Thanks for the Gtown example, but I was looking for examples of schools who have said they won’t accept AP scores for credit, as @HMom16 intimated above. I expect many schools are in the same boat at Gtown right now…faculty committees haven’t discussed/decided what to do, even though they might not have said so directly.
IMO CollegeBoard stating that they spoke with colleges before making the change to 45 min seems inaccurate…they spoke with faculty reps? Really? Jon Boeckenstedt, VP Enrollment at Oregon State asked on twitter if any of his colleagues or schools were contacted by CB and…no one had been.
Also, CB thinking students can take the FRQ tests on an iphone is not reasonable.
Lastly, not sure it’s realistic for students to retake an AP exam one year after they finished the class, many will have their senior year AP tests then as well.
Georgetown’s comment is a pretty clear warning that they won’t be accepted. I am sure the faculty Senate has not had a meeting to vote on it yet, but placing a disclaimer about the scores on its admission website is a rather stark warning.
College board may very well be accurate-of the 4000 colleges, it is quite possible the bottom 2000 accept the scores. They just may not be the 100 or so selective colleges discussed on CC.
My daughter had a meeting with her Chemistry class about the new AP tests. The idea behind this is that the prompts are on the phone/iPad, computer. The kids can write their answers on paper and then take a picture of the paper and upload it. They don’t have to physically do the work on the device, but they must take the picture on the device displaying the prompt. My daughter originally asked if she could use my computer for the test (her school uses iPads) because she didn’t want to use the ipad keyboard. But using a computer’s camera is complicated, so so said she’ll handwrite on paper using her iPad to view the prompt and take the picture.
Also @homerdog and others - what I meant about not including anything in the profile lends itself more to the e learning part.
I do think that if a school alters its grading, it probably will be on the profile (ie Spring semester or 4th quarter of 2020 was changed to pass/fail or removed from consideration for class rank, etc), but I do not believe there will be any mention of e learning (the amount of it, the form in which it manifested itself, how many days no leaning took place, etc).
D21’s school schedule and homework has mostly remained consistent – she has two online AP classes so they aren’t really affected, and three college courses this semester. Two college courses transitioned very well to online. One of the classes still meets normally, just virtually. The other is totally online with no virtual meetings, but the teacher is fast to get back to students and there is an active discussion board.
The third college course worries me greatly. The professor is not computer-savvy at all. He took a while moving his course online…and he just now finally told students their midterm grade. There are four things that make up the grade in this course. Two papers, a midterm, and a final. One paper was originally due this Tuesday, but he never gave the actual assignment. The final is in four weeks. Basically the entire last half of the course has been affected, with small assignments and readings only and no communication with the students. D21 got a B+ on the midterm and an A on the first paper, and that’s as far as we know when it comes to her grade in the course. The professor is not giving feedback at all on anything now…
I’m sure. Maybe just screenshot the answers and upload the image file or print as .pdf and upload. They didn’t really talk about it because they are an iPad school.
I have no inside knowledge but my opinion, anyway, is that it’s risky for colleges to give AP credit and it’s risky for kids to take AP credit for certain tests. For BC calc, if the test doesn’t cover all of the material, then the student will not be prepared for the next calc class once they get to college. Same goes for all of the science APs and Comp Sci and foreign language. Students need to be solid in that material to take the next class. Subjects like history and English don’t pose as much of a problem.
I know it stinks but I would not count on these new tests proving proficiency and, even if colleges decide to accept them for credit, I would be very weary of using it. I know that’s not what families want to hear who expected to use AP credit in a big way to lower the price of college. It’s been mentioned before but maybe universities where AP policy is usually generous will also give placement tests to make sure kids are ready to move on.
And of course CB says colleges are going to accept the tests. Do we think they’d say anything else?
@Mwfan1921 I’ll see if I can dig out the specific colleges but my kid said his teacher told him there are only 2 questions on this year’s AP Chem. I agree with @homerdog - kids aren’t getting the full AP experience this year and may not be fully prepared for the next level of class.
I didn’t know they could take an AP test more than once…
Interesting that students can take a pic and upload it. I assume that all has to be accomplished within the 45 min timeframe?
This whole setup is such a disadvantage for low SES students, without devices and/or reliable internet connections. Even some people in our affluent suburban area are experiencing intermittent issues with internet/wifi connections.
