Unpopular Opinion: You don’t actually have to do well on AP Exams

Collegeboard’s AP classes have become a cornerstone in a difficult curriculum. The tests, accompanied with their respective classes, are considered a feather in the cap of any well-polished student. Students take 5, 6, 7, 8 of these classes, and their eighty-dollar exams in their high school curriculum in hopes that they will count as college classes

The thing is, though College Board would like to claim that their tests are universally accepted at universities. The real truth is that it’s a bit of a catch 22.

A 3 is considered to be a passing AP score (as in, probably a C grade). A 4 is considered to be excellent (a B grade). A 5 is considered to be outstanding (an A grade).

The thing is, while most college classes will transfer with a C average, AP classes tend to only be accepted with a high score (4 or 5).

Or, unfortunately, at some schools not at all.

AP Exams are a huge Catch-22 with high achieving students. Students feel they must take them to get into the colleges they strive towards, but the high rigor universities just won’t accept the exams for credit.

People pile on more and more of these exams, but they don’t yield the results that CollegeBoard claims they will.

Lets go with a real life example.

I have two older sisters who are either in college or just graduated college.

One sister went to a competitive liberal arts school, one to a very competitive private university, and I attend a competitive public school.

The liberal arts sister took several AP exams and received 4s or 5s on all of them. Her liberal arts school only accepted math APs for credit (with a 5), and humanities/social sciences for placement (also with 5s).
She studied her butt off to get a 5 on Calc. And her school changed their policy on AP exams so her work was for naught.

All of that work on exams, and no result.

The competitive private university sister also took several AP exams, and received 3s, 4s and 5s on all of her scores up to junior year.
She got a few 3s because she had mono during AP exams one year, but had to sit for the tests (school policy).

Theoretically (if you go by US World News Standards) she goes to the most competitive school of all of us. She had the lowest AP score average of the lot.

Senior year she realized her school was not going to take her exams and she slept through APs. Literally. She sat behind me when we both took AP Psychology. She fell asleep.

I go to a competitive public school. I realized sophomore year (after watching my sisters) that I didn’t have to try on my exams, because none of the schools I was looking at were going to take any of them, no matter how well I did. I didn’t study and got 4s and 5s on all of my exams. Senior year I realized that my school was going to take some of the 5s I received for credit, so I actually studied for the two classes I wanted to get 5s in (Micro and Stats).
But I also took naps in the ones I didn’t care about (Oh hey AP Gov… took a nap. Only answered half of the questions. Got a 3)

I took 10 AP exams in high school. TEN. But my school only accepted a few of them that they considered to be rigorous.

When I was applying to college I realized that I had to self-report my AP scores. What my guidance counselor said was,

“If you have good scores, that’s great. But they don’t actually care or consider them very hard. They care more about how you did in the classroom.”

My mother put it this way (after seeing so many children take SO MANY AP exams)

“These schools tell you that you must take AP exams to be competitive. But once you get there they pat you on the head and say “That’s really nice that you took these exams, but we don’t actually care,” and it just seems like a waste of money to sit for the exams if they don’t count”

So what should you take away from this?

If you are applying to schools that aren’t going to take your AP exams, no matter what the score, don’t stress about the tests too much. If you do well that’s great but if you don’t do well or you have other things to study for (Oh hi May SAT) focus on those.

If you are applying to schools that are going to take them? Definitely study for them. But this is a case of prioritizing. If you know you can do well on one, spend time on that one. If you really don’t want to take math in college, and you know they’ll take the credit, sign up for stats or calc AB and study your butt off!

But know what you’re looking at before you stress too too much about AP exams.
Because, really, they just don’t count for much at all.

DISCLAIMER: Still do well in the classes themselves. I’m only talking about the big scary tests in May. THE CLASSES ARE ON YOUR TRANSCRIPT.