My son who is a rising senior got back his ap scores, and they were not what we were expecting.
So far he has gotten a 2 in AP English 4 in AP World History 3 in AP Comp Sci 2 in AP Psychology 3 in AP Spanish Langauge, and a 2 in AP Bio.
I’m not sure why he does so poorly on the AP test, he normally gets an A in these classes, and the class pass rate is normally above 80% for most of the teachers he had. He also did very well on his SAT (1530). I think he just doesn’t do well on tests about one subject that are 3 hours long. In any case, should he just not report his scores? Since score reporting is optional and many reputable sources online say that ap scores are not really factored into admissions should I just have him not send any of them in?
Schools:
Applying to every UC I would think @Gumbymom would know this
University of Michigan
University of Texas
University of Virgina
USC
NYU
Boston College
Babson College
Boston University
Emory
Rice
Cornell
Carnegie Mellon
A few safety schools
Some of the schools on your list require students to report. For those that don’t, I agree with not sending them. The only risk I see is that these are very competitive schools you listed, and I think that it would raise some red flags to see the AP courses on the transcript and not receive any scores.
For the UC’s, you do not have to self-report your AP scores on the UC application. He will however have to send all his AP scores to the college he eventually will attend after HS graduation. UCB does state they do consider AP scores in their application review but is not a major focus. I would report only the 3 or higher AP scores. He will get no credit for anything lower than these scores anyways.
I do have to agree with @momofsenior1 that having good grades in the AP courses but not doing well on the AP exams may indicate grade inflation at his HS.
Has he taken any SAT subject test since the top UC’s highly recommend specific subject tests for some majors to be competitive? He may do better on the Subject tests.
As a parent, I’d be less concerned with whether or not to report the scores and more concerned with figuring out what happened. Not that anyone can change the past, but the knowledge of what happened could be very important for future classes and tests.
If he’s getting As in classes that generally have a high pass rate and scored a 1530 without cheating on his SAT, it would appear that he has the mental capacity to score 4 or 5 on the AP tests. And if he’d done that on most of the AP tests but bombed one, I’d think it was just a fluke (sick, not enough study in that one class, off day), but this was poor performance on tests that spanned over a two week period and also in AP subjects that are considered easier like Psychology, which makes it more of a mystery.
Was this too heavy of an overall load? Is he having other problems unrelated to school? Does he normally do well in year end finals? I’d want to know because some of this might come into play in what he needs for the upcoming year and even in college.
Too many? Is the taking that many senior year? Grade wise, my rising junior got hers back today, AP Euro- 5, 83 in the class, AP Comp Sci, 5, 87 in the class. (Her high school is known for grade deflation, at least the kids know it, I sure hope colleges do)
@gumbymom it is not graded inflation IMO, as I said the teachers of his classes have reported 80% pass rates, and he attends a top school. Also he has done subject tests, 790 Math II 750 Bio E
I don’t know the mechanics of how one would cheat on the SAT, but I keep reading and hearing about it so there must be ways. I was surprised reading about how prevalent cheating was at Stuyvesant and how widespread it is at various colleges.
Makes me realize I’m naive about certain things. As a parent, I know how hard it is to accurately view your own children. If I had a kid who normally got As in class and then bombed tests, I’d suspect a LD or test anxiety issue. But the 1530 on the SAT would be a piece of info that wouldn’t fit, so I’d also consider (hesitantly, but you have to be open) if the 1530 was accurate or was achieved in some other way.
Bottom line - I don’t know. But when I get data that doesn’t fit, I try to figure out what is going on so we know if we need to take a different course of action in the future.
