I got a 3 in APCSA but I plan to major in CS : (Answered
I feel like I studied a lot for this test, I'm not really sure what happened especially considering I had an A this entire year. I want to go into CS in college but Im not sure what to do now. If i report the 3 will it look really bad? I've been doing a lot of robotics/computer science extracurriculars/programs since elementary school and have a leadership position in robotics and an internship in a software company so do you think that will show at least something to the colleges? Should I retake the exam next year? This year I took the class but if I retake it I will self study. Im only allowed to take one AP next year (APUSH) so I dont think it will be too bad of a workload?
Do you think I should switch my majors to something easier because this exam shows that I am not able to do good in this area? If I don't end up retaking the test should I just not report my score? or will that look more suspicious than reporting the 3. Will the score hurt my admissions?
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1 answer
This a duplicate of this from 2 months ago: collegevine.com/questions/40094/would-getting-a-3-or-a-4-on-the-ap-csa-exam-hurt-me-in-college-admissions-if-my-major-is-computer-science
It would probably be ideal to not add that 3 for T50 schools though...
As for retaking the exam, I would suggest it only if you're confident on getting a higher score.
Also grades and studying time DO NOT correlate strongly with AP score, only mildly. In my opinion, AP tests simply test how well you can teach the material without any references (especially the writing problems). I've seen "D" students with no studying get a 5 on an AP exam, and those top 5% students with that 99.8%+ with 100 hours of studying get 2s on an AP exam (although these are extreme cases). Although as a general guideline, getting an "A" on an AP class can get you about a 3, so I hope that 3 you got doesn't feel disappointing. Every year, the AP teachers always remind us students, "Remember, even if you get over 99%, this AP class is meant for students to pass this particular AP exam."
An AP Exam is NOT you suck at the concept. An AP Exam is simply how good you are at teaching the subject to other students from memory.
Also, it does feel disappointing when you feel like you studied a lot for a test and didn't get the results you wanted. Exams scores are just numbers, nothing more, nothing less.
Hope this helps,
SilverDragon (10th-rising 11th, Class of 2025, Japan)
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