The 'I Hate CollegeBoard' bandwagon....

[AEC]

trying to find a place to DS to take AP MusicTheory.  It's not super common, and it takes a bit of extra to proctor it (listening + I gather recording stuff?).  This is proving problematic.

The places we've done this in the past aren't offering MT.  So I called CB and got the usual 'give me a city and I'll provide you with 4 places you can check with'.  Fine.

Place 1 - they do not, nor have they ever, proctored or offered AP MT

Place 2 - they do not, nor have they ever, proctored or offered AP MT

Place 3 - it has the name of the city I gave her in the name of the school, but is actually in Florida, not California.

Place 4 - is in the village by same name as the city I gave her, but is actually on an island in Guam.  We are not in Guam.

I gave her the state and zip when she asked, so it's not like this is impossible to have gotten this right.

 

On calling back...they have no ability to identify schools that offer MT, specifically. This is going to make for a very large amount of phone calling. 😕

Anyone have a BayArea location that's offering it? Or are you looking for one - maybe if there's more of us we can convince one of the testing sites?

 

 

 

 

 

This is exactly the same treatment as I received last spring when pre-looking for AP Latin.  I was not given anything in Guam, but one school didn’t offer AP exams at all, ever, to anyone.  My problem was when I called the college board the lady did not speak English and when she tried to spell the names of the schools, but often gave the wrong sound for the letter.  When I emailed the College Board they gave me schools in Detroit when I specifically asked for different communities.  

This is only my second post so I don’t know how to link it, but a very nice lady on the AP Exam Registration changes thread posted a link to a college board site where you can search for schools which have approved an AP syllabus for your desired exam in your desired location.  It doesn’t answer if they will take your student, but it is a gold mine for a place to start looking.  Why no one at the college board offered up this information, that I will never know.

https://apcourseaudit.inflexion.org/ledger/

[Farrar]

I'd ask on your local groups. See what people say. 

We're all with you on the CB. Evil, evil organization.

[JenneinCA]

This is the place my daughter took the AP English Language test.  They offer a whole bunch of AP exams, but they don’t list the music theory one.  I don’t know if that is because they are choosing not to or if no one has asked for it.  You might try asking them.  They are in Los Altos.

http://www.sileducation.org/test-prep-tutoring

 

[Arcadia]

Call CSMA and look for Kirsten Shallenberg. She teach the AP Music Theory course there so she should know where the local (to us) kids take their AP Music Theory exam. 

Community School of Music and Arts

Tel: 650.917.6800

[Arcadia]

41 minutes ago, JenneinCA said:

  I don’t know if that is because they are choosing not to or if no one has asked for it.  You might try asking them.  They are in Los Altos.

http://www.sileducation.org/test-prep-tutoring

 

They prefer not to offer those that are not paper based only. That’s why they don’t offer any of the foreign language ones. 

[JoJosMom]

Well, I'm just impressed that your call taker answered your question. I was told that they would not provide that information. She even (allegedly) confirmed it with a supervisor.

But welcome to the club, AEC! And, here: have a 🍪 and some 🍷. It might help.

[Farrar]

42 minutes ago, JoJosMom said:

Well, I'm just impressed that your call taker answered your question. I was told that they would not provide that information. She even (allegedly) confirmed it with a supervisor.

But welcome to the club, AEC! And, here: have a 🍪 and some 🍷. It might help.

They told me not a single school in Virginia or DC had ever offered an AP exam site to homeschoolers on their records. It was the weirdest list of schools, honestly. So very odd.

[daijobu]

This list has a bunch in Northern California. 

According to this prepscholar post, Music Theory is one of the least popular AP exams (<20,000 versus a half million each in English and APUSH). 

Be prepared, you may need to travel, maybe even to So Cal or out of state.  You may want to even reconsider this course, and perhaps show competency some other way.  

[daijobu]

Another thing you can do it to identify any BM schools that offer the AP music theory class.  I did a google search on "which high schools offer ap music theory" and I came up with this (incomplete) list:

valley view

milliken

stuyvesant

zionsville

This is NOT a complete list.  I just stopped after 4 schools.  But you'll need to contact them to see if they will allow outsiders to take the exam.  The good news is 2 of them are actually in California, but the others are in NY and Indiana.  If it were me, I might be willing to travel to So Cal or maybe Reno, but if it requires flying any further away, I'd skip it.  Particularly if your student is taking any other AP exams the same week, you could be setting yourself up for a lot of unnecessary stress.  I wonder if it isn't a better option to take MT with a favorite teacher or at cc?  

