Not obvious at all to me, since I don’t know the student or the school or the teacher or… 
Thankfully I took APs back in the day when you only took them senior year. I managed to get a 2 on the AP exam even though I had an A+ in the course. I still don’t know what happened that day. I took Calc again at Harvard self-paced, got an A again and earned money the following year grading calculus homework. I got 4s and 5s on the other three APs I took FWIW. Anyone can have a bad day. Freak out. Whatever.
Growth mindset doesn’t mean S wants a low performance grade or score and the plea not to worry, “I’m really interested in learning.”
To overcome a 2 or 3 in an immesely competitive admit situation only means the rest of the appp was undeniably strong in all other ways the school wants, that this is just one hiccup, for a non-stem kid.
It’s not like submitting a 2 is somehow heartwarming to tippy top adcoms, “Oh, wow, she’s brave.” They’re just as likely to sigh.
And without knowing the rest of the app (sorry, but including geo diversity, particular major, the bright positives this kid offered,) it’s speculation how she got past that score.
Some kids and adults on CC think issues with basic competitiveness somehow become positives. Spinning straw into gold. Don’t count on it.
The question is do you report a 2 or not report at all when the adcoms know (or are pretty sure) you’ve taken the test since you’ve reported other scores, and so could think you’re hiding something. Being upfront may be the best route as the OP’s daughter already has a 3, and 4 and an AP not taken and three more APs as a jr. An AP science as a junior who’s non-stem is not common, even for a place like Stanford. I agree though that a 2 getting in is an exception.
Thanks for the consideration, @theloniusmonk. I want to reiterate, though, that she won’t be applying to Stanford or anything like it. Right now, the schools she’s most attracted to happen to be LACs in our region ranked in the 30s to 80s range, and I’m not holding my breath for those in the 30s.
Sure, I acknowledge that getting a 2 in AP Bio would not disqualify a student from being a STEM major. On the other hand, I think it would probably raise the bar on the other qualifications, for a student to be admitted to Stanford as a prospective STEM major with a 2 in AP Bio–probably raise the bar pretty seriously.
Over-generalization, but I have formed the impression that if the admissions committee wants a student, they are prepared to overlook at lot; and if they don’t want the student, already being a “rocket scientist” is probably not going to be enough.
I don’t serve on admissions committees. But if I did, I would not guess that a student who took 8 AP classes and reported no scores had scored 5/5/5/5/5/5/5/5.
In general, if a score is not reported for an AP exam, when the transcript indicates that an AP class was taken prior to the senior year, I am not going to guess that the student scored a 5–more likely, a lower score, or the student did not take the exam.
I would not be surprised if some schools don’t encourage students to take the AP exams for AP classes they offer. In that case, I would not view the absence of the AP exam as a negative on the student’s part. But if the majority of the students in the class took the AP exam and a student opted out, I would wonder about that, at least a little.
So does everyone else think hiding a 2 is better?
I am not arguing that a student’s reporting a 2 is indicative of a growth mindset. It seems neutral to me in that regard. But I think that hiding a 2 is probably a counter-indication to a growth mindset.
Yes, freak-outs happen. Also, a student could be sick and still show up to take the exam, and then not do as well as seemed likely. It seems to me that a freak-out would be more likely in math than in a subject like Biology, though.
In the olden days, when students took the AP Calc exams, they were generally not prepped on the specific types of questions that were likely to be on the exams. The level of specific preparation that many good schools offer today makes a real difference.
I’m not sure how we morphed to this.
But to be safe, a kid wouldn’t be down to, “I need 2 S2s and one’s lousy.” Have a plan.
“An AP science as a junior who’s non-stem is not common, even for a place like Stanford.”
Ya never know. One of my issues with CC is the blanket encouragement, where the competition is so fierce.
For a tippy top, the real solution is to get a 5. Maaaaybe a 4 is ok. A 2 is subpar.
The bars drop as you move down the college tiers.
