I haven’t been on in awhile and feel to catch up what’s happening with my D20. Like everyone else she ‘s going through the no prom, no musical and many other things. Her band trip to California leaving tomorrow is cancelled. The one thing she did have I’m sure no one else did, I’m guessing on here, is her AP Biology died in his sleep at age 38. Had a wife and two kids. The visitation was last Sunday which took almost 3 hours because of the huge crowd. This past week was 5 snow days off which they build into the schedule just in case. Next week is Spring break. The new teacher who just introduced her self online will be teaching through e learning. Daughter mentioned there is just one unit left. Feel for this new teacher.
As to AP testing which I was reading about on here and what my daughter told me in my opinion is a joke. If the AP was at all reputable the money would be refunded and the test eliminated. If the test is only going to be 45 minutes fees should be prorated. The funniest thing is AP is always worried about cheating and there doing this. LOL
@Cole2020 - eliminating the AP tests would cause financial hardship for kids who are hoping for those credits. D20 has 5 AP tests this year, which translates to a lot of tuition dollars she can potentially test out of. I don’t care about the cost of the test - the ROI is worth it if she gets the scores needed to get credit.
Any idea how to assess the financial health of a school in the midst of all this? Pretty sure S’s top choice will be okay, but we’re also looking at his less expensive options once again.
my question about AP tests is: will colleges want to give AP credit from HS classes that weren’t necessarily fully taught, and with a shorter, watered down test? While a kid may do well with the AP test this spring, I could see some colleges changing their approach to granting credit from 2020 AP tests.
Yes, lots of colleges and universities have alerted their applicants and/or accepted students that they will still award credit. My guess is that the class of 2021 will be impacted more deeply because in AP’s matter much more for admissions than for college credit. For juniors taking AP’s it will be less meaningful/impressive than in the past.
My D20 will definitely ‘take’ her AP tests since she gets a 1.0 GPA bump in the class vs. only .5 if she doesn’t take the test. She just won’t study for it.
As for taking AP tests online, I took a certification online for work this past fall, and it was proctored and if you averted your eyes for more than a few seconds, it alerted the proctor who could intervene. I got flagged a few times before getting the hang of it. I didn’t really like the format, and I’m not sure how this would work with increased numbers of test-takers.
How would this “ not averting eyes” work for AP exams like Calc A/B or B/C where you need to work out a problem on paper or a worksheet before submitting your answer?
@socaldad2002, I assume the proctor would just observe a test taker to make sure s/he is looking down on her note sheet and not to the side at someone helping her/him cheat
I thought AP’s does not matter much in admissions (AP courses may matter for rigor but colleges don’t career about AP test scores) - AP scores matter for credit is my understanding.
All IB exams have been cancelled.
DS and his friends are actually bit sad, they worked so hard and they don’t know whether they would get the IB diploma. I told him the knowledge/skills learned are much meaningful, but he still thinks it is good to have something as a token I guess. I had never hung any of my degrees and I think they are just fluffs. But I do understand his and his friends’ sentiment.
@Cole2020
I feel sorry for the biology teacher and his family, so young!
Yes, AP scores absolutely matter for admissions (if taken soph/junior year). And sure, they matter for credit but more often than not, students do not use them to graduate early.
@bgbg4us , one thing to keep in mind is that a lot of the kids in the intro level classes now will likely not cover as much material as those classes normally would.
So most kids in the classes just beyond the intro level next fall, regardless of whether they met the intro level prereq by taking the class or by AP results, would likely be starting behind the normal level for those classes.
Thanks @robNNN , for the school she applied for the presidential the application was due Jan 24 and they had said it would take about 6 weeks. It’s now been 8 weeks, so that’s why we’re feeling impatient. For honors they said “mid March” and in an email from her admissions counselor that she sent about two weeks ago he had said results for honors would go out this past Monday. So we were thinking she’d get it in the mail Wed-Fri. I am guessing the school closing down has delayed things! But we shall continue to try to be patient and will hopefully hear soon. Though I may or may not be stalking our mail carrier from inside my house ;-).
That has been our experience. D20 took AP Calc BC & AP Physics 1 junior year, but got 2’s on both exams, despite the fact that she did well in the classes. She did not report the scores to schools where she applied, but of course the classes were on her transcript. So far, she’s 6/6, including acceptances to Michigan and WashU StL. She applied as a math major.
@mom2jgd There are only a handful of colleges where AP tests matter for admissions. The other 3,000-odd, not so much.
@socaldad2002 I’m not sure how the ‘averting of eyes’ screening would work with online AP testing. It may not. I also don’t know the format of the online tests.
Maybe it’s just me, but I"m not stressing over whether mine passes this year’s AP exams or not. If she does great, but if not, that’s okay too. I think I have the parents’ version of senioritis.
Until this year I gave little thought to how much credit D20 would get out of AP tests, and considered them more as a boost for admissions. But as we are getting closer to actually paying that huge tuition bill, I’m more focused on hoping she gets the credits. But this whole year is turning out to be such a cluster, I don’t want to place any undue pressure on her to get a certain score.