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<p>WHOA… how is the college going to know whether or not you’re a native Spanish speaker? That doesn’t make much sense.</p>
<p>The schools do cover kids who are free lunch eligible but I don’t know how they handle the kids that are struggling but not free lunch eligible in NC. Some of the AP tests were a total waste of money with my son as he did not prep himself. With my daughter, she did well on the 8 she took but her college (Grinnell) give her mostly “elective credit”. It really worked out well for her. Even though she had a 5 on the AP bio, she felt like the freshman bio at her college was much harder. She was given elective science credit for the AP bio.</p>
<p>Kids transfer - they might transfer to a school that takes more AP credit than the original one.</p>
<p>As most ap classes cover entry level courses if you transfer as say a junior, would the college go back and add more courses to your college transcript?</p>
<p>^No idea - I actually got credit in grad school in a round about way for APs I’d taken in high school!</p>
<p>I’m not dissing aps at all. They gave my Dds enogh credits to be able to register days ahead of rest of class, so that benefit was worth while. And some colleges used to take so many credits kids started as sophomores. But that is changing, as sometimes just studying for the test isn’t enough to cancel a full college class in terms of knowledge</p>
<p>As for the ap stats class, my daughter was hoping to learn a bit more of the phycology of statistics, not just do math problems all day. Like hoe phrasing questions, where the question is in a sequence, etc can scque results. My non ap stats class in high school was much more useful in that regard. Made me much more wary of just believing surveys. </p>
<p>As for aps, theynhave their use, but are so varied in availlibilty, quality, testing requirements, colleges will just look at what they are given.</p>
<p>In DS HS we had to pay for the AP test if he wanted to take it. Once he knew that he was accepted to his ED choice school and saw their AP credit policy, it didn’t make sense for him to take the tests, so he didn’t waste the money to do it. His teachers weren’t happy as they wanted his score to reflect in the school stats, but my feeling was that if they wanted his score, they could pay for the test. For us it did not make sense for him to take the test, so we did not want to pay for it, and it was one less stress for him to deal with.</p>
<p>I don’t think anyone’s provided this link for you yet.</p>
<p>[AP</a> Scores - AP Scores & Reporting Services](<a href=“College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools”>View Your AP Scores – AP Students | College Board)</p>
<p>I didn’t read through all these posts, just the first page. So if someone has already suggested this then I appologize but what OP should do is call a few schools then her S may be interested in. Speak to the admission officer at that school. OP should explain her dilemna and see how they feel about her S not taking the test. See if they care that he took an AP class and never took the test. Find out how the schools would percieve it.</p>
<p>Op, I would take the AP test if I were your son. Why pay $90 for a test when you know you will not do well. On top of that, you have to worry whether you have to report or not report. Keep your conscience clear, do not take the test.</p>
<p>If you’re a native speaker of Spanish, what are you doing in a high school Spanish class?</p>
<p>It seems to me if a school is teaching an “AP” class where nobody can even manage a 3 on the AP test, the lying is on the part of the school. That’s not an AP class at all. It’s pretend.</p>
<p>^ You don’t need to take the class to take the AP test, for one. </p>
<p>And there were a few native Spanish speakers in our school’s AP Spanish class. AP Spanish is not just about speaking the language. Actually, our native students didn’t even do the best.</p>
<p>Post #50, OOPs, I meant I would NOT take the AP test.</p>
<p>Cardinal Fang=If you are a native English speaker, why are you in a High School English class??</p>
<p>“NC also requires that the AP exam be taken for the course to be considered AP.” – quote by hornet</p>
<p>That is NOT true for NC, although some individual school districts may have chosen to make that a policy. Our public school does not require that the student take the exam for the course to be considered AP. Almost all our AP students choose to take the exam; however, some don’t. One of our brightest students didn’t take AP exams his senior year because his college limited AP credit to two courses. He had taken many AP exams in his junior year, and he had already been accepted to college. He didn’t spend money on AP exams that wouldn’t have helped him anyway. He did, however, get the courses listed and weighted as AP on his transcript.</p>
<p>Hornet is correct that the tests are subsidized for students whose families can’t afford it. Moreover, there is talk in our state legislature to pay for AP tests for ALL students.</p>
<p>Marsian–we see that a lot in our high school too, few seniors taking AP tests because there is no benefit to them to take the test–either they have maxed out credits, can’t get credit, etc. </p>
<p>Also, you don’t even have to take the AP class to take the AP tests. I can’t see how a school can deny you the AP class status if you don’t take the test–unless they are more concerned about the Newsweek “ranking” vs what is best for students.</p>
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<p>In some instances, you’re there because you need to take a foreign language to meet college admissions requirements, and Spanish is the only language your school offers.</p>
<p>I’m amazed at how many schools no longer offer other foreign languages.</p>
<p>An aside on the Spanish question: Once I asked a native Spanish-speaking student how it was different for her taking Spanish vs. native English speakers taking Spanish. She told me that lots of Spanish-speaking students don’t understand Spanish grammar until they take it in school. She was fluent in speaking Spanish, but the English speakers were better at reading and writing Spanish. Many Spanish-speaking parents in our area are functionally illiterate in their own language, so their children may be exposed for the first time to written Spanish in a Spanish course. </p>
<p>Marian, schools in our area focus almost entirely on Spanish. I think it’s unfortunate that other languages are getting short shrift, but there is a huge demand for Spanish from students who know that speaking Spanish will likely help them in the job market – in anything from medicine to construction. Students are on waiting lists for Spanish while other languages can barely fill classes. That is certainly driving our school’s language offerings.</p>
<p>(It must be confusing that there is a Marian and a Marsian. I didn’t realize this when I chose my user name. If I say something outlandish, Marian, be sure to point out that I’m a different person!)</p>
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<p>ADCOMS ALREADY KNOW that many kids will take an AP class and not take the test. This might be due to money concerns, this might be due to it not being required, this might be due to another EC happening at the same time as the AP’s, this might be due to the kid living in a rural area and not having easy access to a test administration. You don’t need to “ask” them what they already know!</p>
<p>If a student is going into engineering, I honestly think it is better to skip some AP tests. Both Cornell and Purdue discourage kids who get 5s on AP Calc BC from skipping the first calculus for engineers class. They say this because about 40% of students who skip that class end up getting a D or lower in the next class. They say this is because the AP Calc BC class does not cover all of the material that the college class does, and in fact just teaches to the test rather than developing all of the foundational calculus skills that one needs.</p>
<p>Now if someone is majoring in anything else but engineering, it’s probably fine to skip it.</p>
<p>I thought those were pretty sobering statistics and they were remarkably similar between the two schools.</p>