Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums High School Audit versus Fail?

While we work on determining DS17's difficulty with producing and turning in homework (diagnosed with social anxiety, waiting for assessments such as expressive language), the semester continues to roll by. I spoke with the academic counselor (a wonderful person) about options. One of them is to change his status to "Audit". According to the handbook, he would basically be doing exactly what he's doing now: attending class, learning, but not responsible for homework or exams. No credit, no grade.

We are considering several other options and the details of each, but wonder if anyone has gone this route for this purpose?

Update: the counselor tells me the science department chair and the course teacher recommend auditing the course for no grade, no credit this semester, but if DS continues to attend class and do the labs in class (as he has been doing all year) he should be prepared for the AP Exam in May. He doesn't need this science credit to graduate, but the counselor did tell me that they would honor his taking our state's online course and applying the credit to his transcript, if the online school accepts him.

I am waiting to hear why they did not choose the alternate assessment option.

I think I'm going to cry.

It certainly beats fail. I am glad that they are working with you on this. Good luck!

Thanks,Thomas. Yes, the new counselor is very creative and responsive, but still busy so things move slowly.

I just learned that the AP Physics exam they take is for Physics 1. Our school doesn't offer the course for 2, but does offer C. And of course you can take any exam you like, of course, even without taking the course. The Physics 1 teacher recommends that they take both the 1 and 2 AP exams, that they have done well on 2 in the past. Anyone done this?

Next question: DS will have 2.5 credits of science, and will have taken 3 AP science exams, one for a course not complete, and one for a course not offered. So, for colleges that want 3 yrs of science, but he has 3 AP exams with good scores (for despite it all, we anticipate decent scores) what will they think? Argh.

Yes, that's true, the scores are sent after acceptance, while they want the course credit FOR acceptance. I wonder if it's something DS can write about in his essay?

You can send AP scores to the colleges before acceptance. However, I don't know if they would give that any more weight than self-reported AP scores on the Common App. I wouldn't write about it in his main essay. On both the Common App and other college applications, there is a section for additional information. He could it address it there, but it really would be best for his guidance counselor to write about the special circumstance in his/her recommendation.

As for AP scores in place of course credit, I think different colleges will have different takes on this. Private schools might give him some leeway on the "required" courses, since they make their own rules (and can break them, if they so desire). Public colleges may not be able to look past those required courses. I am on the East Coast, but I understand that the UCs have required courses, and they don't let you slide on those (even the non-academic arts courses).

As for taking the Physics 1 & 2 exams, it doesn't hurt to try both, but if it is a Physics 1 course and they don't cover Physics 2 material, it could be a problem. And the school can't have much of a history with taking the Physics 2 exam - 1 & 2 are new exams, just started last year. And they are quite different than the Physics B exam that they replaced (more conceptual, B was more grinding out calcs).

I would go with the audit rather than fail - that is a no brainer. Your kiddo should be thinking about where he will apply next year. Kids with great SAT/ACT scores but transcript issues/low GPA need to be thoughtful about where they apply. Unless your son has some outstanding hook - international awards, very important published research, recruited athlete - he shouldn't focus on Ivies or other elite schools. However, there are many fine schools that would like to have kids like him. Look for schools with good LD support as well. His guidance counselor may be able to help.

Thanks for your comments, notsogifted. You've explained a lot for me, and cleared up my confusion due to the course and name changes that I didn't know about.

The AP coordinator told me that last year's students took the Physics 2 test and did well, and all were encouraged to sign up for it this year (they are, of course, expected, though not required, to sign up for Physics 1). If you don't do well, do you have to submit the score? Can you submit only the scores you want to?

We weren't planning on Ivies or elites for DS, but we were hoping for a public university in our region. That may not happen now. We will consider the smaller technical/engineering universities, or the private colleges. Meanwhile, we are figuring out whether and how to replace that lost credit (he could take it 2nd semester next year, too, I suppose) and avoid having to retake English 3 as well.

HUGS. Sorry I didn't see this earlier & I'm very sorry to hear he is going through this.

Having had not read trough the whole thread apologies if I'm covering old ground. I'd certainly go with Audit rather than Fail. We sort-of did this for Latin 3 for my DD her senior year, she didn't this class need to to graduate or get into the colleges she was trying to get in. But the F on her transcript would have been fatal to her plans. She officially dropped but stuck around and got credit for grading Year 1 homework. It's really wasn't great (I was trying to get her to take another math class instead) but IMO colleges really don't like seeing F's on the transcript. So this is really a better option.

I'd feel better about this since they are still willing to let him take the AP exam. My school can be a bit of a stickler about this. Teachers tend to discourage kids who aren't getting at least B's in their class.

Another thing to consider is having him take the second semester of this class through an online school over the summer. (Don't know what his summer plans are.)

What is he trying to do after H.S.? What is his goals?

Short answer it depends on the school. Look in the fine print.

A friend's son had a very rocky freshman year and I helped her look into some of the details for the CA State schools & UC's. CA State school's won't accept you unless you get at least C on their "required" list of classes. It turns out that they have rules that if you get more than a certain grade on the SAT 2 Subject Test it can mitigate a F in a regular class and I don't remember the details but a 3 or better on the AP test probably would have as well. Mitigated only mean it class then counted on their list of "passed" classes, not the grade was replaced on the GPA.

The other thing that was more relevant to her son was a better grade in a higher Language or Math class would also hide a lower than C grade. For instance getting A's in Spanish II would replace D's in Spanish I. And a good grade in Algebra II could hide bad grades in Algebra I.

Took a bit of hunting to find these rules but they are there. And don't quote me on them.. I can probably find the web page again for the Cal States & UC's with a bit of effort.


As for Physics. My DS will take AP Physics next year. Our school hasn't really caught up with the changes in the Physics AP. They refuse to offer Physics C (with Calculus) - dumb because they have a large number of kids who take Calculus junior year. DS didn't want to take Physics because of this but I convinced him that if was considering Engineering colleges were going to expect it. Our school ONLY calls their class AP Physics I, but they teach it the same way they did 4-5 years where it still includes Electricity & Magnetism and they allow the kids to take both Physics I & II exam. Not sure how that works.