<p>An A in an AP class with a 2 or 3 (or even a 1, in one case) on the AP exam and/or low SAT II scores.
A C or B in an AP class with a 4 or 5 on the AP exam and/or high SAT II scores. </p>
<p>Last year, in my APUSH class, we had examples of both of these cases.
I've been told time and time again that colleges really don't care about AP scores that much since they're self-submitted.</p>
<p>Is this true?</p>
<p>A high AP score can make up for a low grade, but not the other way around.</p>
<p>A high score on AP/SAT because it shows grade deflation if it’s a letter grade apart.</p>
<p>So the second case would be preferrable?
But isn’t GPA weighted much more than anything else, regardless of AP/SAT II?</p>
<p>GPA is heavily weighted, but the high score puts the gpa in context - particularly if you attend small unknown school. The low GPA and high score suggests the teacher (or all teachers at that school in general) deflate grades (or don’t inflate them). Thus if you had 3.5 and several AP tests with all 5’s, it would compare favorably with a student from a different school with a 3.9 and mostly 5’s, because the AP tests are the only common assessment. </p>
<p>The high GPA and low scores suggests grade inflation - that your school wants everybody to look good, so they hand out high grades like candy. You might be the top student at your school, but that doesn’t mean much if nobody does well on any common assessments.</p>
<p>probably the second</p>
<p>High AP + low grade generally means that you are a poor student with low effort who happens to be bright. A high grade + low AP score either means grade inflation or poor test-taking skills. Neither is good, of course, but no one sees your AP scores until you get in, in most cases.</p>
<p>An A in the class and a 4/5 is best.</p>
<p>I disagree, depending on the school you are applying to. Many schools will not look at your AP exams until after you have been accepted, for those schools the good grade in the class is far more important.</p>
<p>For me, I would say that the second student has the upper hand, but the problem is that the majority of colleges do not take grade inflation into account when it comes to admission decisions, so while the second student is better prepared for college, the first student will have an easier time with admissions.</p>