[Roadrunner]

This school in San Jose teaches it. Try them

https://www.mitty.com/academics/performing-arts1

 

Also San Mateo

https://www.smuhsd.org/Page/7611

Edited September 12, 2019 by Roadrunner

[Sebastian (a lady)]

8 hours ago, Farrar said:

They told me not a single school in Virginia or DC had ever offered an AP exam site to homeschoolers on their records. It was the weirdest list of schools, honestly. So very odd.

What?!

It's not only pretty common in Virginia, but also a requirement under state law to allow access to homeschoolers. 

[fourisenough]

We’re not looking for AP MT, but I have had zero luck getting anyone to respond to my emails (2), return my voicemail (1), or even pick up the phone (it just rings & rings at one school). I’m just looking for someone to offer Eng Lang, Art History, and US Government. Why is this so freaking hard?! Honestly, my DD is taking great classes, so I’ll be satisfied if she just learns a lot and does well in the class even without taking the exams, but she SHOULD BE ABLE TO TAKE THE EXAMS!!! 

Rant over, for now. I’m going to workout to burn off some frustration!

[Mom0012]

A friend of mine told me that she called the college board and they told her the local school was no longer offering AP exams to homeschoolersI. I told her I doubted that was true. I emailed the administrator at our school and she told me that they are figuring things out, but homeschoolers absolutely will be able to take her exams there. Never believe the college board! 

This thread has inspired me to make sure to write a sincere thank you with a gift card to the lady at the school who handles AP exams in our area. 

[Arcadia]

3 hours ago, fourisenough said:

We’re not looking for AP MT, but I have had zero luck getting anyone to respond to my emails (2), return my voicemail (1), or even pick up the phone (it just rings & rings at one school). 

 

When did the schools start their school year? My public schools have responded best to appearing in person with a cup of coffee because I would need to wait for either the secretary, vice-principal or principal to be free during the first few weeks for school. Ours start back Aug 15th so the school office is more relaxed now. A friend’s kid goes to a private high school and it’s just as hectic for the admin for the first few weeks of the school year.

[JoJosMom]

12 hours ago, Farrar said:

They told me not a single school in Virginia or DC had ever offered an AP exam site to homeschoolers on their records. It was the weirdest list of schools, honestly. So very odd.

 

Oh, that's super credible. I bet you just stopped wasting your time searching right there. Thanks, College Board! 🙄

[prairiewindmomma]

We ran into the same difficulty.  We gave up after calling everywhere and getting the run around. 

[fourisenough]

8 hours ago, Arcadia said:

 

When did the schools start their school year? My public schools have responded best to appearing in person with a cup of coffee because I would need to wait for either the secretary, vice-principal or principal to be free during the first few weeks for school. Ours start back Aug 15th so the school office is more relaxed now. A friend’s kid goes to a private high school and it’s just as hectic for the admin for the first few weeks of the school year.

They started mid-August. Unfortunately I live 1,000 miles away or I would just show up in-person (DD is away from home training at a residential ballet program). I’m basically limited to two high schools because they are within walking distance from her residence. One is a huge public and one is a tiny private, but both offer all three exams I need. I’ll continue to call and email for a couple of weeks before I throw in the towel. Next year we may just do all DE. It’s so unbelievably frustrating. 

However, as I said previously, the AP classes are very good so I know she’s getting a lot out of them even if she can’t take the exams. If it weren’t for the missed opportunity for coveted ‘outside validation’ of mommy grades I wouldn’t even care. 

[SanDiegoMom]

On 9/11/2019 at 9:56 PM, Farrar said:

They told me not a single school in Virginia or DC had ever offered an AP exam site to homeschoolers on their records. It was the weirdest list of schools, honestly. So very odd.

Weird. We just called our local high school last year and they said "No problem, we have homeschoolers take AP's here all the time."  It was super easy and the front office took care of almost everything.  

