I didn’t see if this was announced elsewhere so apologies if I am repeating, but D21 just got an email from CWRU that for her class only they were going test optional. I’m wondering if any other schools have made a similar announcement.
Oregon State has, but they had signalled they were going to go TO prior to Covid-19 and made it official the other day.
Some schools could also choose just to temporarily go TO for next year. Will be interesting to see how this all plays out.
Even if they give the tests it’s not going to be the same. If you look at the announcement about the AP Subject tests from today it appears students will be taking them remotely, on just about any device they can find (eg “Taking a photo of handwritten work will also be an option”) which leaves zero room for technological oversight. Let me introduce Lori Laughlin, parent, prisoner, proctor. Yikes.
That sounds like a trainwreck. Hopefully they don’t grade on a scale, because if they do then D has to compete against professor google.
I don’t think there is a better way to do this, btw. But I know when I take some licensing exams for work, I at least have to get a proctor with no financial incentive in me passing my CE to say they proctored my exam. Honestly I doubt many of those “proctors” even know or care what they are doing, but I have to jump through a hoop at least. When D takes an AP exam I have a bigger financial incentive for her to get a 5 than she does!
Also I think D is going to be hurt by this. She should be able to throw up a high ACT score, but will need to take it after studying which she hasn’t done yet. Even if that happens, it will probably be in the fall which is late to get figured out what we will do.
My bigger concern is her class rank. I know many schools don’t rank, but ours does and her HS is pretty much an unknown for most selective colleges. So it gives a bit of context to what her grades mean. Her schedule is way overweighted this semester with weighted classes. If she just gets a “P” her rank drops, because she loses the weighted class grade that her classmates got in the fall.
Just another thing to worry about. When I’m not worrying about the huge income drop I’m staring at right now if things don’t improve substantially in the next couple of months.