<p>According to Silverturtle: </p>
<p>"For example, if a student has all A’s in AP classes but a mix of 3’s and 4’s on the corresponding AP tests, the meaning of those A’s will be called into question. "</p>
<p>Since when did it become true that 4’s on an AP exam will make an admission officer question the “A” in the corresponding AP class??? Seriously?</p>
<p>Someone’s mad because he got straight 3s-4s with his inflated 4.0 GPA.</p>
<p>Just kidding.</p>
<p>No seriously, a 4 is not going to raise eyebrows as Silverturtle claims. AP tests don’t even factor into admissions.</p>
<p>Generally, the Us don’t even know AP scores until AFTER the student has chosen which school s/he is attending & has said scores sent to that U, for an extra charge to the College Board.</p>
<p>AP scores don’t matter in mediocre college admissions. Top 20 colleges don’t require it, but they WANT you to submit AP scores. Why? So they can check for grade inflation and your competence in the subject-matter as shown by the STANDARDIZED test. </p>
<p>If you get an A in the class but a 3 on the AP exam, I would certainly be suspicious of your knowledge in the subject… AP exams are curved so leniently anyway. </p>
<p>“We have found that the best predictors at Harvard are ADVANCED PLACEMENT TESTS and International Baccalaureate Exams, closely followed by the College Board subject tests. High school grades are next in predictive power, followed by the SAT and ACT. The writing tests of the SAT and ACT have predictive power similar to the subject tests.”</p>
<ul>
<li>R. Fitzsimmons, the dean of admissions and financial aid at Harvard College for more than two decades</li>
</ul>
<p>To save expenses, the GC said he’d write about S’s 5s in his recommendation for S instead of S having to send his AP scores to the schools he was applying to. He only sent the actual score report to the school he matriculated at in April or May. YMMV.</p>
<p>Anyone who claims AP scores do not affect a decision is kidding themselves.</p>
<p>*Ask yourself this, if AP scores do not matter at all, why do colleges even have the option to report AP scores? *</p>
<p>It’s just another factor that is taken into account when holistically viewing an applicant. </p>
<p>AP scores act as a ‘standardization’ which either affirms (i.e. A in course, 5 on test), boosts (i.e. B/C in course, 5 on test), or calls into question (i.e. A in course, 3/4 on test) a grade. </p>
<p>Of course, a single 3/4 corresponding to an A isn’t going to drastically hurt you per say; but if there is a constant pattern of receiving A’s in many AP classes while receiving 3/4’s on those tests, that is when some eyebrows go up in terms of grade validity.</p>
<p>@RahulKShah I’m not sure you’re aware that “mediocre” has a pretty bad connotation.</p>
<p>Are you saying that any college not ranked in the top 20 is “mediocre”?</p>
<p>Looking at it from a strictly logical point of view, it does affect the viability of the A’s received. Some schools hand out A’s like candy in some of the toughest classes possible, if you get a 3 on the AP test, that proves something fishy…but then again, you don’t have to report them and a single 3/4 really doesn’t matter too much.</p>
<p>The other thing that students at schools with lots of AP courses that also allow students to take as many courses as they can cram in do not realize, is that there are many schools that offer few if any AP classes and there are schools that restrict how many AP classes students take. For example, at my daughter 's school, students could not take more than three APs at a time without special permission and most APs were taken senior year. At application time, my daughter, though one of the top students in her school, had only taken three APs.</p>
<p>The reason I bring up this point is because for a fairly large number of students, not too many scores are available at application time.</p>
<p>3 is a pass for collegeboard.</p>
<p>3 is accepted as acceptable at most colleges for credit.</p>
<p>However, when you are applying to the colleges that silverturtle applied to, what he says is somewhat correct. The way you figure out how is by checking out the specific college website to see if they would give you credit for the class you took based on the score you got.</p>
<p>So if a college says for you to get credit in a particular subject, you need a 5, that means they don’t value anything lower than a 5 in that course. This can be different for each course. Some schools may say 4 or 5 in some courses but only 5s in some and none for some. Harvard waives your language requirement only with a 5 in the language and MIT will not give you an AP credit in Biology no matter your score.</p>
<p>OTOH, if the school you go to has lower standards and your teachers call the class AP but dont always complete the curriculum and you were forced to take the test with only 60% of the knowledge needed, the colleges don’t always know that.</p>
<p>What if I got a 3 in US History AP exam— self-studied while taking regular US history?? Will colleges look down on this or think “wow, he went the extra-mile, and challenged himself.”</p>
<p>Opinions?</p>
<p>Wait a minute. How much do AP curricula vary, anyway? Surely not that much, as they have to be certified by the College Board to be the “real deal”, right?</p>
<p>My S was salutatorian of his class, had a 4.0 GPA, and got a 34 on his ACT. He did not, however, score great on all of his AP exams receiving 4 fives, 3 fours, 3 threes, and 2 ones. He applied to quite a few schools and was offered acceptance into all of them including Stanford, Cornell, Berkeley, Carnegie Mellon, and CalTech to name the top ones. They all had his scores. Some of the classes were taught for the first time by teachers who had never taught the class before. Maybe that was taken into consideration… who knows. Just letting everyone know that you do not need straight fives to get into great schools. He chose Stanford and is doing great there. Good luck to all.</p>
<p>What if I got a 3 in US History AP exam— self-studied while taking regular US history?? Will colleges (the top schools) look down on this OR think “wow, he went the extra-mile, and challenged himself.”</p>
<p>Opinions? I really need this answered?</p>
<p>Again it depends on the school. If you are talking top 20 schools, they don’t care for a 3 no matter how you got it. If you go to a state school, they might be give you credit but no one would still be impressed about the self study part.</p>
<p>US History theoretically does not need a teacher and so a 3 by self study is not an achievement. Not sure about silverturtle but Loremipsum’s son who also got into Brown did a bunch of APs in one year and something like 4 or 5 were self study and he got mostly 4s or 5s or all 5s (I just remember he was impressive but can’t vouch for the count or the scores).</p>
<p>There is a thread started by a parent about a homeless girl in California who made the cut to top 300 Intel semifinalists. That anyone can truly believe is impressive.</p>
<p>hkobb - any school can offer an AP course and not enforce the students to take AP tests. Houston school district started enforcing the requirement to take the test by paying for the tests because they wanted to identify schools that are awarding the grades while the students have not learnt the required materials.</p>
<p>tripletime - I am truly curious how anyone was offered an admission to all those colleges with 2 1s in an AP exam. Did he get those after he got into those schools by turning in blank sheets of paper?</p>
<p>Darn it. But I guess a 3 self-study won’t hurt either…?</p>
<p>stonesn - are you a senior now? Did you already apply?</p>
<p>Yep. I’m just worried about the 3 self study I took. I was looking at the top UC’s and top schools like Vanderbilt, Stanford, Brown, and Columbia. SAT’s, Subject tests, GPA (4.0 UW overall with midyear report) are all strong (and I’m first generation). Our school typically sends bunch to the top UC’s like UCLA and Berkleley, and like 5-10 go to the Ivies each year.</p>
<p>Your one AP score is not going to make/break your application.</p>
<p>Your first gen status will give you a reasonable edge at some top schools assuming your scores, essays and LORs good.</p>
<p>Did you apply early anywhere? Did you get into any schools already?</p>