Should I still report an AP exam I failed?Answered
Will not reporting the exam or getting a 2 on the exam look worse?
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3 answers
Reporting a 2 doesn't show any strength whatsoever in that AP subject area.
I would report only a 3, 4, or 5 depending on the college. If it were a UC school then 3 and above. If it were an elite college, then only a 4 or 5.
If you don't report that 1 test, then they think you got a 3 or less. It's only worse if you only took 1 AP and didn't report it.
I'm assuming you took multiple AP tests and have other better scores to report like 3s, 4s, and 5s.
If you report the 2, then they are going to ask "why is this kid reporting the 2, if the rest of his APs are good and his grades are good."
Furthermore, I would not use the additional information section to explain away your 2 on this exam. It's a low pass like a D, so what's to explain. Either your teacher did a sub-par job of teaching the material if you got a B or better grade in the glass. or you didn't cover all bases in your preparation for the exam or weren't doing well in the class, or online environment or had some personal issue. Application readers don't want to spend time reading about a slip-up or anything that makes a mountain out of a molehill so just bury it and forget about it.
PLay to your strengths and scrub away anything that draws attention to a deficit.
Good luck with your college admissions journey.
I believe that most colleges want to see your areas of strenght...no point in showcasing in an area where you are lacking, but you tried and that shows a lot of determination on your part.
I was personally in a similar situation and context matters a lot here. In my case, I took the APUSH exam during COVID and had issues submitting my first time around(also had some personal/family issue going on). I have no clue what score I would have gotten. I then retook it on the retake day and got a 2 much to my dismay. I just submitted some applications recently and decided to add the score but use the area on Common App that allows me to speak about COVID's impact on my mental health, academics, family, etc. If your case is similar you may want to submit them, if not then do not submit them. They don't add anything to your applications, I would check a school's website to see what AP exams they accept for credit and base any further score submissions off that.
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If I get a 3 on an exam that I took a class for and choose not to report it, would it look odd to report a 5 I got in a self-studied hard science class?