I don’t know historical data, but the latest numbers from D’s school are not very good:
For the 2022-23 school year, 339 students
took a total of 825 AP exams with 78% of
students earning scores of 3 or above.
I didn’t realize how low that was compared to other schools!
“This past fall, the number of applications filed for early decision (a binding commitment if students get accepted) and early action (which is not binding) continued to inch closer to those sent in January for regular decision, according to the Common Application. In just the last five years, the number of early applications jumped by 1 million, a 60 percent increase, while the number filed for regular decision increased by 26 percent.”
Since some schools require meeting the EA deadline to be eligible for merit and some majors are filled up in the EA round it’s surprising to me that the EA applications haven’t yet surpassed RD applications. Students that don’t understand the importance of EA are missing a lot of opportunities.
Yes, these are the same reasons I’ve seen students at our CA high school take community college classes. Excellent teachers, interesting subjects, rigorous courses that you then get credit for at UCs.
As you wrote, they fit them in during the summer, or take them in the evenings during the school year and then do most of the work on the weekends.
All of the students I know who do this are very involved in ECs. I think because they enjoy the subjects and the classes, they sort of think of CC classes like another EC. They have a passion for philosophy, history, etc. just like they have a passion for soccer or ballet.
Better than in the Houston school district, where 41% of AP exam tries resulted in scores of 3 or higher, according to the link in post #170.
Perhaps you may want to check how well A students in AP courses do on AP exams. C students getting 2 scores is not too surprising, but A students getting 2 scores is more worrisome regarding the quality of the course or excessive grade inflation.
It’s going to vary on a per course basis, too, so the overall statistics might not tell the whole story.
For example, at our school AP Econ isn’t really taught to the test (they claim it’s based on a UCB class instead), and most students aren’t planning to use the AP score for college admission or course placement. I don’t know the stats for students’ scores on this test but I wouldn’t be surprised if the scores are relatively low? (By which I mean, maybe a lot of students get 3-ish?)
On the other hand lots of students are expecting to use AP Calc for course placement (whether they take AB or BC), and the AP curriculum is a subset of what is taught in the class. Students succeeding in AP Calc seem to feel that the AP test itself is easy (and that getting a 5 is easy).
Are AP courses open enrollment or do they require teacher approval and/or a grade threshold in lower level course? If open enrollment, then you would expect a wider score distribution. I don’t know what the typical score distribution looks like.
The BC Calc & Physics E&M teachers had a friendly rivalry going for a while as both classes had almost all fives. As more students pushed themselves (felt themselves pushed?) to enroll in more AP courses, there were more scores of four in BC Calc. E&M enrollment was much lower and it appears that some students must not have sat for the exam, so the five scores continued. (Students had already committed to their colleges by the time of the E&M exam so some probably didn’t bother taking the exam.)
I believe they are all open-enrollment, however often only one section of an AP class is offered, so it can be hard to get a spot. Honestly, I am not sure how counselors ration those spots.
Many schools LOVE to get kids enrolled in AP courses. They use the numbers in promo materials. Also, schools with “advanced class gatekeepers” find the hassles outweigh the benefits.
Amazing and thanks for sharing that.
I am not surprised by updating of info on HS, but I am impressed that people look up CC classes and what they actually mean (beyond title) that is a lot of work given # of classes, schools, etc.
Probably my bias as it is exceedingly uncommon near me for kids to take CC classes, as their is very limited need and logistics would be very challenging.
A lot of colleges don’t give credit for E&M (or they might just give empty credit), even if they give useful credit for Mechanics. So I can understand why students might not feel motivated for this one.
I think most limit at my kids school. One says they maxes out at 15. This person teaches AP Eng lang to probably 120 kids a year. Bonkers.
UCB Economics 1 is a one-semester introductory course covering both micro and macro economics. The economics and business majors require a 4 or 5 on both AP economics exams or transfer courses from colleges with separate micro and macro courses to substitute for that course.
For a variety of weird reasons I took intro to sociology courses at 2 highly selective colleges w/i a year of each other (both gave me undergrad credits of equal amounts). They were night/day level of difficulty. One has m/c tests and a couple of short response question finals. Other had multiple research papers and presentations and in depth analysis.
I also took a flavor “intro to statistics” multiple times (undergrad and grad) and also very different! Undergrad was harder than grad;)
Titles hid all manners of variation too.
Some high schools have relatively simple criteria, such as a B in the honors prerequisite or an A in the regular prerequisite (e.g. B in honors precalculus or A in regular precalculus is required to take AP calculus).
A college that gives transfer credit to transfer students likely maintains some sort of database of course equivalencies, so it probably acquires some familiarity with commonly transferred courses from common source colleges (which may be community colleges or four year colleges).
Yes, our school’s AP Econ class is called AP Macroeconomics but isn’t really limited to macro… we’ve heard that it’s designed as a (presumably lighter) version of that UCB course, but I haven’t paid close attention to all the details. Students in the class who actually want the credits will often sign up for both exams… but they’ll do some self study in addition. Other students take only one, or neither exam.
If the graduate or professional program was not in statistics or other math-heavy subject, it may not be too surprising that something like “statistics for business / public health / social work / etc. graduate students” is less difficult that an upper level undergraduate statistics course for statistics majors.
Wow. That is outstanding. D25’s orchestra teacher does a great job with the resources available, but this is going above and beyond. I love that they added in the soliciting feedback and a presentation. SO MANY skills being practiced.
In my student’s HS, I think taking AP Lit may adversely impact students’ admissions prospects. The AP Lit students miss out on fall in-class application essay work (and the valuable teacher feedback) that is provided in most of the other senior English classes.
Just for clarity we were not shown ours, but one of the two (we have twins) told us a few specific quotes they pulled into their own LoR.
Yes. These are dedicated college counselors (they may have additional responsibility on campus e.g. a sports coach).
Agree with your list. IMO though the biggest advantage overall, by far, is their readiness to soar in college. Forget about hitting the ground running. More like a full-tilt sprint.