Is the AP exam necessary?

[FriedClams]

My dd is talking AP comp sci with Edhesive. Great class. Loves it. Will get an A.

 

Does she have to take the exam for anyone to care?

 

FWIW, she crushed the ACT, is doing DE and has great grades there, too.

 

Honestly, I'm kind of over standardized tests for her and hoop jumping to get a slot at a traditional school (the PSAT was enough of that!).

[regentrude]

If she wants college credit for it, she needs to take the exam. The course alone will not be accepted for credit; colleges expect certain minimum scores to count it for credit.

If she does not take, and do well on, the exam, she will have to take comp sci at her college if it is required for her degree

Edited December 6, 2017 by regentrude

[FriedClams]

If she wants college credit for it, she needs to take the exam. The course alone will not be accepted for credit; colleges expect certain minimum scores to count it for credit.

If she does not take, and do well on, the exam, she will have to take comp sci at her college if it is required for her degree

I shall jump the hoops! Thanks!!

[brendafromtenn]

My 3rd child took Derek Owens AP Calc class his senior year.  He had a great ACT score and was also taking DE classes.  We opted to NOT take the AP, and then start with Calc I in college.  It was a good move.  He has been VERY confident in his Calc 1 class and it has been good for him to review all of those calc 1 topics so that he is SOLID on them. First semester of college, away from home, has enough struggles.  For this kid, it was good to be confident and not struggle in his first math class on campus.  Now, with the semester almost over, and DS feeling comfortable in college, NOW he is ready for Calc 2.  

 

You just need to know your kid and what they are ready to handle.  Glad we waited.  

 

Just my two cents,

 

Brenda

[luuknam]

Some schools do have their own tests. For example when DW and I took CS1337 at UTD, the strongly recommended first class was CS1336 (which covered very basic stuff, like loops, if/else, arrays), and our first homework assignment in class was to take a test to see if we really shouldn't be in CS1336 instead. And iirc if you had a lot of programming experience you could even skip CS1337 (if you talked to the department) - I think DW asked, but decided not to because she was a Perl programmer, and the classes were in Java. I looked it up, and with a 4 or 5 on the AP, you'd get credit for both 1336 and 1337, whereas with a 3 on the AP you'd just get 3 random credits (and you'd probably want to start in 1337, like DW and I did):

 

https://oue.utdallas.edu/undergraduate-advising/ap-credit/

 

Of course, if you want college credit rather than to just skip pre-reqs, you'd need the AP.

[rdj2027]

My son will not be taking the AP exam but he is not looking to get credit for any class.

[Arcadia]

My dd is talking AP comp sci with Edhesive. Great class. Loves it. Will get an A.

 

Does she have to take the exam for anyone to care?

My kids took the AP Computer Science A exam because that helps take care of one elective for high school since all colleges (including overseas) understand AP exam scores but may not understand DE courses. Their Edhesive scores were probably a B (high 80s or very low 90s, didn’t write the grade down as we intend to do credit by exam).

 

My oldest used his AP Calculus BC exam score to meet the prerequisite for his current CTY JHU Linear Algebra course. I had to upload a scanned copy of his score report when registering for the course as proof of meeting the prerequisite.

[OnMyOwn]

My kids took the AP Computer Science A exam because that helps take care of one elective for high school since all colleges (including overseas) understand AP exam scores but may not understand DE courses. Their Edhesive scores were probably a B (high 80s or very low 90s, didn’t write the grade down as we intend to do credit by exam).

 

My oldest used his AP Calculus BC exam score to meet the prerequisite for his current CTY JHU Linear Algebra course. I had to upload a scanned copy of his score report when registering for the course as proof of meeting the prerequisite.

 

Do you know if most/some colleges will give your son credit for the CTY JHU linear algebra course?  Just curious since I'm soon going to be trying to figure out what to do with my dd for math.  

[Arcadia]

Do you know if most/some colleges will give your son credit for the CTY JHU linear algebra course? Just curious since I'm soon going to be trying to figure out what to do with my dd for math.

