PAH AP Physics 1/2 tips for success?

[Miss Tick]

In an effort to demonstrate college-level capabilities we've decided to sign my ds up for PAH AP Physics 1/2. The teacher, Dr. Kernion, says he will respond within a week, but the wait is killing me! I'm trying to distract myself, but I'm still obsessing over my inbox.

DS has completed Algebra 2 successfully, so his math background should be sufficient. He is intimidated by the estimated 10-12 hours required per week. Is this accurate? By which I'm really asking, is it likely that he will need to work even more than 12 hours a week? I'm also a bit worried about the teacher being overly stern and inflexible. We've had less than ideal PAH experience before.

Does anyone even take this class? I could really only find AP Physics C discussions on the forums. We aren't quite at that level here.

Maybe I just need to go look at cupcakes and kilts. Or better yet bake some actual cupcakes.

[regentrude]

Don't know anything about the class, but wanted to comment on something many parents are unaware of and it comes up frequently in my work as academic advisor (you may already know, but then this is for the benefit of the other users):

The college credit from AP Physics 1/2 exams will not satisfy the degree requirements for students majoring in science, math, and engineering (with the possible exception of biology, depending on school). These majors require a calculus based physics. Credit from AP Physics 1/2 exam will just give general credit. 
An AP Physics 1/2 class is still a good preparation for a student interested in these majors; however, I would not bother with the exam.

ETA: 10-12 hours a week sounds about right for an algebra based college physics class which would be the equivalent to AP Phys 1/2. The one I teach has 3 hours of class; we expect 2 hours outside of class for every hour in class, i.e. 6 (homework, reading, reviewing lecture notes, studying for exams), plus biweekly lab.

Edited August 12, 2021 by regentrude

[Miss Tick]

Thank you. Reassuring to hear from an expert, @regentrude

[Miss Tick]

46 minutes ago, regentrude said:

I would not bother with the exam.

Hmm, I know the class/exam is virtually useless for college credit engineering-wise, but I was planning on having ds take it anyway after putting in all that time. Perhaps I should have him take it in case, as his career plans evolve, it becomes more useful after all. However, if he does not do well can we choose to not send grade reports from the test? Or are AP exams more like college transcripts, and all must be reported?

[regentrude]

49 minutes ago, SusanC said:

 However, if he does not do well can we choose to not send grade reports from the test? Or are AP exams more like college transcripts, and all must be reported?

sorry, no idea.

Usually we don't receive AP score reports until well after the student has been admitted. 

[Farrar]

Taking the class still demonstrates college readiness. Admissions cares as much or more that you took the class than about the scores at most schools. You do not have to report the score. The exam can be used at most colleges that take AP scores to satisfy gen ed science requirements if you're not a science or engineering major (and even if you are sometimes for biology or other courses that don't rely as heavily on it). They can also be used by a student to prove readiness for a STEM major and therefore boost chances of admissions in some cases. So take it or don't take it, but there are many reasons to take it.

[Miss Tick]

16 minutes ago, Farrar said:

So take it or don't take it, but there are many reasons to take it.

Thanks. The plan is to take the test especially if there is an option to not report it. He is a pretty good test taker, his concern is managing the workload. Normalizing it with responses here and clearing some room in his schedule are probably more important for him. The test anxiety is mostly me on his behalf. Ridiculous, I know.

 

Now if the teacher would just respond about the application and let me move on! 😀

[Roadrunner]

1 hour ago, Farrar said:

Taking the class still demonstrates college readiness. Admissions cares as much or more that you took the class than about the scores at most schools. You do not have to report the score. The exam can be used at most colleges that take AP scores to satisfy gen ed science requirements if you're not a science or engineering major (and even if you are sometimes for biology or other courses that don't rely as heavily on it). They can also be used by a student to prove readiness for a STEM major and therefore boost chances of admissions in some cases. So take it or don't take it, but there are many reasons to take it.

