Are AP classes the most wasteful test prep programs ever devised?

Test Preparation AP Test Preparation
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<p>The number of students taking AP classes has just about doubled in the last decade. Soon over 1 million HS graduates each year will have taken at least one AP exam sometime during high school. Moreover, HS advisors (and the College Board itself) encourage top students to load up on AP classes. Further public high schools are now ranked by news magazines based on AP statistics. Some schools now offer more than 20 different AP classes and it is not uncommon to see students with 6-10 AP classes on their transcripts (approaching half of all the academic classes they will take in high school). </p>

<p>So I think it is fair to say that AP classes, and, specifically, the AP curriculum dictated by the College Board, is having a tremendous and increasing impact on US education policy. Accordingly, I would have expected the College Board to have carefully crafted the AP curriculum so that it provides the students taking those classes with the best educational benefit possible. </p>

<p>So, what is the educational benefit? Well, the biggest one appears to be preparation to take the AP Exam associated with the class. In fact, for most AP students the AP classes will be the most comprehensive test-preparation experience of their lives. Teachers spend a whole year preparing AP students for a single exam. </p>

<p>If we are going to take the top students in the country and teach them all to a given test, that test, in turn, must be really important, right? Well, no, not really.</p>

<p>Most students who take AP courses are doing it to help with college admission. Yet, as I understand it many college admissions committees give little or no consideration to AP test scores. Think about that for a second. A student taking 10 AP courses will have taken 10 year-long courses (a major portion of the entire HS academic curriculum) in order to prepare for 10 tests that have no relevance in his or her college application. On top of this many students buy external prep guides and even hire private tutors to prepare for these exams. That is an inordinate amount of resources being expended in preparation for irrelevent tests.</p>

<p>College adcoms tell us that, while they may not consider the test scores, performance in the underlying AP classes is weighed heavily. That’s fine, but that would be the case with any academically rigorous course. You don’t need to design an entire course around preparing for an exam that is of so little value to college adcoms that they do not take the results of that test into account in evaluating the academic competence of the applicants. That is an extreme waste of both the teacher and the students’ time, making AP classes perhaps the most wasteful test prep program ever devised.</p>

<p>The negative impact of having students spend so much time preparing for these tests is real and material. A 2009 study of AP teacher practices found the amount of material and demands of the exam prevented them from using project-based instruction or portfolios and from giving detailed feedback. See AP: A Critical Examination of the Advanced Placement Program, 2010 (Harvard Press: Cambridge MA).</p>

<p>Some may say that the AP exam has value because it lets students obtain college credit and graduate early. But only a very small number of students have access to a wide variety of quality AP courses and passes enough AP tests to gain sophomore status at the few schools that might allow such advancement. There are certainly many more efficient ways we could reduce college costs for the pitiful handful of students who get to enjoy this benefit. Similarly, while some colleges use AP Exam scores for placement, there are surely more efficient ways for colleges to place incoming students than preparing a million HS students in each graduating class for otherwise irrelevant exams.</p>

<p>Just my two cents. I welcome other perspectives, especially from any college admissions officers out there.</p>

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<p>While I have had my share of teachers that must teach towards the exams(U.S. History mostly) I have also had many teachers who teach well beyond the course material for AP(Physics, Calculus, and Language). Pre-AP can be construed both ways in this idea: it is offered as both another year of readiness for the test and as an advanced language course. </p>

<p>In a school environment such as California, there is no such distinction or very little distinction between “Advanced” classes and “AP” classes, simply because the school has no money to afford that amount of well trained/qualified teachers. In fact, Honors can be too easy to assign. At my school we only have 2 honors courses that are vetted by the principal: all the others had been sliding in difficulty for years, just so teachers could be rated highly by students and parents, and as such were eliminated. As a result, those who want any level of challenge at all must enroll in AP courses. My freshman year I thought I was busy with band and cross country(for a freshman, that is), but my language classes was not Pre-AP(there was one offered) and was a complete bore for me, yet seemingly impossible for everyone else in the class. I may be gifted, but that’s too much.</p>

<p>Obviously this may not be the norm for most people, as teachers are concerned about tests scores and what you say definitely has some merit where there are choices between AP and Honors/Advanced rigor courses. My stories are obviously personal anecdote but are likely not the only ones.</p>

