Take a non-stem AP if a 3 is likely?
My kid is a rural Alaskan homeschooled 11th grader hoping to get into MIT. She understands it is very unlikely, but would still like to maximize her chances. She was invited to the rural student fly-in last year, where they were all told they have a shot.
She has taken all the STEM APs with 4s and 5s (followed by some post-AP college online science), and is taking AP psych this year. She has not had time to study much (and is basically self-studying the class) and is worried she'll get a 3 on the exam. She thinks she might get a 4, but most probably a 3. Since she has to submit all scores, is it better to take or skip the exam? She gets a GPA bump of 0.042 for taking the test, regardless of score. (otherwise the class is unweighted. College classes are also unweighted).
Sometimes a school official has been able to come to our community to offer the exams, but not this time -- so it'll cost around $200 in travel just to go take the test, and the logistics will complicate getting her other final work done. That isn't irrelevant to us.