<p>DD got her AP results today - two 5s and two 4s. Does this mean her 4.0 GPA is gone since she got two 4s? </p>
<p>Surprisingly, she got a 4 on her English but she scored 36 with a 12 essay on her ACT. </p>
<p>What does these two 4s mean on the bigger picture? I know it is over and she can’t take them again. But… …</p>
<p>Perfect 5s on AP … … there once was a dream… … </p>
<p>Well, DS will start taking AP this year. There is still hope…</p>
<p>Well it won’t hinder from becoming a National AP Scholar if that is what she wants. 4s are okay there. And it won’t hinder her from getting college credit for coursework…most schools give credits for 4s. Re: her GPA, does her school actually tie her final grade in the class to her AP test score? Otherwise, I really don’t see how her GPA is affected. </p>
<p>LB - you are relapsing…lol! We had you all chilled out and here you go backsliding on us.</p>
<p>You’d need to check your school’s policies to see if they will alter the grade she got second semester from an A to B. I don’t think our school changes the grades, regardless of what you get on the exam.</p>
<p>If she’s heading toward any school that gives placement (or credit) for AP exams, it probably won’t make much of a difference…she’ll probably still get credit for the entry level English Comp (or Lit–you didn’t say which AP she took), by having gotten a 4 or 5. </p>
<p>As for comparing ACT and AP results, they are two completely different animals. ACT is based on what a high schooler “should” know. AP exams and course content is supposed to be the equivalent of a college-level course (of course, there’s a lot of discussion on whether this is really the case). </p>
<p>All in all, congratulations are due for your D’s performance…scoring a 4 (or a 5) on AP exams is great work…there’s a whole lot of college-bound students who would be ecstatic with a 4. Lighten up a bit on her, for heavens’ sake!</p>
<p>Gee, my kid got all 5s. And she only got at 33 on the ACT (and her SAT was even lower). Do you think your daughter could be a closet slacker? /sarcasm off/</p>
<p>You’ve got to get a new dream. Really. These 4s mean nothing in the big picture except that she’s a great student. And depending on the college she goes to she may get credit or advanced placement with them.</p>
<p>Laserbrother. Relax. Chill out. GPA is GPA, AP results are AP results. In the bigger picture, the AP scores mean very little. They do not even need to be provided to colleges, unless your daughter chooses to send the scores. FWIW, my daughter did fine in the admissions process with a 4 on her English AP test. I really think that you should relax and make sure that your daughter is not feeling pressured by your expectations… JMHO! ;)</p>
<p>Parents like this scare me.</p>
<p>This really doesn’t mean too much at all, other than the fact that the 5’s are equivalent to getting an “A” in a college course, and the 4’s are equivalent to getting a “B” in a college course. Both scores are excellent! If she is looking to get college credits or for placement “bumps” in college, many colleges will accept both scores. She is to be congratulated. Try to relax. The AP scores don’t even go to the colleges unless you want them to, and most will allow you to “self-report” these scores.</p>
<p>Uh oh-- watch out for a post by a certain old, tho claiming to be wise, poster.</p>
<p>o.k. I am very relax now and have been since DW made the appointment for DD’s passport (the last Friday before her Sunday departure).</p>
<p>You guys confuse me. If not AP will be reported to college nor does it matter in GPA, why the $%$$&&*%$ take these tests?</p>
<p>PS. Last time I checked DD’s report card it shows 4.30 with all As.</p>
<p>Laserbrother,
Some students go to colleges which accept high AP exam scores for credit. In other words, if a student has taken “x” number of AP exams and received high scores on “x” number of exams and the college awards credit for each high AP score, a student may be able to graduate a semester or even a year early. This can save a lot of money, obviously. AP scores at some colleges are used to let students get out of taking a basic course in the subject and permit the student to go into a more advanced class.</p>
<p>laserbrother-
I assume your q. was rhetorical, but in case not, I’ll respond. You (or rather your child) would have to send the AP scores to the college he/she is attending in order to get academic credit for the class. Some colleges use the credit as credit towards graduation, some to let the student exempt a class or a requirement and take a higher level class. In my 's HS, the AP score has nothing to do with the GPA. They are totally separate. Hoever, students who take APs in 10th or 11th gr. may want to report their scores to colleges during the admissions process. Make sense?</p>
<p>cross posted, momof3!</p>
<p>Thanks to all. </p>
<p>Here is what I found - there were 7352 students in 2005 who earned the “National AP Scholar”. So, it is not such a big deal. </p>
<p>I also found that other than the State U, none of the other schools on DD’s list give much credit if any to AP courses.</p>
<p>LB, Part of the reason to take APs these days is that it demonstrates readiness for college work. At highly selective schools, unfortunately, people have assumed that taking lots of APs will help with admissions, so the insanity snowballs from there. The schools feed this frenzy to some extent, but by and large, I think it’s externally driven (teachers, school systems, parent, counselors, and the kids themselves). I saw a poster the other day annouce that he/she had 16 APs and “that wasn’t enough.” WTH?!?!?!?!</p>
<p>DS1 got Bs in AP English all year, no matter how hard he tried (and he’s a very good writer), and a 5 on the AP Eng Lang/Comp. I think if it were me, I’d trade two semesters’ worrth of As in English for a 4. He could use two As in the GPA more than another AP 5 score. </p>
<p>Our school doesn’t change grades once AP scores arrive, though we have friends whose schools do. DS’s English teacher told the kids he graded about one point harder than the APs. He was right, but try explaining that the Bs weren’t slacker grades!</p>
<p>Your DD is fine. She’s not perfect. She’s not an automaton. She has great stats and scores. This is good!</p>
<p>LB:<br>
Colleges that give credit for APs include MIT, Harvard, Yale, Princeton among many others. Their policies vary. Harvard only gives credit for scores of 5s, and you need four to get Advanced Standing. It does not matter therefore, if you have 4 or 14 APs with scores of 5s. Others give dull or partial credit for scores of 4s. You need to go to the schools’ website to find out which is which. Many LACs, however, do not give Advanced Standing anyway, so a student can only use a couple of APs to get out of introductory courses but not to graduate early.</p>
<p>Some high schools take the AP score into account when computing a course’s final grade, most, however, do not.
As for paying for the exams, even colleges that do not grant credit take a look at the AP scores along with the GPA.</p>
<p>An automaton (plural: automata) is a self-operating machine. The word is sometimes used to describe a robot, more specifically an autonomous robot. Used colloquially, it refers to a mindless follower.</p>
<p>big word!!!</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>“even colleges that do not grant credit take a look at the AP scores along with the GPA.”</p>
<p>marite. Others say U don’t have to submit AP scores to college, right?</p>
<p>If anything, getting a 4 on the AP exam while having an “A” in the course says much more about the TEACHER than the student. The student did what was expected by the instructor to earn an “A”. That’s all you can ask of a student. If the teacher is not teaching at a high level, that’s the teacher’s problem, not the student’s.</p>
<p>Most colleges do not require students to submit official AP scores along with their applications.</p>
<p>However, many colleges ask students to self-report their scores. So they probably are using them to some extent in the admissions process.</p>
<p>Your daughter should self-report her two 4’s and two 5’s. They indicate that she took four very rigorous courses and did well in them. This is the equivalent of getting two B’s and two A’s in four college courses – which is very impressive work for a high schooler.</p>
<p>When your daughter finally settles on a college, she will be asked to officially send all her AP scores (including those from AP courses she may take as a senior) to the college. This is for placement and credit purposes. Colleges differ in what scores they give credit for. The rules may even differ from department to department. But you don’t need to worry about that until next year.</p>
<p>As Marian said.</p>