<p>Look up Modeling-that’s the method my teacher uses for my Physics class. Although it’s a bit drawn out, he’s been making adjustments and refining the cirriculum to fit the AP course. I passed a released AP test with a 90%-way over a 5- after taking his class. Obviously, not the normal AP teacher, but there are exceptions and if people realize the exceptions really make the kids smarter then they will change over time.</p>

<p>Preparing for the test and preparing for the real world are not mutually exclusive.</p>

<p>Nice topic by the way :)</p>

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<p>Whos to say colleges dont use AP scores just as much as SAT II’s. Yes, they are “optional” and many don’t have the opportunity to take them, but I truly believe that getting 10 5s will be looked upon in a MUCH better light than 5 2s and 5 3s – I dont know where everyone gets the idea that top colleges dont use AP scores in admissions.</p>

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<p>@Axel3419.</p>

<p>They do see the AP Scores, and most likely are considered. However, if you took and AP test for a certain subject and its corresponding SAT II, the SAT II is weighted much, much more heavily because colleges understand that both teacher/class quality and school funding vary widely between different schools.</p>

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<p>The huge freak outs over AP exams have always befuddled me. They’re good for bragging rights (who doesn’t enjoy rubbing a 5 in your friend’s face?) and testing out of pointless general ed courses like history, but the stresses people have for them is extremely disproportionate to their actual importance. </p>

<p>More than anything else, I think the exams and their scores are a way of keeping schools in check and preventing them from calling everything ‘AP’ even if the classes aren’t anything special. Take away the exams, and there’s no standardized way to tell if an AP class is really AP.</p>

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<p>I need some Sparknotes.</p>

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<p>AP classes (if well taught - which thankfully my school’s are) are the best classes to help prepare you for college. And doesn’t pure interest/expansion of knowledge in the subject matter at all? The EXAMS don’t really matter much but the classes do (whether AP and honors are looked at differently I don’t know) However the exams do allow lots of students every year to get out of general ed classes (English, history, lab science, etc.) which although doesn’t get you that far it still is greatly appreciated for people with full schedules. I take all my AP classes because I’m interested in learning more about the subject. You make it seem like the entire year is test prep and that we don’t actually learn anything, which is completely false. </p>

<p>Can you take your rant somewhere else?</p>

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<p>I completely agree ^</p>

<p>Before AP classes, I felt like the classes were too easy and I didn’t remember anything past the summer after the end of the year. With AP classes, you have to thoroughly study the material to be successful on the exam, which is just a way to keep myself on track with the material to make sure I finish by May.</p>

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<p>I think they are letting anyone now a days take AP classes. It kind of seems like a joke. The classes are tough, but with a good teacher it is not so bad. My main point is that way too many people are taking AP classes. My AP Lit/Comp for my senior year (2011-2012) has about 32 kids (1 class!)…the previous years only had about 10-15. The fact that so many people are taking it, even with a good teacher, is annoying. Many of the kids fail the class since they come straight from CP classes and not honors level.</p>

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<p>^ You may think that they’re bad in class but you also have to realize that they make up the bottom 50%… Honestly you seem kind of snobbish, they have as much of a right to take the class as you do. Unfortunately there will always be annoying people. It’s great to have the AP program expand! Lot’s of kids can handle it but their schools make it difficult to enroll.</p>

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<p>^ You may think that they’re bad in class but you also have to realize that they make up the bottom 50%… Honestly you seem kind of snobbish, they have as much of a right to take the class as you do. Unfortunately there will always be annoying people. It’s great to have the AP program expand! Lot’s of kids can handle it but their schools make it difficult to enroll.</p>

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<p>My small prestigious private prep school did away with the AP program several years ago. I haven’t heard/read anything official about their switch, but over the years I’ve heard that their reasoning was something like what OP said - they don’t want us learning for the sake of a single test. They believed there was too much rote memorization, etc going on with APs and that they much preferred allowing their well-qualified teachers creating their own curricula in a way that they would enjoy teaching and would therefore teach more effectively and presumably in a way that would be enjoyed by students; ultimately resulting in a “better” education, mainly in the sense that topics are covered more in depth/on a conceptual level rather than aiming for breadth. </p>

<p>What remains is a regular and an honors option for most core classes (plus some variations, e.g. Topics in Chemistry vs. Regular Chemistry vs. Honors Chemistry). The school is fairly rigorous overall, so almost everyone can find a satisfactory level in choosing between the two. In addition, my college counselor mentioned to me in passing that they did extensive research before making the switch, and all college admissions officers they talked to responded with a resounding “get rid of it.” Apparently it hasn’t hurt the school’s applicants, as about 25% of the Class of 2011 (~100 kids) got into top 20 schools.</p>

