<p>At the academic advising day at my son’s big university, the speaker spoke of AP credits and specifically stated that it was not advised to skip the first semester of Chem, if a student ony got a 4 on the AP Chem test, which, of course, is what my son got! He took the first semester of chem and is glad he did.</p>
<p>In a neighboring district, the teacher in BC Calculus told the students to take the AB test or not to bother because he knew he did not teach them all the material that would be on the BC test. However, those kids got credit on their transcripts for a BC calculus course that is clearly not as rigorous as one in which all the material is taught. </p>
<p>There are many reasons to take or not take the AP tests. My oldest is the kind of kid that tested very well, getting 5s and 800s on the Bio and history AP and SATIIs respectively. Yet in APUSH class, he only got a B+. </p>
<p>If your son is thinking of taking physics in college, it may be worth taking the AP test just to see how he does and not worry about the score. As others have said, there is no need to report it. OTOH, given the history at the school it may be more worthwhile to save the $85.</p>
<p>I’ve been startled by how much the rigor of AP classes in high schools apparently varies, nation-wide.</p>
<p>My D scored 4 on AP Calc BC as a high school junior. (I think she was too busy with completing obligations and hadn’t gotten sufficiently on top of the Taylor series unit at the end of the course.) As a senior she’s been taking the next level of calculus (not repeating) at Georgia Tech, via a local dual enrollment program. She finished the first semester class with an A and currently is at A standing in the second semester. Ga. Tech. is a nationally highly ranking engineering school notorious for tough grading.</p>
<p>A friend of my D’s moved from the Boston area in the middle of junior year due to a parent job transfer. The friend was in some AP classes in Mass. and initially joined the same AP classes at our Atlanta suburban public high school, but quickly dropped out of AP down to honors on finding that the level and pace of the Georgia AP classes was way above what the friend had experienced in Mass., and it just appeared too much of a challenge to try to catch up. It’s ironic; I think most Americans would assume Boston area high schools to be academically far above Atlanta area high schools</p>
<p>Students from D’s high school routinely score 4s and 5s on “tough” AP exams. Apparently, to understand how well your student is likely to perform on AP exams you need to know the track record of the school as well as the student.</p>
<p>“It’s ironic; I think most Americans would assume Boston area high schools to be academically far above Atlanta area high schools.”</p>
<p>I don’t! Of course, I abhor stereotypes about the South anyway.</p>
<p>I’ve heard just the opposite of Boston public schools personally. Suburban MA schools, not the case.</p>
<p>We see similar happenings at our high school, kids move in from other states and spend the summer in remedial classes to catch up. Our schools are pretty good but the problem is the schools they have come from either don’t have the advanced offerings or just don’t cover enough material to get the kids to the same level.</p>
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<p>Part of the problem with the AP tests is that since the exam must be given at the exact same time to everyone, regardless of the school schedule. Many schools in the south start almost a month before the schools in the north, so they would of course be behind comparing date to date. They also get month less to teach the material because the test must be given before the earlier schools end.</p>
<p>When to decide… Son chose to not take an AP exam he signed up for the night before the test. He was taking 5 other tests and his HS course was not the AP version. He probably could have gotten a 5 and not needed one course for college graduation reqs. He got 4s and 5s on all of his AP exams, gave him 39 college credits but he still took the 4 years in college. He disliked the teaching of his AP Chemistry course so didn’t always do the work- got a C in it the final semester of senior year a month after taking the AP exam he got a 5 on. Someone we know OOS with similar academic ability got an A in his AP Chemistry but a 3 on the test- they had extra weeks of school before the exam. UW-Madison students usually should take first semester regular calculus even if they took AP calc in HS- son took the Honors sequence in college and still got AP credit as they were entirely different courses. AP courses are comparable to middle range college courses, not the material offered at the best colleges. It doesn’t hurt students to take a good college course instead of passing out of it with a HS course. The reason to have standardized AP tests is given above- not all HS courses/teachers give the same AP course. btw- son got a B (only full letter grades in our district- and no weighting of grades) in AP US history- essays weren’t as good as should be (I discussed with his teacher), so when he got a 4 it was understandable (son would try to write a book in a page/hour’s time and not finish his points). We are fortunate to have had excellent AP teaching in our blue collar city public schools.</p>
<p>Short answer. Don’t worry about it if your child chooses to not take an AP exam as far as college is concerned. It won’t make or break their future.</p>
<p>^^ Hmm, I hadn’t even thought of that. In Michigan, we’re not allowed to start before Labor Day by law. That’s far different than many school districts in the country. Interesting, parent.</p>
