AP Scores Just Came Out. Now What?
AP scores are released in mid July; this year they came out on the 8th. You can check your own results on College Board’s website. Of course, now that you have your scores, what happens? How will these impact your time in high school, or your college applications?
In this article, we’ll go over the good and bad of AP exam results, and how they can impact your college applications. We’ll also cover questions we get asked a lot about the scores; whether you should submit them to colleges, if they can earn you college credit, and just how much they matter for your application. Let’s get started!
How do AP Scores Work Anyway?
AP Exams are scored on a scale of 1 to 5. They also release score distributions, which show you how many students earned what scores on each exam. How these scores are calculated depends on the exam in question; your multiple choice sections are scored by computers, while the written responses are scored by AP readers, who are often high school teachers themselves, on summer break.
Once these are scored, the raw scores are translated to the five point scale using statistical methods. The exact equations used are a tightly guarded secret, but we do know this is done on a curve. Their goal is that approximately the same number of students score in the same percentiles each year, so that the significance of earning a specific score remains constant, in spite of any fluctuations in the difficulty of the test.
This means a test may be much harder or much easier in some years, but the number of students scoring a 5 or 1 will remain relatively constant. This also means that determining how you did just based on how you felt about a test is very hard; feeling like you bombed may end up being a 3, and feeling like you aced it may also end up being a 3.
Notable Exceptions
We should mention that a few AP courses don’t work this way. Namely, AP Seminar, Research, Computer Science Principles, Art and Design, and African American Studies all have their own unique grading and scoring methods due to the nature of the subject matter being tested. They do still try to curve these test results as they do with all of the others, but the mechanics of how they are scored is different.
What to do if You Failed an AP Exam
Sometimes, in spite of your best efforts, things go wrong. A score of 1 or 2 on an AP exam can feel crushing, and often leads to feelings of doubt, dread, or panic. We need to stress that a low score isn’t the end of the world; plenty of students get into top colleges despite not having 5s on all of their AP exams. Here are the steps we advise students to take after receiving an unanticipated failure.
Take Time to Process
It’s the middle of July, so don’t do anything hasty off the bat. Take some time to process the result, while focusing on all else you have going on. A failure like this can be an emotional blow, especially if it’s your first real brush with failure. Take time to come to terms with it, so that when you go to follow up, you are able to do so while thinking clearly.
Conduct a Post Mortem
A post mortem is generally called an autopsy, but is also a method for companies and other groups to examine a project after failure, to determine what went wrong, and how, and why. The purpose of this is not to cast blame, but to fund specific instances where things did not go according to plan, analyze what went wrong, and come up with concrete steps to prevent the same failures from happening again.
Unfortunately, you don’t gain access to your test again, to see what specific questions you got wrong or lost points on. Instead, you should go over how you prepared, what you felt certain of (and what you didn’t), and how your expectations aligned with the test. The goal is not self-recrimination about what went wrong, but to ensure you don’t make the same mistakes twice.
Should You Retake the Exam?
Many students wonder whether or not retaking an AP exam where they performed worse than they expected to is worth it. This, of course, depends on the exam and student in question, but in general it is not worth doing. There are better ways to spend your time (and money) than retaking an AP exam, especially if you did well in the associated course.
Do Colleges Actually Care About AP Exam Scores?
In general, your scores on AP exams will not impact your chances of acceptance to a given college.
As with so many other aspects of college admissions, the answer is “it depends.” Each college has their own admissions policies and standards; and evaluates candidates differently. In general, however, your scores on AP exams will not impact your chances of acceptance to a given college.
While colleges do look at your AP scores, these are a small part of a much larger academic picture that colleges consider. While AP classes bill themselves as an equivalent to college coursework, they really aren’t, and colleges know this. Instead, the value of AP classes is they are a) somewhat standardized between schools, and b) generally the most challenging courses offered by any given high school.
The exam is part of the class, and doing well on the exam will help your candidacy a little, but in the end, colleges don’t put that much weight on your AP exam scores. Getting a 4 or 5 on most of your exams will provide a slight boost, but even then, they don’t even see your scores for senior year. Your grades in the associated AP classes are what matters; the exams themselves are gravy.
There is one notable exception to this. Yale recently introduced a test-flexible policy; this is where they require the presence of standardized test scores, but have a significant amount of flexibility over which scores are accepted. This means that when you apply to Yale, you can submit your AP test results in place of ACT or SAT scores. In this particular instance, how well you did on the AP tests in questions matters rather a lot.
It remains to be seen if more colleges will follow Yale’s approach to considering AP test scores in this manner. It is likely that if this approach works well for Yale, we will see some of their fellows following suit. Note also that if you choose to submit AP scores to Yale, you must submit scores for all of the AP tests you took, not just a couple of impressive performances. This will be a great option for some students, and less useful for others.
Should AP Scores Change Your Courses for Next Year?
This is another question we get a lot, frequently from students who have done worse than expected on AP exams. They worry then about taking more AP classes next year, or if they should focus on different areas of coursework. These are common concerns, so we want to address them separately.
In general, you should not let a single bad score, or even a few of them, change the course of your academic coursework. If you are getting good grades in the associated AP classes, then you are clearly capable of doing the needed work, and should keep taking challenging coursework (see our guide to AP classes for advice on which are the best to take based on your interests).
If you are struggling significantly both in the classes and on the exams, then you may want to reconsider your academic path, or invest in outside help. While AP classes are not quite collegiate, they are designed to be advanced and fast paced, and are often more challenging than other courses offered at high schools. While this kind of challenge is good for students to experience, it can be overwhelming for some.
There is no shame in asking for help if you need it. Ivy Scholars offers both tutoring and test prep services, and can help you conquer both AP coursework, and the exams at the end of it.
Final Thoughts
AP exams are a continual source of stress for high school students, and the release of scores in July often crowns this, either bringing relief or a fresh round of new stressors. We hope that this article has been able to answer your most pressing questions, and given you some guidance on how to approach the often tricky subject of AP exams in light of college admissions.
AP exams are a small part of what colleges look at in an application, but they do require a lot of work from you, both in taking the classes and preparing for the exams. If you want guidance on the best AP courses for you to take, or how they can help you form an overall application strategy, schedule a free consultation today. We have helped students with every aspect of college admissions, and are always happy to hear from you.
