Are AP scores enough?

[Sweetpeach]

Hello Hivers,

 

Directed towards parents who have some experience with Canadian university admissions . . . 

 

My kids are doing AP courses, exclusively, at the high school near our home.  Oldest did AP Cal A/B last year, as a 10th grader, and is preparing for B/C this year, as a self-study.  He is also writing AP Physics 1 & 2 this year.  Next year, as a 12th grader, he'll do AP Chem and regular English 12.  He knows he wants to attend a local university for engineering.  

 

I'm wondering if it is redundant for him write the SAT's as well.  From what I can see, Math 2 SAT is pre-cal.  It probably doesn't make sense to spend the money writing SAT exams if he has the standardized testing done with AP Cal.  Would you have your student jump the SAT hoops, anyways, as an extra level of testing?   I don't really want to spend the money if it isn't necessary.

 

Tricia

 

 

 

 

[mumto2]

I would look at the colleges your Ds is planning on applying to and see what they require. A quick email to an admission person to clarify things can be helpful also.

 

I know that several selective engineering programs require one of the Math Subject exams. A good score is not quite as easy as it sounds because the exams require speed and accuracy. If you end up needing to take one I highly recommend using one of the review books. We used Barron's and were pleased.

[Emerald Stoker]

I have no experience applying yet, though I have been doing lots of research on post-secondary admissions for our local homeschool group--there's a very broad range of requirements from school to school and province to province, as I'm sure you know.

 

The nitty-gritty seems to be, though, that since Canadian university admissions are based pretty much exclusively on grade 12 average grades (rather than standardized tests, recommendations, essays, extracurriculars and so on, all of which can play into American university admissions), the most helpful thing you can do as a homeschooler is provide the admissions departments with something as comparable to government diploma Top Six marks (in Ontario terms, anyway) as you can. You'll have two maths, two sciences (or is that two separate AP physics grades? I don't know how that works), and English, so that is looking pretty good already. It appears that most Canadian schools just want to see quantifiable grades in five or six subjects so they have some basis for comparison with regular high school graduates. If he wanted to add one more subject, maybe something like computer science instead of another (lower-level) math? I'm just guessing about that, though, so ignore me ad libitum!

 

As far as I can tell, the admissions people at most places here look only at top six (or five, depending on province), even for public school kids with lots of grade 12 marks--so doing more than that would only be useful if you thought a higher mark was possible, thus raising the overall average.

 

Colleen has recently gone through the admissions process in (what I think is) your province, so it might be worth a quick message directly to her.

Edited February 13, 2016 by Emerald Stoker

[Janeway]

Hello Hivers,

 

Directed towards parents who have some experience with Canadian university admissions . . . 

 

My kids are doing AP courses, exclusively, at the high school near our home.  Oldest did AP Cal A/B last year, as a 10th grader, and is preparing for B/C this year, as a self-study.  He is also writing AP Physics 1 & 2 this year.  Next year, as a 12th grader, he'll do AP Chem and regular English 12.  He knows he wants to attend a local university for engineering.  

 

I'm wondering if it is redundant for him write the SAT's as well.  From what I can see, Math 2 SAT is pre-cal.  It probably doesn't make sense to spend the money writing SAT exams if he has the standardized testing done with AP Cal.  Would you have your student jump the SAT hoops, anyways, as an extra level of testing?   I don't really want to spend the money if it isn't necessary.

 

Tricia

Colleges that require the SAT 2 will not take the AP exams instead. But I am only familiar with the US system.

Edited February 14, 2016 by Janeway

[Sweetpeach]

Hi, yes, Emerald Stoker, when he applies for uni, he'll have AP Cal A/B, AP Cal B/C, AP Physics 1, AP Phyics 2, AP Chem and English 12.  I just don't want to jump through the American standardized testing if it's not necessary.  

Tricia

[Sweetpeach]

I ended up calling the local university and tbh, they don't seem very knowledgeable about the different sorts of standardized testing.  The lady in the AO was very determined to talk SATs and seemed to have no idea around scope-sequence for that particular testing or comparatively, for the IB or AP routes.  I think I will do a pre-application meeting with the Mr who oversees the engineering core courses and go from there.  sigh. 

T