How does that work, given that AP scores aren’t released until what, July? Would students have to wait two months to know their final grade in the course?
Correct. The students’ transcripts get updated during the summer once all of the AP scores come in.
Crunch time for us also. School ends on June 1st. So all finals in May second/Third week before memorial day long weekend. Time has flown by this second semester.
S24 is at 89.2% in Lit class and its going to be a nail bitter as 89.6 and above is a A. He is doing good in other classes so far. I have told him just focus for next 4 weeks and then he can relax over the summer.
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We have the same issue, has to bring his english grade up 1 point and get a decent score on the final for that 89.5, doesnt matter in the long run but the one B by 0.2 is a killer!
Here in the Northeast school doesnt end until the third week of June, still a long way to go!
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Our schools start in mid August so end early also. Yes agree being very close and missing hurts let hope both the kids can pull it through and end up with an A 
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AP Chem exam next Monday! I’ll be out of town for work for that test and I think 5/12 AP World. Feel kinda guilty because I want to be home and channeling local good vibes. 
Today a fellow mom texted me some good news as I’m also working out of town. D24 and her friend won 1st place at the UC Davis MESA regional finals. I think that is the farthest level of comp for MESA. They did a research and proposal on the sustainability prompt. D24 explained to me what it was and I now want to shop the idea around with investors in Silicon Valley . Maybe I’ll convince one kid to do Engr and Business!
She also got invited to the interview round for our city’s civic summer agency work. They match up kids’ interests with whatever relevant agency work is available. I like it but I hate that it’s unpaid work. It clashes with my employer/worker philosophy. This process seems to be a hot mess and a little unprofessional. They give the kids two days heads up for a virtual interview. This means D24 had to miss soccer practice. And then they only give them the same amount of time to submit a cover letter and resume. They’re friggin 15 years old. This wasn’t even on the application criteria. I don’t know how kids who aren’t privileged like D24 gets this done. She didn’t even know what a cover letter was. So last night (12am my time), I helped her with a template and gave her the cliff notes version of what types of questions they would ask in an interview, what cover letter is, and we formatted the activities list she had put together (learnings from S21 college app experience) into a resume format. She couldn’t get it down to one page but I said screw it and don’t worry.
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I wonder if this kind of grading is common? The vast majority of APs here have a 100% pass rate(3/4/5), so that would mean all kids would get an A for the year! That doesn’t really seem fair to the kids who worked to get the A during the year and scored well on the test, plus it would seem to lead to a lot of grade inflation. How do colleges tell which students actually had long-term command of the material? Passing an AP with a 3 is supposed to be equivalent to a college C.
AP tests are required here, there are mandatory Saturday practice exams which count for 20% of the spring semester, and while the “Real” AP score itself does not count, it is printed on the transcript that gets sent to colleges.
From speaking with parents whose kids go to different schools in the area, our school’s grading policy for AP classes is not the norm.
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Congratulations on D24 wining the Mesa regionals. Looking for investors with the idea is very much like what my husband would do :0 We are in Silicon Valley/close to it so why not.
Good luck to you D24 on the AP Chem exam. My son’s one AP exam is 5/9 and he is not yet looked into it.
At our school grade you get in class is the grade on the transcript with the exception of AP World where the teacher had said that if you got a B and you get a 5 on the exam, he would bump up a full GPA. I think he would get them to a B if they got a 4 (would not deduct grade).
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We just heard there will be no final exams again this year. It was too disruptive of a year again. So school ends in mid-June, but she’ll be done with a lot of it at the end of AP testing on May 20. We will be glad to finish this year!
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Some drama last night with D24 as the schedule for next year came out. She wanted to take HL Visual Art and HL Maths A&A. Unfortunately, these classes (both a two year class for IB candidates) are offered the same period. So, back to the drawing board. Add in that her friends are laser-focused on academic rigor and D24 broke down in tears, saying that if she took art then the colleges she was looking at would not accept her. Sigh. The stress these kids are under. I had to have a point by point conversation with her on the subject, going through the colleges she is interested in and the colleges this year’s senior class is committing to (nice to know since S22 knows most of the class). As I explained, since she is not interested in T25 schools, there is really no difference between SL Maths A&A and HL Maths A&A (calculus is still calculus). I backed it up by pointing out that the only seniors going to an Ivy (and another going to Georgia Tech for engineering) were not taking S22’s brutal HL Physics and HL Maths A&A schedule, so clearly her friends were a bit misinformed. I asked her which class she truly wanted to taking (hoping it was Art, there is plenty of time for Math). She said Art. So, I told her to talk to the Art instructor to see if there was a way to do one-on-on instruction to make the schedule work (noting, that is not likely to happen). Instead of being disappointed when you ask (though the instructor would be happy that you asked), take the SL Maths. D24 really wants to go to Mines anyway, and at Mines, they do ALL the Maths. So, she should live a little in high school.
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At our school, AP grades were completely unrelated to AP Scores. However, school required that all students registering for AP classes had to commit to take the exam. In return, there was no “final” - they felt students preparing for the exam accomplished any academic goal.
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D24’s 1st final exam is tomorrow for Chemistry. Fingers crossed! Regular classes have basically ended for the year now, so when she’s not taking the exam from 12-2:45 pm tomorrow, she’ll be in study hall.
Good luck to all our AP Chem kids today!!! I’m flying on a trip so maybe closer to the AP Chem gods. I said a prayer.
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1 final exam down! D24’s next one is on Friday - AP European History. No regular classes all week, but she’ll be at school nonetheless…so she’ll basically spend all day studying for it Tues-Thurs. Good luck to everybody in the coming weeks!
We have normal school. I don’t understand this because I swear when I was in hs, I took the exam during school day and didn’t miss any classes? D24’s exam was at noon. For some reason it was delayed due to AP Gov and they didn’t start til over an hour or so later so didn’t finish til 4:30pm (school ends at 3:10). I flew out so left post it notes for her in the bathroom :).
She said she had to get at least a 3 :). This will truly for pride and vanity since she will be taking intro chem again in college. I am a big fan of intro science in college where they will get real teaching.
D24 has a timed write in English on Fri. It was supposed to be tomorrow but they got it moved back. I told D24 to get friends to rally. “hey kinda like how unions work!” Got it moved. She has AP World on 5/12.
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Good luck to the kids going through AP and Final exams.
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Yes exams should ideally be in the school time. Its strange they went so much over the time.
S24 English teacher has timed write and in class essays multiple times this semester and it has been one of the challenging areas for him. The English teacher is strict grading but I do see him put more effort and learning more in the class.
It might have helped my D said AP Chem was easier than she expected so thank you!