AP Exams >.<

[Ada Lovelace]

Ah. May. The month of jacaranda trees, blissful weather, and so much beauty in tandem to AP exams, final project deadlines, and so much stress, haha.

Is anyone else here taking AP exams this month? I really don't want to take mine because even if I ace them I don't actually need the credit. But my mom already paid for the exams and thinks I should just take them anyway, and that the pressure is just completely alleviated since the scores won't be as significant. She's not entirely right, though, because I don't want to bomb anything, so I still have to study for these exams regardless of their significance. Sorry. I'm venting. Gah.

I know there's not many teens who are active here and still in high school, but I thought I'd ask anyway.

 

[KCK]

I know this is late for posting (*whelp), but I just came to visit this old forum again and it's my first message to post in 1 year I guess?

I took exams last week. This week was my free week outside school, we take only a week free after exams. But, I honestly hate exams and test during a formal education because you just rate in scales the knowledge that a student have but it cannot rate the application of that knowledge in many situations and that's a big problem. Kind of reminds me my favorite videogame League of Legends where you must take decisions based on the knowledge you have at that moment.

 

[Ada Lovelace]

Update! So it turns out that my mom was actually completely right to prod me into taking the AP exams. She's the absolute best of the best. All the scores were released on Friday, and I'm euphoric. I thought my confidence would be bombed by humiliatingly low scores, but instead it's been bolstered, and I have a little bliss bomb going off inside of me. I've learned from this that it's definitely better to try and risk failure than to not try and miss out on the opportunity for success.

 

[Blue Wren]

Congratulations, Artamis. This is wonderful news, yes. AP, it stands for Advanced Placement, I think, yes? We don't have those exams, in Sweden, but when I was in the U.S., several people mentioned them. You've talked about them before, also. What exams, did you take? How are they scored? Why would you think, you'd get a humiliatingly low score, when you do well, in school?

 

[Ada Lovelace]

Congratulations, Artamis. This is wonderful news, yes. AP, it stands for Advanced Placement, I think, yes? We don't have those exams, in Sweden, but when I was in the U.S., several people mentioned them. You've talked about them before, also. What exams, did you take? How are they scored? Why would you think, you'd get a humiliatingly low score, when you do well, in school?

Thank you! Yes, AP stands for Advanced Placement. They are college-level courses taught to high schoolers, and students have the potential to earn college credit if they obtain a high score on the exams that are taken in May. Everyone around the world takes the exam at the same time, and then a coalition of educators with expertise in the specific subjects grades them. Everyone bites their nails until the scores are finally posted in July. The scores range from 1 to 5, with 1 being the lowest possible score and 5 being the highest. State universities tend to be more generous and will award credit for scores of 3 or higher on many of the exams, with the amount earned typically being dependent on the score. Private colleges often have more stringent standards. As an example, at my college if you earn a 4 on the AP Calculus AB exam you will receive 5 quarter units of credit, which is the equivalent of one class. A score of a 5 on the exam nets you 10 units of credit. It can all add up if you do really well. My brother was able to do a 5-year combined degree program in 4 years because he received an entire year of credit from his AP exam scores and dual enrollment courses he took in high school. I also plan to pursue a coterm degree and get a MA and BA. Since the annual tuition is $62,000, all his dedication and hard work paid off tremendously.

I was incredibly intimidated because some of the courses have extremely low rates of scores high enough to be eligible for credit. Only 4.1% of the kids who took AP Physics earned a 5, and only 6.2% of AP Biology test takers earned a 5 on that exam. My college only awards credit for 4s or 5s for select AP courses. The College Board (the administrators of AP courses) contacted me and my school in late June with the astonishing news that I'd earned a perfect score on my AP Studio Art 2D portfolio. In their congratulations they informed us that I'm just one of seven kids out of 28,000 around the world who took the course and earned that score. My art teacher and I cried together, haha. Seriously we were beyond ecstatic. It's harder than it seems to do well in these courses. I'm equally stunned that I did well enough to even earn credit on the other exams, especially ones that aren't in my forte. Also, I took exams for AP courses I didn't actually take during the academic year, like AP Biology. My school permits us to register for AP exams we've gained preparation for through other similar courses or independent study.

 

[Butterfly99]

I'm taking APUSH this year. I regret it but it's too late to change now. That's great you did well on the exams Stanfordella. People have said AP Physics & Bio are brutal.

 

[thehehe]

Never heard about these AP before! Thanks for the explications! Our exams' system simpler to follow! How many exams do you have in your country? One each year?