Students at Chamblee have been stressed by recent developments relating to AP exams and scores. Students expect their scores at some point in June, but as of now, the College Board has failed to return many scores for 2021 AP exams. 

“AP classes are supposed to be college-level courses, and an AP exam is an exam that you take at the end of it to prove that you actually learned something and colleges can recognize that you took a college-level course in high school,” said Adam Brock (‘22).

AP classes, while often rewarding, can be difficult for many high school students, and the AP exam at the end of the year can put a lot of pressure on them. 

“AP tests are hard and you spend a lot of time preparing for them. And that’s a massive disadvantage. And AP tests are curved, by the way, so a disadvantage isn’t just the test is harder, it’s the test is harder to get a good grade on, and also, everybody else is going to be doing better than you,” said Nate Kite, a ‘21 Chamblee alumnus.

However, many students have fallen victim to a mixup and their AP scores were lost. 

“If people are still waiting on scores and haven’t gotten them, your tests are almost certainly lost. If you’re still waiting on tests from last May, they don’t have those graded,” said Kite.

Students didn’t usually lose all of their AP scores, but one or two at maximum.

“So, I got all of [my AP scores] except for computer science principles, I believe it was in July. And then it said on the College Board website that if you hadn’t gotten them by September 1 to send an email. So I waited till September 1 to send an email because it had just been missing the entire time,” said Brock.

Many students waited in the hope that their AP scores would show up by the end of the summer.

“There were three groups of results that were supposed to come out. After the last one was supposed to come out, it still wasn’t there,” said Will Elder (‘23).

Parents and students alike were confused and disheartened by these events, and began to ask administrators what they could do. 

“We ended up calling the office, and they said that I never even took the test originally, but then when we talked to the AP coordinator here at school, they confirmed that I did take it and that they had sent the records, and eventually they just stopped giving us a clear answer on what happened. I’m pretty sure it’s lost,” said Ryann Callaway (‘23).

For college students, this can be a more pressing issue. Missing scores can affect college classes and credits. 

“I spoke with Mr. Marin, the AP coordinator at Chamblee, and unfortunately, it doesn’t sound like there’s much to be done. He said that he’d been in contact with College Board for quite a while and that he’d been searching everywhere inside the school, and urging College Board as much as he could to get the tests found, but unfortunately, nothing has come of that. I reached out to testing admissions [at UGA] to see if there was any way I could still get credit for the class despite the scores being lost, but unfortunately, it doesn’t look like that’s an option either, even with teacher recommendations and good grades,” said Kite. 

While juniors and seniors are at slightly less of a disadvantage, the lack of AP scores could still pose a threat to certain college opportunities.

“I get all those credit courses, I would be eligible for a scholarship, which can pay for a lot of my college, which means I might be missing out on that,” said Callaway.  “But I think as long as I can try and improvise, or take it this year, it’ll be fine.”

Many students have not lost hope. In some cases, only portions of tests were lost, and the sections that were found can be used to score the test as a whole.

“Fortunately, with statistics, […] I scored a three with the extrapolated score, so I can still exempt that statistics course,” said Kite.

When it comes to the question of whether they thought this issue was caused by the College Board or Chamblee, students’ opinions are generally unanimous.

“I think Chamblee did everything right and College Board lost them somewhere else,” said Brock.

The failure of the College Board to produce the scores of many students at Chamblee and throughout the state and country has generated some ill will towards the organization.

“I mean, I understand that a lot was happening during COVID … but at the same time, I worked really hard on that project. I stayed up really late a couple of nights, so I’m gonna be really disappointed if I get nothing out of it,” said Callaway.