[Guest]

On AP MT, one reason why it isn't common is that music schools often don't accept it. They have their own theory placement exams and use those for music majors. For non-majors, AP MT substitutes a hard class for an easy elective, and kids who take AP MT usually are those who do music in college for fun anyway, so while it may get credit, it usually isn't worth it. The course CONTENT is definitely useful to a musician or aspiring music major, but if you can't find the exam, I wouldn't stress too much because the chance is high that the exam actually won't benefit your DC. 

FWIW, here the most accepting schools have been fairly upscale private ones. I've never managed to get to a human with the authority to make a decision in the public schools, but in the private schools, it's usually just a matter of looking up the upper school guidance counselor and calling or e-mailing. The one DD takes her test at doesn't even require pre-payment. They just include her in their test order, and we show up the day of the test with a check. 

[AEC]

Thanks for all the replies and suggestion!

- Mitty (and all of the Catholic private HS's around here I've contacted) categorically refuse to allow outside students to take AP exams.

- All the public schools here will let you sit for them, no problem! As long as you'd be going to that school if you weren't homeschooling....and none of the schools in our district offer, or are willing to admin, MT.

- we've also had good luck w/ the upscale private HS's and the various independent learning centers.  Except for this particular exam, as it requires quite a bit of 'extra' to administer.

- CollegeBoard has a (I think it's new) website that let's you search for locations that have given a specific AP exam in the past, by geography!  252 places in the state of California for MT.  I've called probably 60% at this point.

- "Call CSMA and look for Kirsten Shallenberg"  thanks. will do.

- Berkekely HS is the current best bet. They'll let any one sit for any exam they give, if they have space. they're checking on space..and if so, that's where he'll do it.

"On AP MT, one reason why it isn't common is that music schools often don't accept it."   this.  He's a senior so score will have no impact on any college admissions and he knows no one will give him credit for it. He's SUPER glad to be taking the class - he has a singing performance background but little music theory. He's said he'd prefer to take it, but won't be upset if he can't . Which makes me wonder why I'm spending QUITE so much time chasing it down....but that's another issue.  🙂

 

 

 

[madteaparty]

I don’t hate the college board, just wish instead of a private enterprise there was a utility, national exam system, available, but want to say this same issue is what prevented us from studying AP art history. DS has asked to do this class for a couple years but I could never find a place for the exam to be taken. It’s fine because we are doing our own version of semester long art history through xyz museums with no proof whatsoever that we did it (no exam) but i want to mention, without reading the thread, it’s possible to pay $$$ to have an exam proctored. Private schools here do it, your kid may be the only one in the room. A local mom prefers it so much she will do this now for even the commonly given exams. FWIW. 

[Caraway]

Sent ya a message..😊

[mathnerd]

Call Crowden School and check. From what I have seen, they truly encourage musicianship within the community and they have educators who are passionate about teaching music to children. https://www.crowden.org/the-crowden-school

Another option is to call the SFCM precollegiate program to see if their theory teachers have any leads on where to take the exam for a homeschooler.

[fourisenough]

On 9/12/2019 at 7:05 PM, fourisenough said:

They started mid-August. Unfortunately I live 1,000 miles away or I would just show up in-person (DD is away from home training at a residential ballet program). I’m basically limited to two high schools because they are within walking distance from her residence. One is a huge public and one is a tiny private, but both offer all three exams I need. I’ll continue to call and email for a couple of weeks before I throw in the towel. Next year we may just do all DE. It’s so unbelievably frustrating. 

However, as I said previously, the AP classes are very good so I know she’s getting a lot out of them even if she can’t take the exams. If it weren’t for the missed opportunity for coveted ‘outside validation’ of mommy grades I wouldn’t even care. 

 

Forgive me quoting myself here, but thought I’d update the thread with this plot twist! The Student Life & Housing Manager from DD’s ballet school went to the high school in-person yesterday and managed to get her registered for her three APs AND the psat! I’m so relieved and excited. She even paid the fee in cash and allowed me to Venmo the money to her. I could kiss her, if that wouldn’t be wildly inappropriate and horrifying for my teen daughter. She will also walk DD into the school and make sure she gets where she needs to be for the PSAT next month. Miracles never cease. 

[Kalypso]

I got my ds17 signed up for 2 exams today. I was beginning to get worried because I wasn't getting a response from our usual school. I'm feeling so much relief.