Neither do I. AP exams are 7 months away.The kid does not have a 2, is not applying to Stanford, will not get a grade bump for taking the exam, and likely does not really care what calc exams were like back in the Stone Age. And I’m sure I probably missed a few more tangents that have nothing to do with the OP’s question. Can we please focus on the OP and the question as posed?
In the OP’s daughter’s specific context, I think it is okay to skip the AP exam in Physics, since she is taking 2 other AP exams this year and has 2 already. Generally, I would look askance at that, to be honest. However, the record of the entire school on AP exams does not appear to be that strong. Given that, I think it is okay to skip this exam.
The reason that I brought up the Stanford case was to illustrate that it is not fatal to one’s admissions chances, even at a very top school, to report a 2. That seems to me to be relevant to the OP’s question, although I realize that her daughter is not applying to Stanford. Everything might be moved one notch down in competitiveness–even less reason to be concerned about a possible 2.
If one were not concerned about possibly needing to report a low score, why would there be much of an issue about how the student spends a total of 2 to 3 hours, taking or not taking the exam, during the regular school day?
The Stanford applicant’s situation is also relevant because the applicant did not just have a 2, the applicant also had a 5. In my view, this tends to show that the applicant has strong fundamental academic ability, especially coming from a school where 5’s are rare. The disparity in the scores on APUSH and AP Bio tends to cast at least a little doubt on the work of the AP Bio teacher.
Since there seems to be a fairly casual attitude toward AP test prep and AP test taking at the OP’s daughter’s school, it is possible that analogous conditions might apply there.
Thanks for the comments. She has to decide by the end of September. (I was mistaken about the date).
I’m wondering if the fact that no honors physics is offered by the school would come into play in adcoms’ considerations if she decides not to take the test or if she makes below a 4. I imagine T20s or STEM programs wouldn’t give wiggle-room for that. But I would hope the mid-tier LACs she favors would give a humanities/social science student some slack, as her only other option would have been to not take any physics at all.
In a school with more course offerings she could simply take honors physics and have no AP test to take, and no one would penalize her for that. She has had all the other basic honors sciences: earth science, biology, chemistry and will choose an AP science senior year. Senior year she will also take AP Lit, AP Spanish, AP Calc or Stats and AP Human Geo or Psych (will have exhausted the history offerings). She’s taken competitive marching band, concert and jazz band every year. So far she has a 4.0/4.41. (SATS yet unknown.) I hope that hits the basic requirements for a college-ready kid not aiming for T20s.
I think she’s probably fine with the range of colleges she’ll target.
But the question was should she sign up for the test. And signing up gives her the option to take or not. Whereas, not signing up seals the deal now. Why not just sign up?
And if she does take it and get lower than a 4, decide then whether to send it.
Just forget the sidebar speculation in this thread. All you really need to do is some CYA, make sure she knows her targets well, and keeps the doors open, in case she changes ideas or goals.
Kids grow a lot through junior year, then over the next summer, and continuing to 12/31 and May 31.
I hear you, @lookingforward, I think she should sign up and decide later. She seems to think not signing up will lift a weight from her shoulders. And she dreads the 3-4-hour ordeal of the test (regardless of her score) along with all the other testing she will face. Kids!
Sign up now and decide later makes perfect sense. But, the $94 per test, over 6 months in advance, feels like a cash grab by College Board, especially for a test both unlikely to lead to credit and unlikely to lead to a 4 (17.8%) or 5 (6.2%). I’m also about to pay for APUSH and calc and don’t mind, but for Physics 1, I feel like I’m putting a hundred bucks in College Board’s trash can.
If she will not be a science major, then the possible use of AP physics 1 credit would be for general education purposes, but many colleges do not allow that (check colleges of interest if you want to know).
If a science major, it would not be useful if the major requires calculus based physics (most science majors other than biological sciences).
If a pre-med, it would not be useful since medical schools generally expect college courses (and there generally are not higher level physics courses from non-calculus-based physics).
I think it is admirable that your daughter is taking AP Physics at all, inthegarden. It is a bit weird that the school offers no other physics.
