AP Testing: How did it go?

[Arcadia]

FYI from CollegeBoard 

“If your child took an AP® Exam during Administration 1 or Administration 2 in May this year, they'll get access to their AP scores starting on Wednesday, July 21.

If they tested during Administration 3 or will be testing in Administration 4 in June, most scores will be available by August 16. We'll email them when their scores are available.”

[freesia]

54 minutes ago, Arcadia said:

FYI from CollegeBoard 

“If your child took an AP® Exam during Administration 1 or Administration 2 in May this year, they'll get access to their AP scores starting on Wednesday, July 21.

If they tested during Administration 3 or will be testing in Administration 4 in June, most scores will be available by August 16. We'll email them when their scores are available.”

It's crazy how late the scores are this year.

[SanDiegoMom]

Coming late to this thread -- this was the first "real" year for my son to take AP's (he took Computer Science Principles in 7th for the experience).  He took Calc BC and AP Chem -- self studying the Chem from taking Connie's Honors Chem last year, and he took AOPS Calc class this year.  He had to do a lot of prep for both, as the Calc class (as all AOPS classes do) went deep but without a lot of review, and of course it had been a full year since he took Connie's class.  So six weeks before he started studying and took around five practice tests each.  He took the May 24 and 25 exams and felt pretty good about them.  He used Princeton Review books for both classes and felt like he was adequately prepared.  So we are crossing our fingers!

When we talked about which form to take it in, he decided to do paper because of the whole not being able to go back.  He was glad in the middle of test prepping after he tried to do online test practice and really struggled.  So paper worked best for him!

[Arcadia]

https://www.totalregistration.net/AP-Exam-Registration-Service/AP-Exam-Score-Distributions.php?year=2021

"The 2021 preliminary AP Exam Score Distributions include exams taken prior to June 21.

Exam                                      5              4             3            2            1             Date Tweeted
Chinese Lang. and Culture      57.0%     15.0%     16.0%     5.0%       7.0%     Jul 08     
French Language                    13.0%     23.0%     35.0%     22.0%      7.0%     Jul 08     
German Language                  18.0%     19.0%     28.0%     24.0%     11.0%     Jul 08     
Japanese Lang. and Culture    47.0%      9.0%     18.0%      8.0%     18.0%      Jul 08     
Spanish Language                  17.0%     30.0%     33.0%     17.0%      3.0%      Jul 08     "

 

[Sebastian (a lady)]

On 6/16/2021 at 12:59 PM, Arcadia said:

FYI from CollegeBoard 

“If your child took an AP® Exam during Administration 1 or Administration 2 in May this year, they'll get access to their AP scores starting on Wednesday, July 21.

If they tested during Administration 3 or will be testing in Administration 4 in June, most scores will be available by August 16. We'll email them when their scores are available.”

These dates are 2-4 weeks later than in past years. Late enough that I wonder how much scrambling college freshmen will have to do to make late changes to their fall schedules.

[Arcadia]

On 6/16/2021 at 10:54 AM, freesia said:

It's crazy how late the scores are this year.

Results are out today. My kids just checked. 

ETA: dear child who shall not be named who is writing phobic actually passed both his eng lang and eng lit.

Edited July 21, 2021 by Arcadia

[SeaConquest]

Sacha passed AP CS A!! He got a 3, which would be pretty sucky for this test under normal circumstances, but for a 12 year old with ADHD, who is not normally that great at high-stakes exams, this is a good result for his first AP exam. So, we are all happy for him. :) 

[freesia]

On 7/21/2021 at 5:50 PM, Arcadia said:

Results are out today. My kids just checked. 

ETA: dear child who shall not be named who is writing phobic actually passed both his eng lang and eng lit.

Yay!  Dd got fives on both of hers. We are delighted bc she worked hard and last year had a disappointment with a test in her best subject. It was the icing on the cake to wrap up high school. 

[Arcadia]

4 hours ago, freesia said:

 We are delighted bc she worked hard and last year had a disappointment with a test in her best subject. 

