High School year cancellations - Impacts? What are your states doing?

[ChaggyC17]

Good morning. I'm writing from the great state of Delaware where our governor just announced cancellations for the remainder of the school year. My daughter is rather pragmatic about it because thankfully, she has her indoc date to look forward to. I am guessing that the senior year will just be "written off" and the schools will focus on the plan for the underclassmen.

I understand we are in the early stages of this part of the crisis planning and a plan will eventually start to develop.

As for my DD, she is scheduled for some AP exams. We scheduled and paid for the AP exams in the fall because we did not know if she would receive appointment(s) or not to the service academies. My question is whether or not she should bother taking these exams. I graduated from USAFA, and if I were to do it all over again, I would not have validated any classes to reduce the academic pressure during my freshman year (Calc 3, Stats, and Spanish 4 killed me!) Furthermore, since she has been out of school for over a month, the online classes via Zoom simply cannot substitute for the in-class learning environment and it is safe to assume she is not as prepared for the AP exam in this environment.

Questions to the group.
1. Does KP look at AP exams scored below a 3 as a negative after an appointment is offered? No, I do not think they will rescind an appointment offer. However, is there a second or third order effect from a poor score?
2. What are your respective states doing during this time of school cancellations? Just asking because there are probably some great ideas out there that I could use.


On a somewhat related note, my daughter has been taking the time to get in some really good shape. I am administering mock PT tests once a week so she can gauge her progress.

Strange times indeed.

Cheers,
Mark

 

[kpmom2013]

Regarding low AP scores after an appointment, that is nothing to be worried about. Your DD will not be able to take those tests in the fall while at KP, so I would try for a refund. Placement tests are generally given the second day of INDOC, and those results will be heavily relied on to determine course placement. AP/IB scores are weighed in, but not to a great degree.

I agree with you on course validation, though many come down on the other side of that issue.

Good for your DD to keep working out, though INDOC is not really that physically challenging if you are in decent shape.

If my kid were an appointee, I would encourage him/her to spend some time doing online math prep such as Kahn Academy. Gotta keep the brain in shape too, and those skills can fade pretty fast when not in use.

Enjoy your remaining time with your DD!

 

[beyond]

1. Does KP look at AP exams scored below a 3 as a negative after an appointment is offered? No, I do not think they will rescind an appointment offer. However, is there a second or third order effect from a poor score?
2. What are your respective states doing during this time of school cancellations? Just asking because there are probably some great ideas out there that I could use.

When I was in High School US News and World report was using number of seniors divided by number of AP exams taken as a metric towards ranking High Schools. As a result our school paid for all of us to take every AP exam we were eligible for (didn't matter if we passed or not, it helped the ranking).

With the luck of the AP exam schedule I had three exams back to back to back, afternoon one day, morning the next, afternoon again. By the time I rolled into the third exam I couldn't take anymore (I think the third was AP Lit??) I gave the multiple choice a shot, and I remember opening the free response questions and just putting my head back down on the desk and waiting for everyone else to finish. My scores from those exams went 4, 3, then 1. Never heard a word about it from KP. I think you have to pay to send a score reports to colleges, so KP won't know your scores unless you choose to send them (though it's been a while since I had to do this?).

I am a HUGE advocate of strategically placing out of as many credits as you can at KP. I graduated KP with North of a 3.0. When you get to that point, anything B or below is hurting your GPA. Getting a B+ or higher is HARD and unless you are really sure you can get an A in the class, place out. Those extra hours a week put towards other classes will have a MUCH more positive impact on your GPA. It is a net change of at least seven or eight hours per week, between the class you aren't attending and the class you aren't having to study for.

If you know you can go and get an A without studying a lick then maybe take something, but you could get stuck with a professor who makes up strange test questions that torpedoes your grade. Cohn was a perfect example of this, the guy wrote his textbook decades ago and terrorized midshipman from the 70s until my time there. He gave these wonky tests based off of his own made up book, that had no bearing on the science of economics. I remember the guy talking about how we should colonize Iraq, enslave everyone, and take all the oil or something? It was totally bizarre and uncomfortable. I got subjected to that for 4 hours a week, while friends that took AP Economics in high school laughed from the barracks. The first of three exams I got the highest score in the class, he made me stand in front of my section and explain to everyone how I did it. He kept saying "Did you read the book?! Did you read the book?!" he was very disappointed when I said no, that I guessed on at least 40% of the questions, and I really just got lucky. My grade? A 72. Yes, 72 out of 100.

So yeah, I'm all for placing out to avoid that circus.