I think this is true to some extent, but…

Bunch of kids who graduated this year from local PS with pretty much identical transcripts (give or take some electives) have outcomes at UCs very much aligned with their scores. So in the absence of SATs, from a group of 15 kids we know closely through friends and soccer team, the difference was mostly in AP scores. These are all sports kids for extracurriculars and have very much the same transcript since our local PS isn’t flexible on what it allows students to take over the first two years. It seems to me UCLA and UCB relied  heavily on reported AP scores no matter what they say publicly. This is all anecdotal evidence of course. But I wouldn’t completely dismiss scores. 

[SDMomof3]

8 minutes ago, Roadrunner said:

I think this is true to some extent, but…

Bunch of kids who graduated this year from local PS with pretty much identical transcripts (give or take some electives) have outcomes at UCs very much aligned with their scores. So in the absence of SATs, from a group of 15 kids we know closely through friends and soccer team, the difference was mostly in AP scores. These are all sports kids for extracurriculars and have very much the same transcript since our local PS isn’t flexible on what it allows students to take over the first two years. It seems to me UCLA and UCB relied  heavily on reported AP scores no matter what they say publicly. This is all anecdotal evidence of course. But I wouldn’t completely dismiss scores. 

We found this to be the case with kids in our area as well. 

[UmmIbrahim]

We had a homeschool friend of ours take Physics 1 and 2 with Kernion last year.

Our friend is really into physics, but was juggling a lot of DE courses at the same time, so the combination Physics 1 and 2 quickly got out of hand for him in terms of workload. This is a kid who is very strong in math and was taking calculus simultaneously, but still found the pace to be extremely challenging. This is, of course, a YMMV kind of a situation, and a lot will depend on what other rigorous classes your child has scheduled for next year. Kernion will allow students who are trying to combine 1 and 2 in one year to drop back and then join the slightly slower paced class which just covers Physics 1 throughout the year. Our friend ended up "dropping back" and just completing Physics 1 by the end of the year. Even so, his mother mentioned to me that many weekends were needed to catch up with all of the work at various points throughout the year. So keep in mind that "just" doing Physics 1 in one year is by no means light.

Kernion is also generally easygoing, in our experience (my oldest son took Physics C with him a few years ago), so I don't think you have to worry about an overly strict instructor. Most of the work of the course is done independently using his website and pre-recorded videos. Back when we took Physics C, there was just a live class every other week for an hour, so it wasn't a ton of "class time." For our family, looking back, we wish we had saved the extra money and just bought the self-paced version of the course (which is basically the same thing minus the live lectures and grading) from his website (physics prep) instead of doing it through PA Homeschoolers. A lot of that preference will depend on how your student likes to work.

Regarding the AP Physics 1 exam itself, if I'm remembering correctly, it tends to have one of the harshest grading curves for getting a 5. (Certainly double check on that). It might be enough for your purposes to take the course to show rigor or as a sort of preview for taking AP Physics C in the future, but then not take the exam at the end. I don't know of many (any?) colleges that would give credit for an algebra-based physics class, so the exam probably isn't going to do anything for you unless you are really counting on it to be your only outside testing or have some other reason that you really want to pursue this particular exam. Finding a testing site for Physics 2 was particularly challenging for my friend, because that one is really not offered many places and can be somewhat difficult to find a seat to test. Of course, since they ended up dropping the Physics 2 exam in favor of just covering Physics 1 for the whole year, that became a moot point.

Good luck in planning your year. Also, again, if I'm remembering this right, the first unit of Kernion's courses are available for free on his website as a sort of "preview," so if you are really chomping at the bit to get your student started working with the material, you don't have to wait for an email confirmation to start the content.

[regentrude]

39 minutes ago, UmmIbrahim said:

I don't know of many (any?) colleges that would give credit for an algebra-based physics class

Many colleges require, and offer, algebra based physics classes for their life science majors and would accept the AP Physics 1/2 for credit for such a class..

[Miss Tick]

1 hour ago, UmmIbrahim said:

We had a homeschool friend of ours take Physics 1 and 2 with Kernion last year.