My daughter had a meeting with her Chemistry class about the new AP tests. The idea behind this is that the prompts are on the phone/iPad, computer. The kids can write their answers on paper and then take a picture of the paper and upload it. They don’t have to physically do the work on the device, but they must take the picture on the device displaying the prompt. My daughter originally asked if she could use my computer for the test (her school uses iPads) because she didn’t want to use the ipad keyboard. But using a computer’s camera is complicated, so so said she’ll handwrite on paper using her iPad to view the prompt and take the picture.
As to Gtown, I suspect that like most elite colleges they did not give many, if any, credits for AP classes to begin with and only used them for placement.
But I think (without any real knowledge) that the large state schools will still honor the AP credits. It’s a way, just like merit money, to get high achieving kids to matriculate.
As to the merits of using the AP credits as opposed to taking entry level classes in those areas I can tell you that my D18 who is a BS Econ major AP’ed out of introductory Micro and Macro Econ, took the next level of each her freshman year and made A’s in both.
Also her credits for Bio, English, Latin and APUSH gave her the ability to fulfill many of her Gen Ed requirements such that she will have a BS in Econ and a minor in Public Policy and will graduate a year early. She will use the savings to help pay for graduate school. I know that many don’t want to graduate early but even if she didn’t graduate early the AP credits would have freed her up to Complete a double major if she so desired.
Also I understand that perhaps for engineering or other Stem majors retaking Calculus may be very beneficial especially if they did not cover all the material this year.
My D21 will take the AP tests in May and I am hopefully if she scores well She will get college credits for those classes.
I wanted to make a comment on the AP test but I really don’t understand how to do the quote. When I do, my comment end up in the grey quote box. Not below it as it should.
Anyway. D is planning on taking them. If she scores a 3 on any exam the school reimburses us the 40 dollars I paid. She is scheduled for 5 of 3 (Calc BC, CHEM and Lang) she definitely plans to use, and may use psych too.
I called our local state uni. They did not even know about the shortened APtest/content. I feel confident they will take them, they very well my require a placement test. Totally fine with that. I see no down side whatsoever in taking the exams for her.
We know she is not applying to selective schools as finances determine where she can apply.
D is planning on hand writing them and sending a pic from her phone.
Our high school has regular grades for now but I am sensing rumblings of P/F. Wondering whether deferrals might be a more common ED/EA result this fall, so they can see first semester senior year grades.
Does anyone know how a student is supposed to handle any interruption in AP test due to internet connection or other such issue that may arise in the 45 minute time period?
@homerdog or anyone else who knows…Is there somewhere online where I can see our school’s profile? I am not familiar with what that is. Also, I often see people write about counselor checking the “most rigorous” box. How does college admissions work? When a student applies to 10 different colleges, does each college then contact the hs counselor to find out about that individual student’s amount of rigor and are there other questions they ask the counselor? Thanks in advance
@1Lotus You can usually find your high school’s School Profile on the high school website under the college counseling section. If you don’t see it there, try some creative googling: site:highschoolwebsite.org “school profile”
There is a counselor rec form in common app (and coalition app). There is an area to rank how rigorous the student’s curriculum was in comparison to their peers. Some counselors fill this out, others don’t and address that issue in the body of their rec letter. The counselor uploads this form to the student’s common app so that all schools can see it.
If you go to the common app website you should be able to see what the counselor rec form looks like.
Our district covers the full spectrum of SES, and one thing that is being offered for those without internet access is a drive up mobile hot spot. They are using several school parking lots throughout the district where families can drive up to tap into the wifi. While I’m glad they are offering something, I can’t imagine if my D had to sit in her car for several hours at a time to complete her work- let alone take an AP test.
Ugh. My D did a full SAT practice test online today. She was well-rested and well fed. Came down a good bit in ERW and only improved 20 points in math. On the bright side, she said she didn’t focus too hard on ERW because it is the math she’s concerned with (I.e, didn’t use her extra time to double-check answers) but, golly. She worked through the entire PWN Math book (except part of the last chapter) in March.
Maybe it’s just today’s test or maybe it’s getting used to the online format, but still discouraging results, especially as students tend to do better on practice tests than the real thing. Even a forty point improvement would have felt like she is getting somewhere. She’s not going to be excited to do this again!
@inthegarden with the next test still eight weeks away, would you consider her taking a break? We should know pretty soon if June is even going to happen.
