collegeboard.com...owner of the Suck-Ass-Test (SAT) and AP, which I don't even need to name-call since anybody who has ever been involved with it knows that it is just a few hours/semesters of misery. For the few years and four-hundred-some dollars that I have spent on collegeboard to help me prepare for college, I don't have much to say for it. In fact, I have even grown to despise it.
I guess reflecting on my high school experience has ispired me to preach to other college-bound students who are as lost and confused in the process as I was. Some of these suggestions probably come from my personal bias, but among only a few of the things I wish I would have done differently would be sticking to the ACT and going down the FastTrack path rather than AP.
Unless you're eastbound, the ACT is accepted as a perfectly legit alternative to the SAT for most colleges. While this certainly isn't going to be true for everyone, I had much better luck with the ACT than the SAT...my scores were better and more consistent, plus, the ACT just seemed to be a more reasonable test. The ACT is designed to test what you already know. The SAT is supposed to test how well you will know what they're going to teach you in college. In my opinion, that is not only difficult to judge, but ridiculous because students go to college for different diciplines. Doing poorly in one section of the test can damage an application, but have no effect whatsoever on the students success in college. In an article on abolishing the SAT, Charles Murray (who was ironically accepted to Harvard on his good SAT scores) wrote:
Using a database of 77,893 students who applied to UC from 1996 to 1999, Saul Geiser and Roger Studley analyzed the relationship among high school grades, SAT scores, achievement test scores, and freshman grades in college. Here is what they found:
...the SAT’s independent role in predicting freshman grade point turned out to be so small that knowing the SAT score added next to nothing to an admissions officer’s ability to forecast how an applicant will do in college—the reason to give the test in the first place. In technical terms, adding the SAT to the other two elements added just one-tenth of a percentage point to the percentage of variance in freshman grades explained by high school grade point and the achievement tests.
My point is that the SAT is scewed, and I am not the only one to believe this.
Moving on, I thought I would spend a little time now bashing on AP testing. I laughed when I opened my AP American Gov. test results. I know I shouldn't blame the test or the organization on my personally disdainful scores. I won't deny that my failure in the AP department gives me a bias. But truly, I'm not used to doing sooo poorly on tests. I mean, I aced every semester of every AP class I ever took. Yet, when that $80 test comes around, I find myself feeling a little jipped. Take the AP Calculus B/C test I just took, which I am sure I bombed. Simulataneously I was taking Calculus 2 at Mesa State College, and got an A. So, regardless of my AP score, I did exceptionally with the material in a college setting. At this point, I kind of think that collegeboard feels a little empowered by sending very few score reports to be proud of.
If your school has an accelerated program or option of early complete I would highly suggest it. Take college classes during high school instead of going down the AP route. College classes allow you to experience the real thing, instead of experiencing "what it might be like, which is brutal, so we're just going to hammer you to make sure you understand how terrible it's going to be." Given, there are the people competing for valedictorian or mega-GPA for which the class is vital, but the test still isn't.
Anyway, just ranting. So don't take it too personally, collegeboard. This isn't the only thing that has pissed me off about high school.
I'm not a big fan of standardized tests overall, even though I've done exceptionally well on them since a very young age. But I think part of the reason the SAT might be useful is that it tests your test-taking skills, which is important for college.
As for the AP program, the use I found in it wasn't that it prepared me for being in a college class, but that it gave me college credit and challenging course work in high school. The most challenging classes at my high school were AP classes and taking the class gave extra points to my GPA. The UC system in California gave me college credit for my AP scores, so I had most of my GE requirements filled and I had a great enrollment time for classes because of my scores.
I'm not sure whether its the best option to do a "FastTrack" program (although I'm not exactly sure what that is). I know colleges in the UC system don't really look kindly on people who try to get out of high school as fast as possible. They want people to contribute to their school and participate in extracurriculars.
Common sense is as rare as genius. ~Emerson
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It's not the AP classes I dislike. It's the testing. My point is that these tests, namely collegeboard.com tests, aren't accurate measures of what kind of student we will be in college. All I am saying is that in my experience, the ACT has shown more accurately and consistently what kind of student I am. And that my AP test results haven't nearly shown whether or not I have the ability to succeed in college, because although they begged to differ, I excelled in the college classes I took, just as I did in my actual AP classes. And the only school I applied to in California was Cal Poly, which I did get accepted to, and they very well welcomed the fact that I had taken college credit. I think most schools are happy to see students participating in things they are passionate about, even if they are not part of the high school. Not to say high school activities didn't help me either, as I participated in many things that my high school did even while I wasn't taking classes there.
So basically, you just hate the SATs and the actual AP tests. But you said to not bother with AP classes and just get out of high school as soon as possible. At least, that's what I thought you said, but you're not being very clear. And you know, you can take the AP class and just not take the test, unless your school makes some rule against that.
I'm not saying taking college classes during high school is bad. Most people I went to high school with did that in summer time to get ahead in math or complete requirements they didn't have time for during the school year, like our fine arts or foreign language requirements.
Common sense is as rare as genius. ~Emerson
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yep. and yes, you can just take the class and not the test. never said you couldn't. and if you like high school and want to stay in it, go for it. but my advice is for those who want to challenge themselves but don't want to go down the AP or SAT route. those tests are options. my goal was to present other options. to say what I personally wish I would have done differently. certainly, getting out of high school as soon as possible isn't what everybody wants to do, but it isn't an option that is detrimental either.