AP Credits at Yale

mcat2
Mon, 19 Dec 2011 18:11:46 +0000

^ I agree with you.

However, I heard at some high schools, the teachers who teach AP classes are unfortunately (sort of) evaluated by the performance of the students on AP tests. It may put some pressure on the “good” students who decide not to take the AP test. I hope not many high schools are like this.

In my DS’s class, one excellent student really rebeled against one of his teachers in his senior year by not even doing expected work after his EA admision to an elite school, let alone take the AP test. It was a calculated risk he was willing to take. The teacher gave him an B in the end and he really did not care. Many students actually stop learning anything in the spring of their senior year (cutting classes to go to the mall, etc.) Basically, the relation between the student and his/her AP teacher may be at stake here.

I believe DS stopped taking one AP test in senior year, following our suggestion (We really do not mind if he stopped taking all of his AP tests.) But he still took the remaining API tests which he would still want to study regularly till the end. I also believe if he did not take some of the AP tests, his AP teachers might not be very pleased.

Somewhat tangent to the discussion here: in the EC area where the student has a private teacher, choosing not to compete more likely gets on the nerve of the private teacher. It is almost like an unwritten constract between the student and the teacher that s/he needs to compete for the student as well as for the teacher, unless the student is not the “good” student from this teacher (then the teacher really does not care.)