@ucbalumnus I believe that should be the move. However, I doubt CB will do this.
Also, it’s hard to do open-book tests for certain subjects like history.
S2 thinks there is going to be rampant cheating, and that colleges will undervalue this year’s test results as a consequence. He also wonders if the rich kids who get doctor’s notes that allow them extended time on tests will get the same advantage again this year.
I hate this idea of just multiple choice. Our kids both do very well on the essay portions of the APs which I honestly think shows better understanding of the subject. MC for a test that will give college credit? Come on. And the way that CB writes MC questions, they are meant to confuse the test taker.
I’m just glad that D21 wasn’t planning on using AP credit. We’ve paid for the tests but I don’t know if I’ll have her even bother with taking them. She is taking AP classes because those are what the juniors at her school take in most subjects with the honors level ending sophomore year. She would have taken the tests to be able to show her scores on her applications. These scores aren’t going to mean much.
@homerdog Per Trevor Packer twi tter March 20:
I have doubts about whether colleges will care about these scores, for admission or credit/placement. (I wasn’t counting on them even under normal circumstances.) Refund is enticing.
I have the same doubts about colleges offering credit or placement for these scores…some of the tests aren’t even on the full curriculum.
Yes, I know the collegeboard website said that ‘colleges support this solution’, which I find hard to believe. Clearly if colleges (how many? which ones?) did say they supported it, they didn’t have all the facts…because collegeboard still hasn’t made some important decisions. Couple that with the fact that the CB organization has made repeated statements of non-truths over the years, well, that’s why I have doubts.
Maybe this will end the AP “space race” game of accumulating as many as possible on a transcript.
Oh, sorry I misunderstood. I didn’t read the CB press release or Trevor’s post. The title of this thread states that MC would be part of the exam. Even as an open response test, I think it’s crazy if colleges accept these for credit. Can a student prove mastery of BC Calc in a 45 min test? That’s a joke and colleges know it. Honestly, I can’t think of any AP subject that could be reduced to 45 minutes. Math and science are particularly troubling because, if kids use the credit but don’t understand the material, they are in big trouble when they skip class and try to take the next one in college.
There has to be a better answer. Push the whole test off until early Aug. Or, for math and science subjects, colleges should give placement tests for credit and bag AP.
Has CB said whether they would refund AP test fees should a student not want to take the ones they signed up for? If not, they should
Trevor Packer says there will be refunds:
So the money would need to come from the school, which makes sense, as we wrote a check to the school. That makes getting the refund complicated, however. (I dislike the school-as-middleman approach and think it would be more straightforward to have AP registration and testing like regular SAT.
Amazing that the cancellation fee under ordinary circumstances is $40; robbery, I say.)
The teachers responding to him on twi tter were pretty annoyed. They weren’t seeing that info in their email, some weren’t receiving the email, etc.
Thanks, I hadn’t seen the refund tweet. Mr. Packer has definitely been taking a beating on twitter.
How will colleges be able to tell if we took the AP exam during this hectic year? Normally when you send them they can’t tell what year you take the exam.
^At least from the admissions angle, if you self-report scores in the Common App as is typical, you are required to include the date. That’s an issue for current juniors.
As for current seniors looking for credit, I’m not sure we can know what the official report looks like, but it would be surprising if the test date were not included.
I didn’t think AP scores weighed heavily in admissions anyway; this year even less so.
In the vast majority of cases, colleges will be able to extrapolate when (but not if) you took the exam based on what year your transcript shows you took the class. For those who self-study, the college will get it off the score report you have to send after you’re admitted.
My guess is that for the typical schools discussed here they may or may not make adjustments to credit policies for the 2020 tests. But most schools probably won’t.
If that means you get out of taking History or Psychology no big deal. Or for that matter an English Major getting out of a math or science class. But I would advise D and others that if you are thinking it means you can skip Calc or Chem and continue on in the subject you are probably going to be making a mistake.
Also I would be surprised if less than 50% of students use some sort of outside materials/google/friend assistance regardless of what the official policy is. It isn’t just going to be the small portion of kids who cheat normally.
In the latter case, my usual statement about making a more informed decision still holds: try the old final exams from the college’s course that the college allows you to skip with your AP score. If you can do them easily, skip the course. If you can do most of them, but need to review a few things, skip the course, but do the review of those things. If you struggle with them, retake the course.
@ucbalumnus that is pretty solid advice.
Proctor or No Proctor. Guys !!! who are we fooling here and frankly …You can’t really blame the students for it.
What is cheating ? Taking help on 20 questions ?!!! 10 questions?!!! 1 Question ?!!!
or just taking a peek into the important notes jotted down during preparation because ,well !!! the notes were just lying around !!!
or may be it was just an accidental glance on one of the many pages lying on the floor left during the intense preparation and coincidentally has information that precisely answers one question or many questions !!! …what do you want them to do now !!!,deliberately pick the wrong answer !!!
I think it’s open note/open book.
My D is a senior currently taking 3 AP classes: Comp Sci Priciples, English, and Calc BC. At her first choice school (down to 2), she will get credit if she scores a 4 or above on each exam. Calculus she could get credit for Calc 1 with a subscore of 4, if her overall score were a 3, but there will be no subscores this year. Even if she qualifies for credit she will take Calc 2, because she is not confident about what she’s learning. Even if colleges aren’t confident about what students have learned, other students taking Calc 2 this semester on Campus are in pretty much the same boat. Colleges will just have to adapt, or administer their own exams.
Her other exams qualify for unrestricted elective credit, not classes upon which other classes will be built. With a technical major, if she were taking an AP science this year, she would skip the credit and retake the class.