ACT writing:@geogirl1 My DD got a 34C but the writing was 24. I considered paying for a rescore, but a 24 is 88th percentile and a lot of schools don’t require writing (and I’ve heard many won’t be considering it or they will factor in the problems with the writing scores) so we decided to just leave it alone. Her application is strong in every other way so hopefully it won’t make a difference. She is a very strong writer and I’m sure her essays and her grades in English and her AP score for English Lang and Comp will show that.
@disshar That’s interesting about the block schedule. My DDs school is also on a block schedule but the APs only take one block to complete. They take 4 blocks per semester and each block is 100 minutes. So each class counts as a full year course (8 per year).
@MichiganGeorgia I worry about that too. DD is considering Howard. With her stats she could get a full ride with book voucher and laptop, BUT it takes a 3.5 to maintain it. That doesn’t leave much wiggle room if she gets even one low grade. She is not going into a hard major though (political science) so I think it might be manageable.
@MichiganGeorgia I hear ya! We’re actually planning OOS intentionally because in-state scholarships are notoriously hard to keep. (KSU you need a 3.5 and that’s not even for “full tuition”) Worst case they lose the OOS scholarship and have to transfer home. Its not the end of the world. But like @STEM2017 said, find out about the GPA for renewal before you make any commitments!
A note on AP classes at Ds school: they have a crazy amount of what I call pure “busywork.” For real for APUSH and APWorld they had to hand-write their notes and turn them in and received a significant amount of course gradework for this handwritten notes. So in other words…a kid could pretty much just do the hand written notes, do mediocre or bomb the tests and still pass the class and get that weighted grade. I don’t agree with that at all. I have never looked into the AP test pass rate but I will say I saw a lot of tweets from kids who made 2’s from kids who I know made an “A” in the class. So either they barely prepare, don’t care about the test or just weren’t prepared for the test or maybe a combination of all the above.
For the kids who actually DO the busywork, it is hours and hours of work. I read about some of you with kids who have 1-2 hrs worth of homework and yet are taking a lot of APs it makes me wonder how this is possible! It sounds like your kids are in a program where the kids are truly learning the material and not just doing busywork. But I am comparing it to Ds school with all the silly busywork, so it is not a fair comparison. Her IB coursework came in waves but there has been no busywork and no grades for homework. Homework is for you to have a structured approach to learning the material…don’t do it if you don’t want to but then you may have lower scores.
@MichiganGeorgia brought up a good point about sustainability.
DH and I just talked about this very topic last night. We are not as concerned about which colleges DD can get in as we are about where she can be successful!
@dfbdfb I was speaking only about my own experience. Not a single generalization in my post. To each their own with respect to course selection, college selection, EC selection etc. I just happen to disagree with the anti-AP sentiment that is quite popular on CC. Everyone in all things needs to evaluate their own individual circumstances and options. That is all.
APs will depend on the kid, the school and the subjects involved. Mileage will vary within those parameters. Everyone tries to make the best decision with respect to class selection (and a whole host of other matters in raising a kid) with best data available. Knowing full well (at least we should) there are no test cases. So no matter how spectacularly something may have failed, your other options at the time may well have turned out worse. And no matter how well a choice may have turned out, at least one other option at the time may well have turned out better. You just do not know. Make the best choices you can and accept them and move forward (changing course as necessary but always looking forward rather than backward).
For us, my kids are what many people here label as “AP junkies.” They had lives. ECs, friends, family time, slept, etc. Worked fine for them. Others have made different decisions and those worked out well for them. How it should be.
My kids’ school ranks based on weighted GPA. One way to get around weighting issue for some unweighted classes is taking them pass/fail. Some people view that as a negative on college apps so they won’t do it. Different strokes. That is true for kids altering their schedules for rank purposes. Some kids will do that and others won’t. Be comfortable with your choices and understand that you can’t have everything. As Steven Wright said “Where would you put it?”
Another datum on AP scores. D’17 got her scores today.
3 5’s Calc BC, Spanish Lang, and Eng Lang and Comp
2 4’s APUSH and Bio.
She had the most work in the two classes where she got a 4. Least favorite class was Spanish Lang, no Spanish Lit for her. In my opinion she grew the most in English lang and APUSH. Favorite teacher was APUSH; she is going to ask him for a recommendation letter, along with Eng Lang teacher. She doesn’t put much effort to memorization and I think she “reads and highlights” a bit too much. Both of those might have been what brought down APUSH and Bio to a 4.
@Mom2aphysicsgeek …wait, which schools recalculate the GPA with pass/fail classes?
Ds school lets kids “GPA exempt” non-required classes. So she took a PE class for one semester only that was not required (it was extra) and she GPA exempted that. She also planned to GPA exempt one class next year. Wonder how that will work out?
