| As I said, we don't care what the colleges' perspective on the AP exams might be. But in our school, grades are weighted with fewer points for standard courses, a few more for honors courses, and the most points for AP courses. Again, in our school - and people might want to check with their guidance office- if the students don't take the AP exams, they lose "AP credit," and significant amounts of points would be subtracted for, say, 4 AP courses for which the student does not take the exams. That means the grade point average would fall considerably, as would class rank, on the final report to Harvard or wherever.
While our daughter usually doesn't care about grades that much, and has never even checked her GPA or rank, even she is worried about a decline that could result in Harvard talking a second look.
I would be interested in what Harvard has to say about this. Maybe I will ask them if seeing an AP class on a transcript means they expect the kid to take the exam.
Years ago, these exams meant you could move ahead, graduate in 3 years, and save a whole lot of money. Nowadays, they don't really mean that much.
p.s.on the positive side, our school does not have school exams for AP courses..the kids take the AP exams, and then they can relax quite a bit before graduation. They do have papers and projects, but no other exams. |