My son is in 8th grade and not interested in DE which is why we went for the CTY JHU self paced math courses. He is likely doing Multivariable Calculus next. Then if he is not ready for DE he can take their Introduction to Abstract Mathematics course. He gets assigned a tutor so if he is stuck there is a tutor to ask.

He wanted to do Linear Algebra before Multivariable Calculus, both courses has completion of Calculus BC as prerequisite.

[MarkT]

Do you know if most/some colleges will give your son credit for the CTY JHU linear algebra course?  Just curious since I'm soon going to be trying to figure out what to do with my dd for math.  

Most colleges will give you "credit" or the right to take the next level course by dept exam

 

I believe you would have to be enrolled in the college to take the dept exam

[MarkT]

 

[daijobu]

Another reason to take the AP exam is to show mastery.  It's one thing to get an A in a class that an adcom may or may not be familiar with.  It's another thing entirely to get a 4 or 5 to demonstrate your student truly has mastered the material.  I've read on these boards of students who earn A's in AP classes, only to get a 2-3 on the AP test, simply because the teacher doesn't bother to teach all the material.   :cursing:

 

Even if it doesn't provide any useful college credit, it may be useful for admissions or merit scholarships.  

[mirabillis]

My dd is talking AP comp sci with Edhesive. Great class. Loves it. Will get an A.

 

Does she have to take the exam for anyone to care?

 

FWIW, she crushed the ACT, is doing DE and has great grades there, too.

 

Honestly, I'm kind of over standardized tests for her and hoop jumping to get a slot at a traditional school (the PSAT was enough of that!).

 

FWIW - this was one of my son's very first APs in 9th grade. Even though at that time he was not a tried-and-true standardized tester yet, he still scored a 4. So go for it! Edhesive prepares you well.

[J-rap]

Just a head's up though...  Not all AP courses are counted the same.  At my dd's college, her AP tests did fulfill a requirement and allow her to skip those classes, but the actual credits did not count.  

 

 

[FriedClams]

Another reason to take the AP exam is to show mastery. It's one thing to get an A in a class that an adcom may or may not be familiar with. It's another thing entirely to get a 4 or 5 to demonstrate your student truly has mastered the material. I've read on these boards of students who earn A's in AP classes, only to get a 2-3 on the AP test, simply because the teacher doesn't bother to teach all the material. :cursing:

 

Even if it doesn't provide any useful college credit, it may be useful for admissions or merit scholarships.

I would normally agree, but heard a presentation from a top school and they said they put more weight in the grade that the test. They said they understood bad days and high stakes testing, and were more impressed with a student's trends and long term performance.

[snowbeltmom]

I would normally agree, but heard a presentation from a top school and they said they put more weight in the grade that the test. They said they understood bad days and high stakes testing, and were more impressed with a student's trends and long term performance.

I doubt that is true for us homeschoolers, though.

[ValRN]

My 3rd child took Derek Owens AP Calc class his senior year.  He had a great ACT score and was also taking DE classes.  We opted to NOT take the AP, and then start with Calc I in college.  It was a good move.  He has been VERY confident in his Calc 1 class and it has been good for him to review all of those calc 1 topics so that he is SOLID on them. First semester of college, away from home, has enough struggles.  For this kid, it was good to be confident and not struggle in his first math class on campus.  Now, with the semester almost over, and DS feeling comfortable in college, NOW he is ready for Calc 2.  

 

You just need to know your kid and what they are ready to handle.  Glad we waited.  

 

Just my two cents,

 

Brenda

My DC2 did the exact same thing. He took AP Calc AB in high school, passed on taking the AP exam, and started with Calc 1 in college (with the same rationale). DS's experience was quite different, though. He struggled in Calc at college, but ended up passing. 

 

DC1 took AP English Lang & Comp in high school, opted out of the AP exam because he only took the course for rigor, took freshman English in college. He regretted his decision to not take the AP exam. 