As noted by ucbalumnus, the physics credit that could potentially be gained by taking the AP Physics exam (non-calculus physics? presumably?) might have limited utility, depending on the intended major.
On the other hand, if the AP exam got your daughter out of a general education science requirement (or part of it) at her college, that might be nice, because it would permit her to substitute college courses more along her interest lines. Some schools offer waivers for courses based on AP scores, even if they do not award credit. This may or may not help to meet the gen ed requirement.
I am not sure how much the stress due to demands of the physics course would be lessened by not planning to take the AP exam. I wouldn’t guess that the teacher would soft-pedal the course or grading for students who did not sign up for the AP test? Planning to take the AP exam might focus your daughter’s attention a bit more on the course, which might help her performance–only you and she know whether this would apply or not.
Not planning to take the AP exam in physics would give more time to devote to exam prep for the other AP courses. Also, you could save $94, which could probably be better spent. College preparation and application season is expensive enough as is, even if you could spend the money for the exam without even thinking about it, and even if it winds up not being taken.
(Go not to the elves for advice, because they will say both yes and no.)
She’s not taking this course for the purpose of college credit…she’s taking it to have had physics in high school. Everyone in the class will take a final exam that will be 10% of the final yearly grade (whether or not they take the AP test) so she WILL have to keep up and to study. Have no idea how difficult this test will be or how closely it aligns with the AP test. I want her to challenge herself, yes, but in this course I want her to maintain her mental health, above all!
She’s feeling stressed overall about the class. She has the same teacher for pre-calc/trig. She said he does more active teaching for the math class, but that he does little to no teaching in physics…there’s just individual work/reading the chapter in class and homework, and students have to ask him individually whenever they don’t understand. To complicate things, he has a couple of seniors taking AP physics 2 in the SAME classroom, at the same time. I’ve heard other parents who have had students in his classes other years complain that he doesn’t actively teach (though the very strongest STEM students like him.) We try to generally be hands-off with her homework and not helicopter, but in this case she is relying on my husband (a STEM guy) to tutor her several times per week because otherwise she’d really be lost.
She’s in the top 5-10% cohort of students in her school (though obviously not so mathy). It’s not the most competitive public school but at least ranks average in an above-average state. We live in an economically depressed area of the state, though, and the school system is funded at the lowest legal level, hence the lack of course options. Most students just don’t take physics, and most parents have no idea that it’s expected by a lot of colleges, so usually only those gearing up for engineering or CS take it. I guess it’s assumed you’re the type who makes it easily through AP physics without much guidance or else you don’t need physics at all. Only a few students do not enter either community college or our state system, and the top kids generally go to the respected but non-elite flagship. A scattering have gone on to well-known top LACs/Universities and excelled.
Your daughter is lucky that your husband can help her with concepts she doesn’t get in the physics class. I have often found that what students don’t get about a physics topic can be traced to unstated assumptions about things that “everyone knows” about how to approach a problem. Also, often the wording of a question can throw a newcomer off–it can have hidden ambiguities for someone who doesn’t make the common assumptions.
If your husband is alert to your daughter’s starting point in problem-solving, and realizes that the topic doesn’t come naturally to everyone–nothing wrong in that, really–then he can be really helpful!
It may be useful to reflect on how long it took for ideas we now take pretty much for granted to be established. The difference between energy and force was muddled for many years. The first of the ideal gas laws was established by about 1660, but the last of the set took until about 1860. Remarkable, really! (I realize these remarks are not directly on topic of the original question, but they are intended to be helpful and responsive to the OP’s most recent post.)
Physics does help you understand some ordinary situations. For example, if you need to change a flat tire on your car, you can understand how much force or weight on the wrench is necessary to loosen or tighten the wheel nuts/bolts.
The cynic in me agrees that it is a money grab, although the official reason is to try to allow kids to focus their energies on the APs that will be most meaningful (however one wants to define). But I also want to point out that there is an Option B to the money grab - late registration. Yes, you pay a late fee in addition to the test fee so there is a bit of gambling here.