There is evidence of change! It should be either one of 2 results:
The scores were incorrect from July to August, but are now correct, OR
The recent scores are incorrect and your original scores are correct.
I saw the original scores on July 15th on the CB site myself and also downloaded the score report myself. She was checking throughout the summer, and on August 24th, the scores changed on the CB site
Could it be that she is being confused with another student? Does she have a common name?
I would have an attorney write a short letter to the CB with photos of the screen shots. It’s likely the people you can spoken to aren’t senior enough to look into it or change it if it’s a mistake.
I’m trying to come up with a scenario where 3 different dates and 9 different tests all had scores change and I’m really at a loss. Maybe a different name, but it’s hard to believe the other student also took the exact same tests (especially subject tests) on the exact same dates.
Her high school would have received Subject Test scores and all of her AP teachers would have received student reports with her score, assuming she entered the data correctly on the test form. What do they say?
Well, her name is not an uncommon one, but I would think the Student # that they write on the test should be a unique one to avoid same names. But at this point, who knows… I guess I’ll have to go the lawyer route…
Yes, I realize that I typed in the Calculus Subject test in haste… I still had Calc AP on the brain. I meant to say Math Level II with regards to the subject test.
Again, I’m just dumbfounded that I have the downloaded AP Score result (downloaded myself from the CB site), and we checked weekly from 7/15-8/23 to see if there was any change (there was none). Then on 8/24, everything changed.
We checked weekly this past summer because we had the same problem in the Summer of 2019 (read my initial post). In that case my daughter got a 5 on her APUSH test when the results came out in July 2019. (My 2 older sons never had this problem when they were in high school). In October 2019 she registered for a test and happened to look at her APUSH score, and, unbelievably, it had changed to a 3. (Meaning from my point of view, the score changed sometime from July->Oct 2019). All we had as proof were screenshots (and NO downloaded Score PDF).
So for this past 2020 summer we checked every week as a precaution. I felt good until 8/24.
Should I have done something different? I’m just looking for solutions…
@swimdad That is a really weird situation… I guess in your case I would ask her school for records/results they got from her tests/exams and if it proves your information go the lawyer way as someone suggested earlier.
If the high school has Naviance, look there. And call the high school’s counseling office today. High schools get a download of score data at the time scores are released, not a month later.
Agree with contacting counseling office today, her counselor should have all that information. It might take longer to get the response from the principal…
I don’t think you could have done anything different, you’ve gotten good advice on talking to the school/counselor about the scores. You should figure out now what happens if the later scores are the actual scores. The APs are self-reported, so you may not need to submit them though colleges may wonder why you didn’t report the score if you took the class. The subject tests are totally optional, if not test-blind, so I wouldn’t worry about them. Hope things work out.
OP, you had me logging on to check my DD’s scores. Thankfully they were the same. I noticed she has a unique “AP number” on the score report. I assume you’ve checked and compared that number on all reports and they were the same?
Keep us posted on any updates. This is an unimaginable situation and completely the wrong time for this to happen as ACT and CB both seem to be a hot mess right now.
@Noisymom
We contacted our school, and her counselor was amazed at what happened. (They know what kind of student she is). Truthfully, we should have contacted them last year when her APUSH and SAT II scores changed.
Currently, they are trying to get the district IT department to get backups starting with the first CB score push to her high school The school’s current record of her AP scores are the incorrect ones. They said once they find the 7/15/2020 score push, they are going to examine more “pushes” to see when the exact date her scores changed.
I do appreciate their efforts. The problem is (I’m in California) that our school district is preparing to start moving the students back in-school next week (from all online to part in-class, part online)… so obviously they have other problems to deal with at the moment.
What also has me worried is even if I get verifying data from my school, I still have to battle with the CB to get them to change her scores. (Part of me thinks that with the lawsuits they are currently dealing with, they’ll be reluctant to admit they have any fault). Her early decision college app is due by Nov 1st… so my fingers are crossed.
Thanks for your follow up. I’ll definitely report back more once I get some more concrete details.