WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT TAKING AP TESTS

When we begin working with new students on their testing plan and strategy, they are often surprised that AP tests are included; they mistakenly think that AP tests are for college credit only. Actually, AP scores have become important for the purpose of college admission. Not only does taking an AP-level course show colleges that you have taken a challenging course load. By earning scores of 3 or better on the AP’s 1-5 scale on enough exams you earn not only the distinction of an AP Scholar, but it can also assist you when applying for scholarships.. To get more information about this, you can visit http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/ap/scholarawards.html.
 

If you are at a school that  does not offer AP classes, any high school can order AP tests for students.  Y ou must be pro-active and ask your couselors ahead of time.  All schools must order the exams by March, so if you are in one of these schools without a program, plan on applying in January or February.   

If for some reason your school refuses to order a test for you, you can take AP tests at a neighboring public high school as long as you order them ahead of time. Remember that colleges only see AP tests from the junior year or dates before since the results come back in July and the tests are only offered in May. That means you want to front-load AP tests, taking as many as you can prior to senior year.

 Finally, in addition to proving your rigor of course load and giving you a nice honor to add to your Common Application, performing well on AP tests in a specific academic area can back up your honed academic focus. For example, if you want to present yourself as a budding psychologist on your applications, taking AP Statistics and AP Psychology would certainly help to back up that interest.

An article last year in USA Today noted that AP scores of students from around the country are dropping. Despite the fact that students are taking nearly three times as many AP exams as they used to (from 1.1 million in 1999 to 2.9 million in 2009), the failure rate (students scoring a 1 or 2) has risen by over 5% in the same time period.  

Nearly half of all students in the United States who take the AP exam are failing – therefore, nearly half of all students in the United States are not gaining even the most elementary level of knowledge necessary to compete at the university level and beyond. This gives you an opportunity to be in the other half of students to show your level of expertise along with rigor of course load.

What’s the average AP score at your high school for specific tests? Find out. Read your high school profile, which is sent with your transcript to colleges when you apply. If you don’t think your AP class is preparing you for the AP test or your school doesn’t even offer AP classes, take matters into your own hands and self-study for the tests. There are plenty of resources available to do so. MIT OpenCourseWare, for instance, offers free online classes in physics, biology and chemistry. (http://ocw.mit.edu/high-school/for-students/). Some additional test prep website resources are CollegeBoard's APCentral, SparkNotes and McGraw-Hill.

If you live in California, UC College Prep offers free self-study AP courses:

http://www.uccp.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=56&Itemid=78

Kahn Academy offers no cost AP test prep videos in courses such as Calculus, Biology and Physics. There are AP test prep books galore as well as AP textbooks corresponding to AP classes. 

When more and more students are performing poorly on their AP exams, your strong AP scores will help you stand out. The earlier you start preparing for your AP exams and using all of the tools available to you, the more likely it is that your scores will improve the quality of your application.

Some interesting facts about AP Tests:

• As of this year, guessing is encouraged if you are unsure of an answer. The quarter-point penalty for a wrong answer has been eliminated, so experts are advising students to play the odds.
• Foreign language AP exams are often broken up into a "language" test and a "literature" test. The former tests knowledge of grammar and vocabulary, the latter tests understanding of literary texts (such as Don Quixote for Spanish Literature). The literature tests are considered more difficult and somewhat less common but don’t shy away from them.
• Some exams have different levels: Calculus BC is higher than Calculus AB; Computer Science AB is higher than Computer Science A; Physics C is higher than Physics B. If you take the higher level AP, the lower level will usually not count for any additional credit in colleges although you may gain additional grounds for AP award eligibility.
• AP Exam Dates: http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/ap/cal/cal2.html
• You can suppress a low AP test so there is NO risk to taking one you are unsure of. In fact, this past year many of students reported that they were allowed to first SEE their score and THEN cancel it – but in either case, you can suppress a 1 or a 2.