<p>I posted this on another page, but I thought parents might have more insight.</p>
<p>D was a junior IB student this past year. Just took the Government AP test, but didn't study much. She didn't even write one of the essays and thinks she got a 2.</p>
<p>Today is the last day to cancel. Should she? She is more of a science type and won't be majoring in political science or history.</p>
<p>When my son applied to colleges, some of the applications didn't include a place for AP scores and others just asked you to fill in the grades. None of the applications asked him to send the AP scores through College Board. You should also find out if D's Guidance Counselor routinely includes AP scores on their part of the application. My son's school didn't.</p>
<p>I don't believe AP scores are a very important part of the application process, but if she really thinks she got a 1, I'd cancel it. Why would anybody want a college to see a 1 or 2 on an AP test?</p>
<p>If she is not looking to get credit for the course in college and she did well in the actual class, by all means it is okay for her to cancel. </p>
<p>Remember with the elimination of score choice if she releases her ap scores all of them usually go unless she pays a few to hold back the score.</p>
<p>She took the class and got a B. Her school doesn't report AP scores on her transcript. I am just concerned that a college would wonder why she took the class but didn't take the AP test.</p>
<p>Many kids take the class, but not the test. The test is expensive, and not all colleges give credit for every subject.</p>
<p>Since the score can (for a fee) be suppressed - and since she doesn't have to list the score - I would let it go through. My niece very nearly cancelled her LSAT score - and latter discovered she was at the 98th percentile.</p>
<p>I'm confused. How do you suppress a score for a fee? I thought they were no longer suppressible.</p>
<p>quiltguru -
SAT's and SAT II's can't be suppressed. AP's and ACT's can. Typically, you don't send the AP results to prospective colleges (it's pretty pricey) - just report the scores if they are good (what's good is a whole other discussion). You will need to send AP scores to the school you attend, of course, so the ones that aren't suppressed had better match the ones you wrote down!</p>
<p>There are two ways to withhold AP scores. If a student, on his registration form, designated colleges to receive the scores, the scores will be sent unless a written request to withhold the scores is submitted by June 15 and a fee of $10 per grade is paid. If a student decides to send grades to a college not designated on the AP registration form, he can do so at any time by sending a written request and paying a fee of $10 per grade per college. So a student could withhold an AP score of 3 from one college, but send it to another. For information on withholding AP scores, see pages 7 and 8 of the AP Student Pack.</p>
<p>Isn't the bigger issue why she would spend a year in a class, sign up for a test, and then not study for it?</p>
<p>Mini, in theory if you have taken the class, you shouldn't have to do much studying for the test, other than perhaps a quick review.</p>
<p>In theory, calmom. I haven't yet had an AP class I felt prepared me for the test (except maybe Calculus AB.)</p>
<p>Fair enough - my kid took 3 AP tests, without taking any of the classes. But still, isn't the point of an AP class to make it "AP" and have the kids get the credits? If not, aren't there are lots of more interesting things to study?</p>
<p>Well I guess it depends on the quality of the course.... and of course that's the whole point of having a test. I never saw my son study for any of his AP's - APUSH would have been the class he took which covered the most ground, and he got a 4 on the exam. My impression was that they did a lot of practice exams and preparation in class - so whatever studying was necessary was incorporated within the class itself.</p>
<p>My son took 11 AP exams during his HS career. I just asked him about studying for APs and which classes prepared him for the test. He reports that the only exams for which he felt he needed to study were AP Psychology, AP Biology, and AP Macro Economics. Everyone he knew who took AP Art History had to study intensely. Otherwise he felt his classes prepared him well (he has not yet received this year's scores, but all his previous AP scores were 5s). So it <em>is</em> possible to take the AP exams and not need to study just before the tests. At least for some students.</p>
<p>mootmom...your son is obviously a genius. Most kids have to do some studying at least.</p>
<p>My D didn't want to take AP Government. Like I said, long story. The fact is, she spent most of her time studying for her IB tests and was under enormous stress that week. D told me that she was going to make a choice: study for the AP government test or her Spanish SL test, which she felt was more important to her IB diploma. Government just isn't her thing. She won't talk about the class, so I don't know why my D had problems, but she is typically an A student.</p>
<p>It's too late now to cancel anyway, so I guess she'll just have to take her chances. Thanks everyone for all of the advice! I can always count on you!!!</p>
<p>Mini, sometimes the AP classes are just the more challenging versions of classes that are required or desired -- so students will take them because they want the class. At some schools the only version of the class is AP -- for example, a school may offer AP Calculus, but not any other form of calculus. I think the AP European history class at my daughter's high school is the only European history class. And the kids get the advantage of better teachers, more advanced curriculum, and weighted grades whether or not they get AP credit.</p>
<p>And I think mootmom's experience with her son reflects the quality of the course and maybe her son's areas of aptitude and natural interest. My son didn't study for his AP Macro Econ test - and he complained that the AP Econ course was boring because it was too easy, so I doubt he studied much for class either. That doesn't make my son smarter that mootmom's son, even though that was one of the few classes mootmom says he needed to study for. It just means that they were in different classrooms with different teachers, probably different texts, and with different natural aptitudes. I'm sure my son might have had a harder time in some subjects that mootmom's son found to be easy. </p>
<p>But I do think that if a kid has to study a LOT for an AP test immediately after taking the course, you have to wonder about the quality of the course itself. My daughter took the AP English language test even though she hadn't taken the course; she was worried about vocabulary on the test, so she used a review book to prepare for the multiple choice part. The kids in the AP class figured they didn't need prep books -- after the test, it turned out that they all reported having difficulty with the multiple choice questions, which my daughter thought was very easy. So prep really helped my daughter -- but my question was why hadn't the AP teacher taught the same material that my daughter was able to pick up in less than an hour's time of review?</p>
<p>This year's AP Gov test results will be interesting. My D took the test, and because her teacher was more interested in current events, politics and class discussion, I hired an AP district coordinator as her tutor. And this for a kid who won first and second (repeatedly) in state social studies events. She said everytime she went to tutoring, she learned material she had never seen before, so prep wouldn't have helped her, since she was not exposed to the material. She was also told some hints about the test. (Now, we are not rich - am single school teacher, and the tutoring only cost me 120) Teacher was also out a lot - wife pregnant, helath problems, baby born, and jury duty. When she finished she thought the test was fine, except for one essay. I talked to the tutor (an AP govt. teacher, who normally has 90% or more get 5's) say her kids said the same thing - that the quesitons were OK, but one of the essays was something they had never seen before. She said they used an unusual term for the concept, and this may have thrown a lot of kids. Different textbooks, perhaps? So we will see how the grading goes. If a lot of kids blow that one essay...?????</p>
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Isn't the bigger issue why she would spend a year in a class, sign up for a test, and then not study for it?
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<p>I took AP Bio in high school. The first semester it was called Advanced Biology. There were about 20 or so students in the class. The second semester rolled around and there were 7 or 8 in the class. Towards the end of that semester, I felt that the teacher rushed to finish everything in the book that we had not covered. I didn't take the exam because I didn't feel prepared for it. The textbook (that horrible Campbell book that should be burned) was so terrible at explaining things. I took Bio again in college, and it was MUCH easier with a different textbook that made sense. I actually learned something from the labs/classes. The only thing I even remember from the AP Bio was dissecting this nasty old frog that was in formaldehyde for a long time. Maybe we should all skip high school from now on. It's too full of childish drama anyway. In short, although I only took that one AP class, I would ditto what birdofprey said about not being prepared.</p>