@milee30 Also, he didn’t cheat on the SAT that is just ridiculous. I personally watched him take practice tests as I was proctoring him and graded them right after, and he was getting 1450-1550 on them. He has never been in trouble once in his life for cheating or academic dishonesty, nor would I expect him to act like that. He tutors for the sat after school with kids who scored low. Bad AP scores and good grades/sat does not mean he cheated… I think he was tired from taking 5 tests in one week. He also has taken the test 3 times and has gotten 1440, then 1500 then a 1530 and on both his psats 1390 sophomore year and 1440 junior year. Maybe rather than assume the worst it could be because he studied very hard? He put it almost 2 hours a day and 5 hours a day on weekends to get a good score. It is possible that he didn’t even study for his AP tests, due to the fact that he was trying to improve his SAT score…
Not to mention:
His phone was collected during the test, so the only way he could “cheat” would be to look off another students paper, which also is pretty impossible due to the fact that he got a high score all 5 times he took the sat/psat so unless he sat next to the most well prepared student, and was able to cheat off them all 5 times, which again is pretty much statistically impossible, and due to the fact that every student was a table’s length away from each other (he goes to a small school with around 150 students in his graduating class)
@momofsenior1 Which require them? According to the research I have done none of them “require” them to be submitted until the student accepts enrollment. According to my research Rice, Emory, USC, and pretty much every college I have listed don’t even factor ap scores into the admission decision.
The only class I don’t understand why he didn’t pass in was AP Bio I understand why he did badly in AP Literature, (took it sophomore year, even though it is normally taken by seniors) and I understand why he did badly in AP Psychology, the teacher was brand new, and she didn’t seem to prepare them all that well. I think he was just fatigued from testing, and studying so much for the sat and blowing off ap tests. But that isn’t the question I am asking, I am wondering if these ap tests will be factored into college decisions, according to what I have read you can choose to report them or not, and for almost all colleges but top 10 schools (Ivy League/Stanford/MIT etc.) they have 0 impacts on admission decision.
@milee30 I am sure that is the reason, as I said it basically impossible for him to have cheated, gotten away with it, and scored in the same range 5 times. On top of that I was sitting there with him as he was taking practice tests, and I graded them myself, not once did his score dip below 1440 on practice tests. But again, I wasn’t asking if he cheated on the SAT, I am asking if these 3 very bad scores will hurt his chances significantly enough that he will get rejected from a school because of AP Tests, again according to what I have read, he doesn’t even need to submit the ap tests until he gets accepted to the college, and most colleges he is applying to don’t even factor in AP tests to the decision. Keep in mind he scored a 790 in Math II and a 750 in Bio E.
For UCLA, UCB and USC if he just doesn’t send in his AP scores on his app will it negatively affect him? I know he will send them in once he gets into places, I am just wondering if it will negatively affect him when he is still applying. From what I read, the ap scores for all the schools he is applying to will not impact his admission decision, other than at Berkeley, which even there is not a major focal point and won’t really cause a student who would be accepted to be denied.
I would not submit any scores lower than a 3 unless the school requires it (and as mentioned by another poster, I don’t think any schools require AP scores - some require all SAT/ACT sittings taken.
None of the colleges you list require AP scores for the purpose of determining admission. In fact, there is no college in the nation that requires AP scores to be submitted for the purpose of determining admission. A small number, like NYU, will accept AP scores for admission if you do not want to submit SAT or ACT, but none of those require you to use that AP option. The UCs require you to submit AP scores after you are admitted in the summer before you start college but they do not use scores submitted then to withdraw any admisison already given.
Some colleges will consider AP scores for the purpose of determining admission if you choose to submit them, but with the scores yiou mention, I would likely not report any of them for that purpose.
The SAT Bio subject test should validate he knows the material. I would only report scores of 3 and above. Since he is not planning to go into STEM, then it should not make a huge impact on his admission chances since UCB is the only UC that states they do consider AP scores. I also agree that he needs to figure out why he is not doing well on these tests especially if he plans to take more AP’s Senior year.
I am a student going through this process and I personally wouldn’t submit anything lower than a 3 or more likely a 4, just because you likely won’t get credit for it anyways. I agree that if he did so well on everything else and didn’t do well here, it warrants some investigation. Sadly, the reality of life is that you will sometimes have to take tests for multiple hours all in one subject, especially in college. Writing this off just because he did well in other areas would ultimately be a disservice to his growth as a student. Right now, it may be a sensitive subject but before college I would definitely recommend some type of structure or even just AP test tutoring for his senior year.