Our friend is really into physics, but was juggling a lot of DE courses at the same time, so the combination Physics 1 and 2 quickly got out of hand for him in terms of workload. This is a kid who is very strong in math and was taking calculus simultaneously, but still found the pace to be extremely challenging. This is, of course, a YMMV kind of a situation, and a lot will depend on what other rigorous classes your child has scheduled for next year. Kernion will allow students who are trying to combine 1 and 2 in one year to drop back and then join the slightly slower paced class which just covers Physics 1 throughout the year. Our friend ended up "dropping back" and just completing Physics 1 by the end of the year. Even so, his mother mentioned to me that many weekends were needed to catch up with all of the work at various points throughout the year. So keep in mind that "just" doing Physics 1 in one year is by no means light.

Kernion is also generally easygoing, in our experience (my oldest son took Physics C with him a few years ago), so I don't think you have to worry about an overly strict instructor. Most of the work of the course is done independently using his website and pre-recorded videos. Back when we took Physics C, there was just a live class every other week for an hour, so it wasn't a ton of "class time." For our family, looking back, we wish we had saved the extra money and just bought the self-paced version of the course (which is basically the same thing minus the live lectures and grading) from his website (physics prep) instead of doing it through PA Homeschoolers. A lot of that preference will depend on how your student likes to work.

Regarding the AP Physics 1 exam itself, if I'm remembering correctly, it tends to have one of the harshest grading curves for getting a 5. (Certainly double check on that). It might be enough for your purposes to take the course to show rigor or as a sort of preview for taking AP Physics C in the future, but then not take the exam at the end. I don't know of many (any?) colleges that would give credit for an algebra-based physics class, so the exam probably isn't going to do anything for you unless you are really counting on it to be your only outside testing or have some other reason that you really want to pursue this particular exam. Finding a testing site for Physics 2 was particularly challenging for my friend, because that one is really not offered many places and can be somewhat difficult to find a seat to test. Of course, since they ended up dropping the Physics 2 exam in favor of just covering Physics 1 for the whole year, that became a moot point.

Good luck in planning your year. Also, again, if I'm remembering this right, the first unit of Kernion's courses are available for free on his website as a sort of "preview," so if you are really chomping at the bit to get your student started working with the material, you don't have to wait for an email confirmation to start the content.

Thank you for the detailed response! Being able to "drop back" to Physics 1 alone was definitely part of our decision process.

I haven't tried to find seats for the exams yet since we haven't officially heard from the instructor, but it is nice to have a heads up about the Physics 2 test.

[Arcadia]

7 hours ago, SusanC said:

However, if he does not do well can we choose to not send grade reports from the test? Or are AP exams more like college transcripts, and all must be reported?

Nope, you can choose which AP exam scores to report. My kids did not do well for last years' exam and we opt for the cancel scores option for convenience since they retook this year. I always pay for score reports to be sent to the community college they do dual enrollment at because my kids want to see their scores before sending.

https://apstudents.collegeboard.org/score-reporting-services/withhold-scores

"You can request that the AP Program withhold one or more AP Exam scores from any college or scholarship program that you chose as a score recipient. The score will be withheld from any future score reports sent to that college or scholarship program.

• A request to withhold a score does not permanently delete your score.
• You may later release the score to the college or program by sending AP Services a signed written request. There is no charge to release scores.
• For scores to be withheld from the college or university indicated online through My AP, AP Services must receive your request by June 15 of the year you took the AP Exam."

https://apstudents.collegeboard.org/score-reporting-services/cancel-scores

"The AP Program allows you to cancel your AP Exam scores. When you request cancellation, your exam won’t be scored, and if it has already been scored, the score will be permanently deleted from our records. Once a score is canceled, it can’t be reinstated. There’s no fee for this service, but your exam fee is not refunded. Archived scores cannot be canceled.

Scores can be canceled at any time, but for scores not to be sent to the college or university indicated online through My AP, AP Services must receive your request by June 15 of the year you took the AP Exam."

ETA:

My kids didn't take Physics 1/2. Their biggest time spent on AP science were the labs. The lab prep, time spent doing, and then time spent doing the write up. It is possible to "speed through" readings and homework but you can't really speed through labs other than be quicker in doing the write ups. My kids aren't confident in their English writing abilities so they would think very long before writing and they would proofread countless times.

