The same instance happened to me. In all my 6 AP classes, I have a 2, a 3, two 4s and two 5s. For my 2, the teacher was absolutely awful and there has never been a 5 in his 6 years of teaching the subject. For my 3, it was a young teacher and her first year teaching the subject. My GPA is a 4.3 and Im in the top 2.5% of my class. It’s very frustrating, as all of our scores are reported on our transcript and colleges see it. I’ve learned that colleges will notice the trend of me getting As in all the classes and getting good scores on most of the tests, and they will reason that a teacher had to be an issue. I live in a small Appalachain town, so the region issue will also be noted, as most teachers in my area aren’t as qualified as they should be. Don’t sweat it, it’ll work out! Just study hard for the next tests.
OP, you can have those AP scores cancelled. No need to report those scores to colleges. It’s up to you if you want to retake them or just concentrate on other tests.
My oldest son took four AP exams in his freshman year, scoring 3, 3, 4, and 5. He had the 3s removed from his record and retook those exams and got 5s by doing some self study with Thinkwell (He was homeschooled/dual-enrolled).
My middle son took Physics B last year, got a 2, and had the score removed. (He’d taken only 1/2 the material at the local community college, and didn’t study for the exam, so while he got an A in his physics class, he needed to take the second semester in order to have learned all the material for the exam; I think we were still expecting a 3 at least)
He reported no AP scores and was admitted to U Penn as a Fine Arts major. (Which was frankly a high reach for him despite a good SAT of 2230 and SAT II scores of 730 and 710)
It’s not a deal breaker not to have AP scores. However, taking AP classes with no AP scores does raise questions, I think. My kids didn’t take AP classes; they just took dual-enrolled classes.
It may not be that unusual. In the Houston Independent School District, many students who got A grades in AP courses scored 1 or 2 on the AP tests.
@royals101 AP scores carry little to no weight in the admissions process; they are primarily used for credit and/or placement. That said, no, colleges will not give you a break because you took the test after taking a non-AP class. It was your choice to take the test.
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To answer the OP’s question…“no”
@royals101, as a general rule, you can convert a PSAT to an SAT by adding a 0 so your score would look like a 1900. That is above the national average, but way below scores for Ivy or highly selective schools. If you have a hook such as being Latino or low income, or are from a small state, that score may be ok. If you are white/Asian and from a middle class suburb, you will need to raise those scores significantly and/or consider less competitive schools. The challenge you face is that there are thousands of valedictorians with 220+ PSATs, 2300 SATs, and all 5s on AP tests vying for the same slots. My son had almost perfect grades and scores, including a 2370 SAT, 800s on 3 subject tests and 5s on every AP test, and was wait listed at Princeton and Brown, rejected from Harvard and Yale.
I’m going to add a different spin to this. Extremely competitive colleges look at every bit of data. Doing poorly on AP tests do not put anyone in a good light. Sure, some allowances can be made (in the OP’s case, he/she took them as a sophomore), but if this trend continues in AP exams taken after Junior year, it can only be bad. Harvard has said AP scores are a better predictor of academic success than SAT/ACT. What does that say? Also anecdotally, one of the “top” high schools in a large urban school district where I recruit had a decent reputation for a long time. But year after year, applicants to the elite schools kept doing poorly on their AP tests despite the 4.0GPAs. Frankly, colleges saw this as grade inflation and the AP courses’ weight was diminished in the eyes of the admissions offices. The school’s AP English teacher routinely submitted LORs rife with grammar errors. This, combined with solely ones and twos on the AP exams have reflected poorly on that school. Consequently, that school hasn’t had an admit to my college in probably ten years.
While the bulk of applicants take AP tests in senior year, I think to categorically say that prior AP performance isn’t considered is incorrect (from my experience, anyway).