<p>Is it bad if you don't take the Ap test??
I have few AP classes and I can't focus on all of them
I'm planning to take on 1 or 2 AP tests that is related to my future major
or is better to take all even though scores will be low?</p>
<p>idk about your school, but mine was talking about not labeling the class as “AP” on your transcript if you don’t take the test at the end of the year- it really isn’t fair to the other students.
At the same time though, if you KNOW you’re going to bomb the test, then definitely don’t take it. A 1 or a 2 will reflect worse on you than you not taking it at all. Try and take another AP in some other area to show that you are serious about taking higher level, more challenging classes though.</p>
<p>Why did you sign up in the first place?</p>
<p>Anyway I would think that it’s pretty bad, I mean from my perspective, if you took them you should be prepared.</p>
<p>There are three reasons for taking AP exams:</p>
<p>1) You will be attending a college that will give you credit (or placement) for a score on that exam that you think you are likely to be able to achieve, AND you want to take advantage of that particular credit (or placement).</p>
<p>2) Your HS requires that you take the exam if you take the course.</p>
<p>3) You have an urgent desire to spend three hours in a pseudo-college-exam environment.</p>
<p>Most people take AP exams for reason 1. Some take them for reason 2. I’ve heard that there are people who take them for reason 3, but I’ve never personally met any of them.</p>
<p>If none of these reasons apply to you, save your money, and take the exam morning/afternoon off.</p>
<p>Wishing you all the best.</p>
<p>thanks for the advices</p>
<p>If you got an A in the class and then decided not to take the test, colleges might assume you didn’t really learn the material / didn’t deserve that A. If I were you, I’d take the tests.</p>
<p>Star* -</p>
<p>Unless you want to use the exam for credit or placement, colleges aren’t going to care about it when you take the AP course your senior year because the exam results are not returned until well after your final HS transcript has been submitted.</p>
<p>Plenty of people do well on AP exams who wipe out in classes labeled AP. Plenty of students do well in classes labeled AP, but wipe out on the exam. Not to mention that every single year some students take AP exams without ever taking a class labeled AP and still perform well on the exam. There is no simple 1:1 correlation here. Each student needs to consider his/her own purposes and needs, and make his/her own decision about which exams to take.</p>
<p>Isn’t this similar to taking a HS class but not taking the corresponding SAT II subject test? Don’t kids do this all the time?</p>
<p>^ The point of AP classes is to get prepared for the exam to get the college credit.</p>
<p>SAT II’s aren’t the purpose of high school classes. I’ve never even met anyone who’s taken SAT II’s.</p>
<p>It looks bad not to take them.</p>
<p>If you couldn’t focus on all your AP classes, then why did you take that many?</p>
<p>My son took two AP classes. One in his sophomore year, and he took the AP test. The second was in his senior year, AP English Comp, but that time he didn’t take the test. There was no point. He was already accepted to the college he was going to attend, the college did not grant credit for AP classes, and everyone was required to take the freshman writing seminar regardless of whether they’d had AP Comp. So the test would have cost $80, or whatver it was, and done nothing but add another test to the end of his year. His teacher didn’t like it, but he understood the reasoning. It didn’t hurt his final grade.</p>
<p>elliotjun: listen to the parents who are responding to your question. Alternatively, call up the admissions departments of the schools in which you are interested and ask them. But keep in mind as "rentof2 says – his son was already accepted to the college when the AP scores were released. So when jamesford says “It looks bad not to take them.” I’m not sure for whom it looks bad.</p>
<p>Many schools only allow 24 college credits to be earned from AP classes/exams. If a student has already reached that max (and determines this by contacting the colleges in question), taking an additional AP test may not be beneficial since it cannot be used toward college credit. Also, if an AP test is scheduled for May, won’t the OP have already received an acceptance or rejection by the time he/she is supposed to take the AP test? Will the college even know or care? Of course this only applies to AP classes taken senior year. If the AP courses are on the transcript from sophomore or junior year and the AP exam was not taken, then a school may notice. My daughter did not take one of the AP exams. She changed her intended college major and decided that she would never need college credit in this particular subject. She has met with numerous admissions counselors, and no one has even questioned this decision (and the AP course was taken as a sophomore).</p>
<p>At my son’s school (and I would suspect most schools), the reason for taking AP classes is that they are the most rigorous courses available and colleges like to see that you took the most rigorous courses you could be successful in. It has nothing to do with whether you take the exam or not.</p>
<p>Taking the course and getting a great grade and taking the exam are two different things that one would do for two different reasons. The reason for each is a personal decision and no one would question a bonafide answer as to why you decided to do either or both. My son took AP English but did not take the exam, because he has a handicap and his school allows him to use a computer to write, whereas the exam board would not…so he could not take the exam on equal footing with the course. An A in the AP English class is great success and if he has to take the course again in college and get another A then so be it. My point is there are many reasons and each person should choose thier own path for the RIGHT reasons, colleges look at each person and don’t do the kind of off the cuff rejection criteria that fear mongering students often fear that they do. If you’re a slacker it will show up elsewhere.</p>
<p>I have kind of an unusual question. For one of my college applications, I decided to write about AP Biology for the favorite class short answer but I remembered that I’m not sending in my exam score for the class. I did okay in the class in terms of grade (and it really was my favorite class) but I didn’t do well on the exam. Would the college think bad of me after reading the hopefully-pretty-good essay but not seeing the score? Not sure if I should put somewhere in the essay 'even though I didn’t do well on the exam…" I feel like that makes my essay sound untrue.</p>
<p>^They won’t care at all.</p>
<p>AP tests literally mean nothing. The only thing they are good for is placing out of a course (which most colleges have free exams to do) and getting credit (which most colleges have a cap on the amount of credit accepted and certain test aren’t accepted). If you make AP scholar before application time it will be a nice award to list, if not it means nothing (other than personal achievement and maybe there is a scholarship somewhere). So take it or not it won’t make the college go “Oh look they’re not taking the most rigorous curriculum, they ducked out on a 3 hour test! Rescind them!”</p>
<p>Sources: Adults that know what they’re talking about, guidance counselor and others.</p>
<p>I was so frightened this morning when my teacher told me that taking the course but not taking the exam would make colleges notice and assume that you only took the course for GPA boost. Therefore, she said, "It isn’t a ‘nice option’ that you might want to choose.’</p>
<p>Reading the comments in this post helps a lot actually, especially when I’m a senior… </p>