Edited August 12, 2021 by Arcadia

[UmmIbrahim]

4 minutes ago, Arcadia said:

Nope, you can choose which AP exam scores to report. My kids did not do well for last years' exam and we opt for the cancel scores option for convenience since they retook this year. I always pay for score reports to be sent to the community college they do dual enrollment at because my kids want to see their scores before sending.

https://apstudents.collegeboard.org/score-reporting-services/withhold-scores

"You can request that the AP Program withhold one or more AP Exam scores from any college or scholarship program that you chose as a score recipient. The score will be withheld from any future score reports sent to that college or scholarship program.

• A request to withhold a score does not permanently delete your score.
• You may later release the score to the college or program by sending AP Services a signed written request. There is no charge to release scores.
• For scores to be withheld from the college or university indicated online through My AP, AP Services must receive your request by June 15 of the year you took the AP Exam."

Okay, I'm curious how you use this, because I was familiar with the option to cancel scores prior to knowing the score (i.e. the kid is pretty sure they bombed the exam before scoring and know they want to cancel), but the withholding thing is confusing me.

It says by June 15 of the year you take the exam you can withhold the score from a particular school or scholarship. My first question would be about the date. We didn't have scores by June 15 of this year. Does this mean that you withhold your score preemptively, sight unseen from any school that you may not want to send it to down the road? Like if we don't know where we will apply, do we just pay the fee to withhold from schools that are future maybes to have control over the score in the future? And we would pay this fee for every exam and school separately to be able to control the score releases individually for each exam?

I'm really curious how to use this in practice to maybe try out a wider variety of exams without being stuck with low scores if a few of them don't "click."

[UmmIbrahim]

2 hours ago, regentrude said:

Many colleges require, and offer, algebra based physics classes for their life science majors and would accept the AP Physics 1/2 for credit for such a class..

ah ha. Good to know!

[AEC]

Is DS planning on taking Calculus in HS? If so, is it worth waiting to take the C version of Physics which is more likely to count for college credit?

My DS took AP Physics C Mechanics & E&M w Kernion through PAH last year. I'd second the impressions of him as a teacher. The course is well structured, etc. It seems like the calculus based version isn't especially more work than the algebra version, and then you've had the level of class that's necessary for stem. It's been decades...but back when I was in HS (when dirt was new) I had an algebra-based physics class and later a calculus version. The latter was both more in-depth and considerably easier to understand. At the time, I didn't feel like having been through the first course made much difference in ability to take on the calculus-version.

[Arcadia]

2 minutes ago, UmmIbrahim said:

Okay, I'm curious how you use this, because I was familiar with the option to cancel scores prior to knowing the score (i.e. the kid is pretty sure they bombed the exam before scoring and know they want to cancel), but the withholding thing is confusing me.

It says by June 15 of the year you take the exam you can withhold the score from a particular school or scholarship. My first question would be about the date. We didn't have scores by June 15 of this year. Does this mean that you withhold your score preemptively, sight unseen from any school that you may not want to send it to down the road? Like if we don't know where we will apply, do we just pay the fee to withhold from schools that are future maybes to have control over the score in the future? And we would pay this fee for every exam and school separately to be able to control the score releases individually for each exam?

I'm really curious how to use this in practice to maybe try out a wider variety of exams without being stuck with low scores if a few of them don't "click."

We cancelled the scores after seeing them. So it is possible to see the scores before deciding whether or not to cancel them. I did not try the withhold option.

The June 15th deadline is because of the free AP score reports. CollegeBoard wants to know by June 15th so that they have a nice lag time.

"Every year that you take AP Exams, you can send one score report for free to the college, university, or scholarship organization of your choice. Score reports include both this year's and past AP Exam scores.

...

It's easiest and most cost-effective to send your scores to a college through My AP—you have until the June 20 deadline to use your free score send online. If you decide to wait, you can send your scores online for a $15 fee."

[UmmIbrahim]

3 minutes ago, Arcadia said:

We cancelled the scores after seeing them. So it is possible to see the scores before deciding whether or not to cancel them. I did not try the withhold option.

Oh this is really good to know. I was not reading the score cancellation policy correctly AT ALL. I guess that mention of the 15th and cancelling before then had me misinterpreting cancellation as something done without seeing the scores. I'm slow!