Kid retook an exam that he scored a 2 for and got a 5 this time. He forgot everything so spent 3 evenings revising. This is a subject that he is neither good nor bad at so he was very frustrated last year after the 45mins exam. Comically he had a B for that class. Both kids aren’t taking anymore AP exams ☺️

[fourisenough]

My DD took the 3rd administration, so she hasn’t gotten her scores back yet, but my cursory look at the score distributions linked above tells me this years’ scores are measurably lower (fewer 5’s & 4’s) than in previous years. Do we think that’s because most traditionally schooled students spent most of the year learning virtually and thus learned less than they typically do? Or does that mean the tests were more difficult? Or something else?

Edited July 23, 2021 by fourisenough

[freesia]

9 minutes ago, fourisenough said:

My DD took the 3rd administration, so she hasn’t gotten her scores back yet, but my cursory look at the score distributions linked above tells me this years’ scores are measurably lower (fewer 5’s & 4’s) than in previous years. Do we think that’s because most traditionally schooled students spent most of the year learning virtually and this learned less than they typically do? Or does that mean the tests were more difficult? Or something else?

That’s definitely possible—that they learned less, but I think we’ll have to wait until all the tests come in. It could be a factor of who took the test when. My nephew, a high scorer, split his tests among the administrations. 

Based on our experience, last year was harder bc the entire grade hung on one or two FRQs.

[Clemsondana]

We used the text and lab kit that @Dicentrarecommended, and my freshman mostly self-taught (I helped as needed) and self-studied and earned a 4 in chemistry.  Kid had an overwhelming schedule (we are dropping from 2 sports to one next year, and a traditionally fall academic competition got pushed to spring because of covid, where it collided with spring's academic competition) so we are pleased that it went as well as it did.  Next year we're going to do biology (yay - something that I'll enjoy helping with!) and US history (kids who do the co-op class plus a little self-study have traditionally done well).  We've decided not to plan our studies around AP, but we do look at what we plan to do and see if anything fits an AP program, and if it does then kid is fine with doing a little prep and taking the test.  

[GoodGrief3]

My daughter got a 5 in English Lang. Last year’s World History was a 3, and she is typically an unenthusiastic and average tester, so the 5 was a surprise. Her instructor was Ms. Dean at AP Homeschoolers, and honestly we were not pleased with the course in general. There were some communication issues that made it an unpleasant experience. Glad for the test result though. 

[NittanyJen]

On 7/9/2021 at 4:07 PM, Sebastian (a lady) said:

These dates are 2-4 weeks later than in past years. Late enough that I wonder how much scrambling college freshmen will have to do to make late changes to their fall schedules.

Colleges actually got the scores up to a week before the kids did, so maybe that helped a little. Some kids found out about this because their scores showed up in their college portals, ahead of the official score release by the College Board.

[madteaparty]

On 7/23/2021 at 1:20 PM, fourisenough said:

My DD took the 3rd administration, so she hasn’t gotten her scores back yet, but my cursory look at the score distributions linked above tells me this years’ scores are measurably lower (fewer 5’s & 4’s) than in previous years. Do we think that’s because most traditionally schooled students spent most of the year learning virtually and thus learned less than they typically do? Or does that mean the tests were more difficult? Or something else?

I still maintain, even though my son’s online exam results were better than his one in person test, than the online exams were way harder. It’s like they decided ahead of time this years’ test would be harder and made it so. 

[RootAnn]

On 7/9/2021 at 3:07 PM, Sebastian (a lady) said:

These dates are 2-4 weeks later than in past years. Late enough that I wonder how much scrambling college freshmen will have to do to make late changes to their fall schedules.

There is always a scramble at dd#1's school, but it usually works out. I think some places have better plans in place than other places. If the school has advisors available to help with schedule changes and course overrides for the few weeks after scores are released,  it seems to go better. 

[SanDiegoMom]

My son took the second administration paper exam and got a 4 in chem and a 5 in Calc BC.  He is happy with his results and I am happy he took the paper exams! The digital sounds like it would have been a terrible fit.  