<p>Our district usually starts ater labor day, so they are already behind on AP/IB mateials. There will be some units that are not covered as completely because there just isn’t time. AP grading is easier that SATII so you can get a 4 or 5 and still miss a fair amount of material. Our seniors don’t gradute until June 20th but will be done with exams by the middle of May. My D will use her humanities AP credits, but will not try to skip over any math or science based on the tests even though she could.</p>
<p>I shouldn’t have snarked about native Spanish speakers in high school Spanish classes. that was stupid and I know better. A native Spanish speaker who is also literate in Spanish (perhaps because they grew up in a Spanish-speaking country) doesn’t belong in an America Spanish-language class, any more than our children would belong in an ESL class. </p>
<p>But many heritage Spanish speakers, students who grew up in the United States to Spanish-speaking parents, can speak fluent Spanish but are not at all literate in Spanish. For those students, a high school level Spanish class is not ideal (because they are fluent, but need to focus on reading and writing) but better than nothing. In my community college Spanish classes, I usually had classmates with heritage Spanish. My Spanish grammar test results were usually better than theirs, because I pick up that sort of thing fast, and I study. My ability to speak and understand Spanish was far below theirs.</p>
<p>Not only are late school opening dates a detriment to AP students, so is block scheduling. There are good and bad points to having semester-long courses, but one bad side is that first semester students have to go months before taking their AP exams and second semester students have to have an entire semester of material crammed into less than a semester (assuming school finishes in late May to late June).</p>
<p>Some school systems have started offering special Spanish classes that are geared towards the students who can speak, but aren’t particularly literate. If I recall correctly my AP French class was pretty much done with grammar. We read a bunch of fat French novels and a bunch of poetry - similar to say a high school freshman English course.</p>
<p>For the OP, my suggestion would be to simply not sit for the Physics AP exam. If the student doesn’t feel confident, he’s not going to want to use the AP credit anyway; he’ll want to take the university course.</p>
<p>Count me among those who feel that reporting all scores except the bad one would be a lie of omission. It frankly never occurred to me that people might do this, but it seems to be common in this thread. Perhaps you should report “not taken” in your app so that the schools won’t assume you scored a 1 or 2.</p>
<p>I honestly do not see anything different about an unreported AP test score than an unreported SAT one. I don’t understand the feeling of omission you express. AP scores are for a student’s benefit to take credit for a class, there is nothing in it for a college. No colleges report we have X% of our students scoring 4 & 5 on an exam. </p>
<p>Reporting of AP exam scores is a feather in the hat of the HS. They are the ones that want to brag how proficient they are at teaching those AP classes.</p>
<p>If anything, taking an AP exam and not scoring well really tells the student that they need to retake the class in college if they need that subject for their major.</p>
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<p>I agree. I don’t understand that feeling of a lie by omission either. As someone said above, it feels no different from not reporting that you ran for president of student council and lost, or that you tried to run a marathon but didn’t make it through. You’re not obligated to report your “failures.” It seems like it’s overstating what an AP test is. it’s a lucky strike extra; it’s icing on the cake, not the cake itself.</p>
<p>MisterK, if you took the ACT and the SAT and scored significantly better on the ACT, would it be a lie by omission if you didn’t report your SAT scores?</p>
<p>This lie by omission stuff makes absolutely no sense. Many people choose not to take AP tests for a variety of reasons. I’ve never seen any evidence that a school cares. Except <em>maybe</em> if you get all 1s/2s and As in the classes (as that can show major grade inflation). Heck, I remember on at least one of my applications I wasn’t able to report all of my AP scores. I took 10 and was able to report only like 6 or 7.</p>
<p>My D will not take the AP Spanish exam.</p>
<p>At my school district, you must take the AP exam to receive credit for the course. If you don’t, you basically fail the course. Very frustrating to have to pay $350 this year for four AP’s when you know you can only use the credit for two. Plus two AP’s taken in earlier years that the credit is useless also. Lots of wasted money. I’m assuming that the OP already paid for the exam (we had to pay in February), so I guess there’s nothing to lose in taking it.</p>
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<p>That is just so wrong IMO.</p>
<p>At our H.S. if you do not take the A.P. test a final exam is administered. Most kids do take the A.P. test, and teachers get upset if you don’t, and some of them send a mildly threatening letter to the student/parent, lol. My kid is taking all but one A.P. exam for her own complicated reasons. I just laughed and said fine, because I found her reason pretty funny.</p>
<p>keabie18, I assume you don’t live in CA as it is illegal to do that in our state. There was a recent lawsuit to clarify that public schools cannot require students/parents to pay any fees as part of their education. This extends to AP exams, PE clothes, sports uniforms, even pencils and pens.</p>