We never used any of the free score sends with my older son for his applications because he just self-reported the scores on his Common/Coalition app. Then we only sent them to one school after acceptance. Thank you so much for sharing! That may cause my son to be more adventurous and "chuck" a few exams to try new things knowing that he could cancel any scores he doesn't like. So useful to know.

[Arcadia]

40 minutes ago, UmmIbrahim said:

That may cause my son to be more adventurous and "chuck" a few exams to try new things knowing that he could cancel any scores he doesn't like. So useful to know.

This is what one of my kid's score report looks like with the cancelled scores. I blank out the irrelevant stuff.

Edited August 12, 2021 by Arcadia
typo

[daijobu]

7 hours ago, UmmIbrahim said:

 

Regarding the AP Physics 1 exam itself, if I'm remembering correctly, it tends to have one of the harshest grading curves for getting a 5. (Certainly double check on that). It might be enough for your purposes to take the course to show rigor or as a sort of preview for taking AP Physics C in the future, but then not take the exam at the end. I don't know of many (any?) colleges that would give credit for an algebra-based physics class, so the exam probably isn't going to do anything for you unless you are really counting on it to be your only outside testing or have some other reason that you really want to pursue this particular exam. Finding a testing site for Physics 2 was particularly challenging for my friend, because that one is really not offered many places and can be somewhat difficult to find a seat to test. Of course, since they ended up dropping the Physics 2 exam in favor of just covering Physics 1 for the whole year, that became a moot point.

 

I'm not sure where you are getting this information about the grading curve for physics 1,2.  If it's from the score distribution, that might appear to be the case.  In 2019, 6% and 14% of students taking physics 1 and 2 scored a 5.  43% of BC Calculus students  and 37% of students taking either Physics C course score a 5.  Does that mean BC calculus and physics C are easier than physics 1 and 2?  I think it's the weaker students who are self-selecting for physics 1 and 2 who are also doing poorly on the easier exam.  

This may be unfair, but I group physics 1,2 with computer science principles in the category of easy and not college level classes designed by the college board to offer dumbed down versions of their regular classes so they can increase revenue.    (If you disagree I'm eager to hear your arguments.)

It is good advice to make sure you'll be able to take the exam locally if that is your intention, especially during another pandemic year where campuses may continue to be closed to outsiders.  Data from before the pandemic showed approximately 2000 schools offering physics  2 and physics c e&m, compared with 7000 schools offering physics 1 and physics c mech.  Between 11,000 and 14,000 schools offer calc ab, English, APUSH, and biology.  

[regentrude]

2 hours ago, daijobu said:

I'm not sure where you are getting this information about the grading curve for physics 1,2.  If it's from the score distribution, that might appear to be the case.  In 2019, 6% and 14% of students taking physics 1 and 2 scored a 5.  43% of BC Calculus students  and 37% of students taking either Physics C course score a 5.  Does that mean BC calculus and physics C are easier than physics 1

  I think it's the weaker students who are self-selecting for physics 1 and 2 who are also doing poorly on the easier exam.  

Very likely true. The strong math and science students are less likely to bother with AP Physics 1/2;  if they are going into STEM, it won't give them college credit. They will take calculus based physics. 

[Arcadia]

11 hours ago, UmmIbrahim said:

. I don't know of many (any?) colleges that would give credit for an algebra-based physics class, so the exam probably isn't going to do anything for you unless you are really counting on it to be your only outside testing or have some other reason that you really want to pursue this particular exam. 

 

UC and CSU does

https://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/admission-requirements/ap-exam-credits/ap-credits/ ”

Physics (UC-S)

Physics 1: 5.3 sem/8 qtr Physics 2: 5.3 sem/8 qtr Physics C Mechanics: 2.6 sem/4 qtr Physics C Electricity and Magnetism: 2.6 sem/4 qtr (5.3 sem/8 qtr maximum for all tests)

“

[UmmIbrahim]

10 hours ago, daijobu said:

I'm not sure where you are getting this information about the grading curve for physics 1,2.  If it's from the score distribution, that might appear to be the case.  In 2019, 6% and 14% of students taking physics 1 and 2 scored a 5.  43% of BC Calculus students  and 37% of students taking either Physics C course score a 5.  Does that mean BC calculus and physics C are easier than physics 1 and 2?  I think it's the weaker students who are self-selecting for physics 1 and 2 who are also doing poorly on the easier exam.  