[BakersDozen]

Given the vibe of our hs community I can't post this without people not understanding how insanely excited I am for my dd, but you all will understand why I wanted to shoot off fireworks (wait, those are illegal here) or something when she got 5s on her last AP exams. So 8 5s for the girl in all. What a privilege to have "walked" this journey with her with most of these (we did classes here at home together save for Stats which she did solo). I am so, so proud of her effort and focused determination.

Lol, when she asked to try her first AP exam I confess I did not exactly encourage her and made sure she understood that she most likely would not earn a 5. Horrible mom, I know. And so happy to be proven wrong!!

[fourisenough]

7 hours ago, BakersDozen said:

Given the vibe of our hs community I can't post this without people not understanding how insanely excited I am for my dd, but you all will understand why I wanted to shoot off fireworks (wait, those are illegal here) or something when she got 5s on her last AP exams. So 8 5s for the girl in all. What a privilege to have "walked" this journey with her with most of these (we did classes here at home together save for Stats which she did solo). I am so, so proud of her effort and focused determination.

Lol, when she asked to try her first AP exam I confess I did not exactly encourage her and made sure she understood that she most likely would not earn a 5. Horrible mom, I know. And so happy to be proven wrong!!

Amazing! Congratulations to you both! 

[fourisenough]

DD took the 3rd administration of AP exams digitally at home in June, so scores are not expected until 8/16, but today I logged into her account just to check something else and I was startled to see that it only shows 1 of her 3 tests as pending/delayed under the 2021 heading. In the explanation for missing scores, it says something about if you don’t see all your tests it might be because it wasn’t uploaded properly (or something to that effect). You don’t suppose she’s only going to get a score on that one test (stats) and not for Eng Lit & Psych, do you?!?! 😱

[JennyD]

1 hour ago, fourisenough said:

DD took the 3rd administration of AP exams digitally at home in June, so scores are not expected until 8/16, but today I logged into her account just to check something else and I was startled to see that it only shows 1 of her 3 tests as pending/delayed under the 2021 heading. In the explanation for missing scores, it says something about if you don’t see all your tests it might be because it wasn’t uploaded properly (or something to that effect). You don’t suppose she’s only going to get a score on that one test (stats) and not for Eng Lit & Psych, do you?!?! 😱

DS also took the 3rd administration but got one of his scores earlier this week, far ahead of the projected date.  Possibly they're in the middle of updating?

[fourisenough]

18 minutes ago, JennyD said:

DS also took the 3rd administration but got one of his scores earlier this week, far ahead of the projected date.  Possibly they're in the middle of updating?

Interesting! I guess I’ll keep checking in.

Do his other scores from 3rd administration show as ‘delayed’ in his 2021 test results?

[JennyD]

31 minutes ago, fourisenough said:

Interesting! I guess I’ll keep checking in.

Do his other scores from 3rd administration show as ‘delayed’ in his 2021 test results?

No.  Just the one score (Physics) appears.  There is no mention of the other one (Comp Sci).

 

[fourisenough]

2 minutes ago, JennyD said:

No.  Just the one score (Physics) appears.  There is no mention of the other one (Comp Sci).

 

Okay, good. That must just be the way it’s showing up at this point. I’ll try to be patient…

[NittanyJen]

My son took the third administration of the Stats exam in June, and his score just appeared. They are appearing earlier than promised!

[fourisenough]

11 minutes ago, NittanyJen said:

My son took the third administration of the Stats exam in June, and his score just appeared. They are appearing earlier than promised!

Just checked and DD’s is there, too. Scored a 3, so not terrible but definitely not what she was hoping for. The digital exams at home seemed much harder to her than most practice tests. Ugh.

[kokotg]

DS18 was surprised to see two of his three scores (from the June online tests) tonight, too. 4s in AB calc and in Physics 1; the physics in particular was a relief--he prepped for it all on his own, and we really had no idea what to expect. He and my 15 year old are still waiting on APUSH.

[AEC]

unexpected results this year.

4 on APUSH and Chem

5 on Physics Mech and E&M

 

based on practice tests, expected a solid 5 on Chem, 4 on E&M, and would have happily taken the 3 on APUSH. <shrug>