For APUSH - students had to outline every chapter of Brinkley textbook - (took my DS many hours & he disliked the textbook) – they barely got through teaching the material - no time for meaningful review. They also had to write a major paper before the AP exam. Time after the AP exam (through June 13th) was pretty much a waste - no real prep for the Regents either, watched movies, did a silly project etc. The in class discussions reportedly were “Ok” - I wonder how the class did on the exam. AP Econ next year - already did 2 years of global & 1 of US history. AP Physics 1 was fun for DS - maybe a bit slow but very enjoyable – however - he is taking a physics 2 course at a college this summer in part to prep for the SAT in Physics bc AP Physics 1 doesn’t cover 50% of the material. Thankfully he took ACT in Oct and got a 35 Composite and 35 on the essay - we were happy to have it done! I hear many colleges though are not giving he essays for ACT/SAT much if any weight.
The class of 2017 has had so much to contend with - somehow they’ll land in college - maybe they deserve a little more “forgiving” look by the ad coms!
It has been so interesting to me to read about so many different AP experiences. My son’s school doesn’t even offer AP Eng Lang, AP US, AP Eng Lit, AP World, AP Euro, or any AP Music or Art but the kids still take those exams if they are in the honors level classes and choose to do so. My son takes 4 semesters of English his jr/sr year that sound more like the classes that @Mom2aphysicsgeek teaches (satire, postmodern novel, irish lit, modern british lit, etc.) but I guess they capture the big ideas necessary to be successful in AP classes. The other thing that is so different in many schools is exactly how many classes a child can take. At my son’s previous school (it was k-12 and he wasn’t high school age), the kids had eight classes and some took 7-8 ap classes. Holy cow. At my son’s current school, they have seven blocks and are never never allowed to take 7 academic classes. They can either fill the 7th one with music, theater, art or study hall and that allows kids to be less worried about dropping choir, art, etc I hate to hear where kids drop the arts for academics if it is a love for the particular kid and am thankful our school allows for that.
@thshadow some people are having a hard time determining whether to re-score the Writing section or re-take the whole thing is that their college list is not final. Like ours, we have almost 20 schools, mixed between requiring Wring and not. Only D will determine where she will end up applying.
@carachel2 They are not likely going to factor it in for PE. Typically they recalculate incorporating only the courses they deem core and weight according to their formula. But if it is a core academic course, apparently some do.
Interesting discussion about busy work in AP classes. While I certainly do not know the details of assignments, I do know that APUSH was not all memorization. They conducted debates in class, had group presentations, etc. My son worried that the APUSH teacher did not prepare them for the exam AT ALL. Not one practice test and instruction took place until two days before the test. That class was a LOT of work though…many late nights reading and writing papers, or so it seemed.
AP Physics teacher had a policy where if homework grades were at a certain level at end of first quarter, student did not need to complete homework for the next three quarters.
BC Calc teacher assigned homework regularly but apparently ‘no one did it’ and it was not collected/graded. BC Calc had the distinction of several years of only 5 scores, but last year one student broke that streak by scoring a 4.
RE: SAT vs ACT. Old SAT only in this house also.
I have heard/read that colleges will not be looking at the essay score. Will pay attention during my early Aug college visits to see how the topic is addressed.
Agree with @Mom2aphysicsgeek about GPA recalculation (ignoring CA schools, as I have no idea how they operate).
Whenever I heard colleges talk about recalculating GPA, it usually involved pulling out gym, study hall (as if that should have a grade!), and often electives. Four core academic subjects plus foreign language remain.
Have heard of schools where they weight AP more heavily than just honors, which our school does not do.
My kids’ school only has six periods. You can do zero but not if you are on swim team. So my kids take at most 6 classes. I’m ok with that. Nexthe year the senior will have
HL English yr2
HL history of the Americas yr2
HL Chemistry double period
SL Economics
Swim team
Last year was the only year she had 7 claases
HL English yr1
HL history of the Americas yr1
SL Math
SL Spanish
TOK
AP Art History
Swim team and volleyball on contract which means you go to practice as soon 6th period ends
AP/GPA: I went back this morning to review our high school’s policy on weighted grades. Basic classes start at 4.0 and go down but (surprisingly) both Honors and AP start at a 6.0 scale. No wonder there’s an AP frenzy at the school! (As I mentioned before, they do rank although it will be going away.) They also limit the semesters of Honors and AP considered for ranking to 28, which works out to 3.5 classes per semester.
My D2 takes what she wants, but chooses Honors/AP if there is an option for that subject because she likes the challenge. Both kids seemed to think the classes at this school do NOT teach to the test.
ACT w/writing: Alas! My D2 got a 34 composite on both of her tries (with a 36 superscore) but the writing section went down from a 25 to an 18. She gets top grades in English, so an 18 (which is 58th percentile) doesn’t sound right. We are paying to have it rescored, since her subject scores on the second test were more in line with what she wants to major in. I know there has been a lot of talk about admissions not looking at writing this year, but one of her top picks does specifically consider it, and doesn’t superscore. sigh We’ll see what happens!