Curtis Westbay"Bad" AP Scores Won't Ruin College Admission Chances
Every student's personal standard for success is different, but this is a sentiment I've heard many, many times over the years— "If I get a bad AP score, I won't get into a good college!" Or, another sentiment— "I have to take this AP exam to get into college!" So, in this blog post, I'll try to dispel some of the more common myths around AP exam score implications on the college application and share some information I have gathered over a few years of helping students apply to college.
A 3 is a passing score on an AP exam. Does this mean that a score of 1 or 2 on an AP exam will hurt a student in college applications? No, not exactly. Not directly, anyway:
AP Myth #1: Colleges will know all exam scores.
Colleges do not receive any exam scores unless a student self-reports them or asks the College Board to send a formal score report on their behalf. Particularly for U.S. colleges, AP exam scores are almost always an optional component of the college application. For U.K. applications, AP scores may be required in lieu of A-level exam scores that our students will not have.
As a general rule of thumb, students should concern themselves most with AP exam performance in their major field of study or related subjects. For example, future engineers should hope to do well on the AP Physics C exams, future writers on the AP English Language or Literature exams, etc. The BASIS curriculum ensures that students have a strong liberal arts transcript which includes college-level AP courses across a range of subjects. This should not be taken to mean that students should take as many AP exams as possible.
AP Myth #2: When it comes to AP exam scores, more is better.
After about 8 AP scores, there is no meaningful connection between the number of AP exam scores a student submits and the strength of their best college offer. Furthermore, excessive emphasis on AP exam participation may reduce a student's effectiveness in extracurricular activities. There is no expectation from colleges that students take every AP exam or even every AP exam for AP courses in which they are enrolled.
Students and parents have a tendency to think that AP exam scores will set them apart. While it's true that BASIS's particular approach to external exams— with AP exams affecting a student's final grade— is unique, AP exam scores themselves are not. Especially when students compromise on activity involvement for the sake of pursuing maximal academic rigor in the course selection, they are making themselves less unique, not more.
AP Myth #3: I should take as many AP courses as possible.
I would rather have students pursue coursework that is interesting to them than anything else. If a course that appeals to a student happens to be an AP course, that's fine. For example, all future psychology majors should take AP Psychology, if possible. But there's probably no relationship between, say, a student's chances in elite university admission as a computer science major and their performance on the AP European History exam.
Students at BASIS don't need to go out of their way to show that they've taken a challenging high school course load. Rigor is a feature of the curricular requirements for graduation at a BASIS school.
Students should try to find some balance between academic rigor and academic performance. It will not be good for college admission if a student takes the most difficult courses but doesn't get decent grades. It will not be good for college admission if a student takes only easy courses en route to a high GPA. Luckily, a baseline rigor is guaranteed by virtue of our graduation requirements, so students should just focus on taking coursework that will stimulate them.