 

DC3 chose to take a rigorous AP English Lit & Comp course instead of the joke of a freshman English lit course at the CC. At this point in the course, she is saying that she will not take the AP exam and would rather go back and take the joke English lit course at the CC just to get the credit. She'd rather take a semester class than to spend a Saturday taking the AP exam.  :confused1:

 

We are tired of jumping through hoops also. However, I allow my children to decide. In addition to home classes, they've all done dual enrollment, and my DD even takes courses at a 4-year university. 

[Mabelen]

Exams are not the end all, but grades can be very variable even within a school teaching the same AP class. We are in a somewhat heavy AP district. I was looking at the profiles of the top 10% of seniors in each high school. Some did not mentioned APs, but most had a minimum of 7. A lot had between 9 and 12. There were a few who had over 12, including one with 17 APs!

[freesia]

The AP tests aren't on Saturday.

[Arcadia]

DC3 chose to take a rigorous AP English Lit & Comp course instead of the joke of a freshman English lit course at the CC. At this point in the course, she is saying that she will not take the AP exam and would rather go back and take the joke English lit course at the CC just to get the credit. She'd rather take a semester class than to spend a Saturday taking the AP exam. :confused1:

AP exams are hosted on Monday to Friday for two weeks on a rigid schedule. AP English Literature exam is on May 9 at 8am.

https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/courses/exam-dates-and-fees

 

My local community colleges have some courses that is awarded credit for California State University system but not the University of California system. Both systems are state universities. If we opt for private universities or go out of state, using community college for credit gets even trickier as there is no credit agreement. Colleges on the other hand do put out their credit by AP exam scores policy on their websites so that is more clear cut to us.

[Arcadia]

Do you know if most/some colleges will give your son credit for the CTY JHU linear algebra course? Just curious since I'm soon going to be trying to figure out what to do with my dd for math.

Below is quoted from the CTY JHU brochure so I don’t think my kid would get college credit for the course. We didn’t opt for the course for college credit so we are okay with that. Colleges have math placement tests though for their entering freshmen.

 

“College Mathematics

CTY’s online college math courses are based on Johns Hopkins University’s undergraduate mathematics curriculum. These courses do not earn college credit from Johns Hopkins, but may be used to ful ll a student’s high school math requirement or determine college placement.â€

https://cty.jhu.edu/ctyonline/courses/ctyonline_catalog.pdf

Edited December 13, 2017 by Arcadia

[G5052]

Mine took multiple AP's and attend/attended the community college, but we only had the community college give credit for the exams that we knew that the targeted 4-year also accepted. For one, we used a foreign language AP to cover humanities credits, and the other got credit for English 110/111.

 

Those of us who use 2+2 programs have to watch that because community colleges are far more liberal with credits for AP exams than the 4-year colleges. I attended a 4-year that accepted ZERO AP's for credit, so I knew the issues there.

[snowbeltmom]

Exams are not the end all, but grades can be very variable even within a school teaching the same AP class. We are in a somewhat heavy AP district. I was looking at the profiles of the top 10% of seniors in each high school. Some did not mentioned APs, but most had a minimum of 7. A lot had between 9 and 12. There were a few who had over 12, including one with 17 APs!

 

:iagree:

Not only can the grades vary, but the demands of an AP course can vary drastically between individual courses.

 

Just as one example: JHU CTY-Online offers AP English Language & Composition and states that the student should plan on devoting 2 hours per week for 30 weeks.  PA Homeschoolers AP English Language & Composition states that the student should plan on devoting at least 10 hours per week.

 

[ValRN]

The AP tests aren't on Saturday.

Yep...forgot that....because my kids have never taken an AP exam.  :laugh:

[GoodGrief]

We used standardized test scores (AP exams and SAT subject tests) to lay to rest any question about the validity of my daughter's parent-assigned grades. It's not absolutely necessary, but I do think it made her a more competitive applicant for schools and scholarships.