He Needed a Score of 4 or 5.
When this year’s AP scores posted online, we were all on a hayride near a dairy farm in rural Pennsylvania. School was the furthest thing from my mind.
But Dylan remembered. Yes. Dylan remembered.
Dylan’s AP test was a particular spectacle this year, because it’s the one that caused two weeks’ worth of agony for the special ed coordinator, the school principal, Dylan’s case manager, and his two parents. We spent hours faxing and talking on the phone with the College Board – because this was the AP test that Dylan had to take without the accommodation of a computer.
His college-level essays were all handwritten in typical, kindergarten-esque, Dylan-ish fashion.
To say I was “concerned” that he would fail would be an enormous understatement. Many blogs in late April and early May will attest to that. But when I was on the hayride, school was not even a blip on my radar. I was having farm fun with the boys.
So when Dylan announced that he was checking his test scores, just after we stepped off the wagon, my stomach clenched. This AP test is the one that will give him credit in an English class – a “$10,000 class” we called it. And this AP test is the one that didn’t allow him the opportunity to use a computer to compose two lengthy essays.
He needed a score of 4 or 5 to get college credit for the class. On his prior AP test (a computer programming test that was done on – duh – a computer), Dylan had only gotten a 3. We weren’t exactly anticipating the current AP test results.
Dylan looked a bit queasy when he looked up from his phone, having gotten his answer.
“What did you get?” I cracked.
Dylan held up four fingers.
“I got a 4,” he said. “I got a 4!”
He passed. He did well. Dylan’s got his first college credit – and he did it without even using a computer!
He got a 4. Hallelujah!