That's probably what I was remembering. I assume that I saw the 6% getting a 5 number at some point and made incorrect conclusions about that. It is probably likely that a larger pool of weaker physics students take this exam when they don't go ahead with Physics C, and that would skew the numbers.

10 hours ago, daijobu said:

This may be unfair, but I group physics 1,2 with computer science principles in the category of easy and not college level classes designed by the college board to offer dumbed down versions of their regular classes so they can increase revenue.    (If you disagree I'm eager to hear your arguments.)

It is good advice to make sure you'll be able to take the exam locally if that is your intention, especially during another pandemic year where campuses may continue to be closed to outsiders.  Data from before the pandemic showed approximately 2000 schools offering physics  2 and physics c e&m, compared with 7000 schools offering physics 1 and physics c mech.  Between 11,000 and 14,000 schools offer calc ab, English, APUSH, and biology.  

Oh I would definitely not call Physics 1 and 2 easy! Our friend found it to be a very challenging class and ended up taking just Physics 1 in the year instead of doubling up because of the rigor. That friend used the class as a first year introductory course, and he is taking AP Physics C (via DE plus the exam) this year as a secondary, advanced physics course. He expects to find Physics C to be easier than it would be as a first physics course because of all of the conceptual and problem solving ability built in the Physics 1 class.

If we had had time, I think my older son could have really benefitted from a Physics 1 class as a first year introduction to the concepts prior to jumping in at the deep end with Physics C. Unfortunately, we ran out of time in the schedule (he was crazy for chemistry and ended up taking 3 credits of that instead of doing 2 for chem and 2 for physics), so he only got one year of physics overall.

I'm doing a better job in juggling the course progression with my middle son, so he's taking Jetta's physics class this year (even though he's already had AP Calculus AB), because I think he will enjoy the subject more if he builds a conceptual foundation first. I expect that we may supplement with some Physics 1 problem sets/resources along the way as well. If he enjoys the subject, we would take Physics C in a subsequent year.

I probably got the impression that Physics 1 wouldn't give credit at many places because I was looking at STEM majors in a small sampling of schools. As evidenced in this thread, tons of schools do give college credit for Physics 1, so I was definitely wrong there!

[Alice]

I don't have specific info on that class but ds took Physics C (both Mech and EM) last year with Dr. Kernion. He really liked him a lot. Ds has always thought he'd be a math major and he is still leaning that way but he started to think about possibly studying physics after the class. 

[Miss Tick]

On 8/12/2021 at 9:58 AM, SusanC said:

In an effort to demonstrate college-level capabilities we've decided to sign my ds up for PAH AP Physics 1/2. The teacher, Dr. Kernion, says he will respond within a week, but the wait is killing me! I'm trying to distract myself, but I'm still obsessing over my inbox.

Quoting myself for future readers to say that on day 5 of my wait ds checked his spam folder and found a response from Dr. Kernion that had been sent the same day he applied. Oy, all that angst for naught. The discussion here was helpful to me, though, and I should probably solicit Hive opinion more often.

[daijobu]

On 8/13/2021 at 12:20 AM, Arcadia said:

 

Physics (UC-S)

Physics 1: 5.3 sem/8 qtr Physics 2: 5.3 sem/8 qtr Physics C Mechanics: 2.6 sem/4 qtr Physics C Electricity and Magnetism: 2.6 sem/4 qtr (5.3 sem/8 qtr maximum for all tests)

“

Thanks for posting this, @Arcadia.  Am I reading this table correctly, that a student earns twice as much credit for Physics 1/2 as for Physics C?  (8 quarters versus 4 quarters)

[Arcadia]

54 minutes ago, daijobu said:

Thanks for posting this, @Arcadia.  Am I reading this table correctly, that a student earns twice as much credit for Physics 1/2 as for Physics C?  (8 quarters versus 4 quarters)

Yes. They earn twice the amount of credits. However this table is in the context of general education requirements. 

