For high school students, summer is a time to relax, go swimming, hang out with friends, and… wait for their AP scores to return. AP (Advanced Placement) exams are stressful enough on their own, but the months-long wait to learn what score out of a possible 5 you received can be agonizing. Worse yet, many students, particularly after having to take their AP exams in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, didn’t score as well as they wanted to. If you got a lower AP exam score than you’d been hoping for, you may be wondering what to do now. Well, don’t worry — we’re here with some tips and tricks for dealing with AP score disappointment.

Don’t Panic!

A lower AP score than you’d hoped for or expected can feel like a devastating blow — but it’s not the end of the world. Many students don’t do as well as they’d hoped on their AP exams, particularly after the challenges of the past academic year. A low AP score will not destroy your college applications, especially if paired with a high grade in the relevant class. Take a minute to regroup, and realize that this is a disappointment, but not a devastation.

Finding Out What Went Wrong

Unfortunately, as with the SAT/ACT, you can’t physically go over your AP exam after scoring to find out what you did well on and where you struggled. However, there are ways to figure out what went wrong. Thinking back to test day, you can tell if test anxiety may have been a relevant factor in your score. There are also online forums available where students can share their test-taking experiences, and you can learn if a particular section or question was difficult for a variety of students. Knowing where you went wrong, and seeing that you’re not alone in having struggled, can help you a lot moving forward.

Student studying

Adjusting Your Strategy

An unexpected AP score may cause you to adjust how you plan for the next steps in your academic journey. This can look different for all students, particularly depending on whether they are juniors or seniors. For juniors, doing worse than expected on an AP exam can mean going into senior year with a plan to focus particularly hard on test prep for AP classes, and avoiding the dreaded second-semester “senioritis.” For seniors, this can mean a change of plans if they’d been looking to use their test scores to opt out of their college’s foreign language requirement, for example.

Either way, an adjusted plan will prevent you from being paralyzed by a single disappointing score, and help you continue on your way to success. And remember, if you don’t want to share your AP scores when applying to college, you can opt not to — through the AP’s score cancellation services.

Moving Forward

Now that you’ve taken stock and made a plan, it’s time to get to work! Even though it’s still summer vacation for many students, it’s not too early to put your plan into action. And if you’re stuck, or intimidated, you can always reach out for help — including professional academic help, like one of our expert tutors at A-List. Remember, a low AP score may be a setback, but it’s not the end of your academic journey — not even close!