Think critically about APs (and everything else)

Last edition, I gave students a piece of advice that I learned — don’t take AP exams so seriously, because they won’t get you anywhere — and that created quite the hubbub.

I understand that; AP classes and AP exams are a tremendous part of school life for so many students and teachers, so I think I ought to make a few clarifications.

If you’re the kind of student who is aiming for selective schools — and is consequently drowning in Barron’s AP prep books by mid-April — then your exam scores typically won’t get you out of a significant amount of college classes. You, like me, will find yourself having to take plenty of general education classes regardless of your AP scores.

But, for selective and non-selective schools alike, passing scores are generally enough for credit — and thanks to our teachers, our students have an AP exam pass rate of about 85 percent. Rare are the requirements that ask you for a 4 or 5; even rarer are the 5-only requirements.

Simply put, you can relax when it comes to AP exams.

I get it: You probably won’t believe me. Our students have been convinced that the most important thing in high school is to take as many AP exams and standardized tests as possible and perfect-score all of them. Straight ticket to the Ivy League, right?

Wrong. No school, not even Yale, expects you to get a 5 on every AP exam you take. No school, not even Harvard, expects you to get a 2400 (oops, now 1600) on the SAT.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt to have strong scores. And you’ll probably need a strong SAT score if you’d like to attend Harvard someday.

But striving for academic perfection should never come at the cost of the rest of your application: extracurricular activities, leadership skills and having a life. After all, you need to be able to say something meaningful on your personal statements — and saying that your biggest struggle in life was getting an A in your AP English Language class doesn’t count, however true it might be.

So, here’s my advice to you: Worried about AP exams? Instead of assuming that you have to ace all of them, research the colleges you’re interested in and read about their AP policies.

Worried about the SAT? Instead of assuming that you have to perfect-score it to get past a non-existent admissions threshold, check out what SAT score you actually need for the colleges you’re interested in.

Worried about your letters of recommendation? Instead of assuming that your teacher isn’t smart enough to notice you’ve BSed your homework (APUSH kids, I’m looking at you), start earning your teachers’ respect by doing your work properly.

Worried about your extracurricular activities? Instead of assuming that you need to join 12 clubs, volunteer for four charities and start your own business, realize that the Common App only allows you to put down 10 extracurricular activities — and it’s far better to only put down the few for which you’ve demonstrated passion and commitment.

My biggest regret in high school is coming to all of these conclusions too late. So, think about what you choose to worry about. Think about what you choose to spend your time on. Think about the many assumptions that the students around you choose to hold.

And you’ll find that it doesn’t all come down to an AP exam score.