What happens when you fail one semester of an AP course? Need all advice please.

Pre-College Issues High School Life
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I had a B+ last semester, and I will fail this semester. I don’t want to go into more detail than that.
I am a sophomore in highschool.
What do I do?

How much would a 5 on the AP exam help? A 4?
Can you take classes over the summer to make this up?
If so, how will this look on my transcipt?
How will this look on my transcript if there aren’t ways to make it up?
Should I even bother to apply for universities now? Competitive universties? I’m really stressed about this.

Any advice or even past experiences you guys might have is greatly appreciated, thank you.

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  1. How much would a 5 on the AP exam help? A 4? Not sure. If you're talking about college admissions, not much (from what I gather here on CC). Although you can get college credit for your scores, adcom doesn't take AP scores into account when evaluating your application.
  2. Can you take classes over the summer to make this up? You need to discuss this with your GC b/c different schools follow different policies. However, I've never heard of of people taking courses over the summer to make up for a failed semester of an AP class (when I say this, I mean I haven't heard of people taking AP courses over the summer).

Some schools may allow you to retake the semester that you failed during the school year, some may not.

  1. If so, how will this look on my transcript? Once again, depends.
  2. How will this look on my transcript if there aren't ways to make it up? Very bad. Going from a B+ -> E/F (whichever your school counts as failing) is questionable and will be discussed by adcoms. If this happens, you'll need to work very hard for the next two years to try and make up for it.

There is also a chance that you’ll be short of a half-credit/credit for graduation.
So, for example,let’s say that someone takes AP Lang (english) and needs four English credits to graduate HS. They fail one semester, so they don’t receive credit for the semester they failed - but they pass all their other English semesters. They would be short of half a credit by graduation, and they’d have to make it up somehow - or else they can’t graduate.
Once again, this is something that needs to be discussed with your counselor.

  1. Should I even bother to apply for universities now? Competitive universities? WHAT - I'm sorry, that is an overreaction. Of course you still have a shot. Ivy League/other top tier colleges may not be realistic with a failure in a semester, but other competitive schools? Of course you should still try to apply!

You don’t know your options. For example, there is a chance that the failing grade could be “overwritten” if you retake the class.

I wish I could help you out more, but all of these questions also need to be directed towards your guidance counselor. Hopefully other people on CC can help and provide advice, but realize that we don’t go to your school and don’t know your school’s policies. For this reason, we can’t really answer all of your questions for sure. Best of luck :slight_smile:

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Some teachers may curve your grade for passing with a 4 or 5. That score on the exam doesn’t help your grade otherwise.