[daijobu]

4 hours ago, SusanC said:

Quoting myself for future readers to say that on day 5 of my wait ds checked his spam folder and found a response from Dr. Kernion that had been sent the same day he applied. Oy, all that angst for naught. The discussion here was helpful to me, though, and I should probably solicit Hive opinion more often.

This is a good reminder to me to check my own spam.  Sadly there are no gems.  Only: "READ MY PROPOSAL BELOW GET BACK!"  and "Hello Dear Very Confidential" and "BUSINESS OPPORTUNTIY (sic)".  

I could really use a business opportunitiy (sic) right now.  

[Miss Tick]

2 hours ago, daijobu said:

This is a good reminder to me to check my own spam.  Sadly there are no gems.  Only: "READ MY PROPOSAL BELOW GET BACK!"  and "Hello Dear Very Confidential" and "BUSINESS OPPORTUNTIY (sic)".  

I could really use a business opportunitiy (sic) right now.  

That made me chuckle so I took a peek in my spam folder to see if I was missing any "job opportunitiys" and I found MY copy of the Physics acceptance! Argh! 😄

[Arcadia]

7 hours ago, SusanC said:

Quoting myself for future readers to say that on day 5 of my wait ds checked his spam folder and found a response from Dr. Kernion that had been sent the same day he applied.

If you need to order a lab kit, you might want to order now. Postal service was slow for all the lab kits I ordered.

[AEC]

On 8/14/2021 at 9:46 AM, Arcadia said:

Yes. They earn twice the amount of credits. However this table is in the context of general education requirements. 

depending on your intended major, that may be great or useless.

I just looked up the current requirements for my major at my alma mater, and engineering majors do not take a physical science GE, nor would the non-calc physics count for the physics req. OTOH, if you did have a physical sciences GE, then you could get the 8 credits w/ just the 1 physics class. <shrug>

[Lilaclady]

Collegeboard removed some parts of physics 1 so it only contains 1-5 instead of 1-6. They are hoping that will increase the scores. 

[serendipitous journey]

On 8/12/2021 at 8:55 AM, regentrude said:

sorry, no idea.

Usually we don't receive AP score reports until well after the student has been admitted. 

May I ask about this?  I'm hoping it's relevant to the thread. 

Some schools suggest "x" number of APs with scores of "y", in a student's area of interest, in order to have a strong application.  I.e.,  not precisely "required" but the sort of thing successful applicants have.  Yet the senior year AP scores won't arrive, as you point out, in time for admissions. 

The question: do you have a sense of what these universities are intending?  I've been assuming that a strong application might have some unreported scores, maybe 1 or 2 in the student's area of interest/focus, and wanted to check that this is a reasonable assumption, even for competitive schools. 

Edited August 20, 2021 by serendipitous journey

[regentrude]

8 minutes ago, serendipitous journey said:

Some schools suggest "x" number of APs with scores of "y", in a student's area of interest, in order to have a strong application.  I.e.,  not precisely "required" but the sort of thing successful applicants have.  Yet the senior year AP scores won't arrive, as you point out, in time for admissions. 

The question: do you have a sense of what these universities are intending?  I've been assuming that a strong application might have some unreported scores, maybe 1 or 2 in the student's area of interest/focus, and wanted to check that this is a reasonable assumption, even for competitive schools. 

What they are intending is probably to signal that this is the caliber of students they are looking for. 
On the Common App, students are self-reporting their AP scores for the tests they have taken, as well as the AP exams they are intending to take senior year. (I would assume they are reporting honestly, since dishonesty would be cause for rescinding admission). That gives colleges an idea of how strong the student is.

My school is not of that caliber of selectiveness. However, we do see the self-reported AP scores and intended exams on the application. I would imagine that this information could play a role in the holistic evaluation for merit scholarships and special honors (but since I am not involved in these decisions, I don't actually know).

ETA: Even without the senior year scores, I know that a student who is self-reporting high scores on six AP exams and plans to take three more in their senior year is going to be an great asset to my department.

 

Edited August 20, 2021 by regentrude