Lately there has been an increasing change in college policies in regard to advanced placement (aka AP) test scores. Normally, most colleges and universities would require that students score a 4 or a 5 on the AP test if they wanted to earn a college credit in those classes or just a higher class placement. However, an increasing number of organizations are now accepting scores of 3. These changes reflect a broader test of the value of standardized testing and the recognition of students who come from all different interests, experiences, and walks of life.
One of the most important reasons for this change is the growing understanding among teachers and other school officers that a 3 on any of the AP tests is still quite a feat. It still indicates academic achievement and understanding. More so why a score of 4 or 5 may indicate further depth and semantic learning, a 3 is still an indication of comprehension even if it isn’t exactly perfect.
Policy changes are likely to have many effects on student motivation. There could be two ways students take this on. On one hand, the students may feel way more pressured to get perfect scores on AP tests if they consider that colleges will still accept a 3. This can help students in a lot of ways. Because most already have high stress and anxiety around the AP exam, this allows students to focus more on retaining knowledge and less on trapping it in their brains only for it to escape right after the test. However, on the other hand knowing what they know about test acceptances students could be far less interested and motivated. They will think that just a 3 will suffice and they won’t have to try as hard. They will lose interest in obtaining full comprehension. Annabelle Li (11) notes that “ it also isn’t fair to all the students in the past years who had to put their all into perfect scores, just for a lower (still good and passing) score to also be permitted.”
Additionally, with colleges accepting lower AP scores, it will surely increase how much competition there is among applicants. With more students earning college credits through AP courses, there is already a high pool of students to consider, and all of these students would have to all be placed in higher classes since they also technically completed the intro courses. Due to this there will definitely be greater selectivity in admissions, because they still want to choose the best fit for their school while also being in consideration to the large pool of candidates.