<p>Frankly I’m pretty surprised that I haven’t heard of a single high school doing the same from anyone on CC, and even within our league of similar quality schools.</p>

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<p>If my comment came off as “snobbish” to you, i apologize. I did not mean it like that. Perhaps I should have explained more, most of the kids in AP classes who come from CP only take the class because in my school, AP classes dont have a final exam (just a very easy final project). And yes, i realize they have a right to take the class as much i do, but many of them slack off and hold the class behind. I am talking about kids who argue with the teacher, delay the class, don’t work well on group assignments, and dont take the class seriously. I’m not hating on anyone, I’m just saying they make it way too easy to get into AP classes, perhaps they should tighten the prerequisites.</p>

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<p>With all due respect, all this testing that the College Board administers is profiteering off the hard work of students in this country and it’s totally absurd. Why the heck is it that we have APs and SAT IIs when both generally test the same exact thing? Why is it that students who want to enter the most prestigious universities today must take fifteen different standardized tests before the graduate? That’s not what it was like for our parents. The College Board has far too much power for a so called independent body and everything has just gotten way too out of hand.</p>

<p>I’m almost starting to think that we should organize a protest or something.</p>

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<p>Theoretically, AP courses and tests should be a way to keep the most advanced students interested in high school. It should not be surprising that the most advanced students in high school are capable and willing to do university level work (just as the most advanced junior high school students take high school level courses and the most advanced university undergraduate students take graduate level courses).</p>

<p>However, the proliferation of low value AP tests (look for the threads about which ones are easiest to self study) clouds that purpose. That many are not accepted by universities for any meaningful advanced placement in the subject indicates that those ones are not truly university level. At best, they may be a better than typical high school course in the subject (which may be the main actual effect of AP syllabi – to convince high schools to offer courses meeting some minimum level of quality that would otherwise be absent).</p>

<p>Additionally, high schools trying to increase the numbers of students taking AP courses and tests do things like force students two years advanced in math to take calculus over two years instead of one. This does a disservice to the students who may be in for a shock when they get to university and see how quickly a real university course covers the course material.</p>

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<p>The OP in this thread does bring up a very important point. The Collegeboard seems to get more schools to spend money every year on AP exams, and tries to always push more people into taking AP exams for “college readiness”. They have also been criticized several times for their poorly designed products that are supposed to help people prepare for college, but seem like they just exist as a way for the Collegeboard to get profit. These include the PSAT/NMSQT, SAT I, all SAT II subject tests, all AP tests, as well as all Springboard textbooks, which seem to have a lot of pointless activities where you learn virtually nothing. </p>

<p>Also, for the few who do end up placing out of freshmen undergraduate college courses, they might end up in shock due to the absence of the background of actual college courses which are better able to prepare them for more advanced undergraduate courses than AP classes and tests. In this view, most AP classes can be seen as a waste of time if the courses are watered down. So overall, I do agree with the OP.</p>

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<p>Interesting POV. I am a strong believer of AP credits. I have pushed both of my teens to take as many as they could without impacting their other activities. For my DS, he is starting college with 18 gen ed crdits completed. This is allowing him to start a class in his major and he is very happy about that. He will still have plenty of classes with other freshman, so I don’t see an issue. Also, he will probably continue immediately into a graduate program, so he will have plenty of time enjoying school.</p>

<p>My DD is on pace to have more credits than my son which will be fine for the schools she is interested in. We review the AP credit policy of her top schools as we update her junior schedule. </p>

<p>Although credits are nice, the major benefit is that I feel my children will be prepared in college since the bulk of their classmates will have also gone through this AP curriculum and process. The worst thing IMO is to start college not on an equal playing field as your peers.</p>

<p>Overall this is each family decision. I just think with the way the current influence of AP test, it only works in your child’s benefit to have them be as prepared as possible.</p>

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<p>I find it absurd that so many schools today are just teaching for standardized tests whether it be the AP or whatever state tests are in vogue. </p>

<p>The pedagogical effects as well as the crushing of free thought in students hopefully is just a fad and will soon disappear or I fear that we will soon have a generation that can spout facts like a parrot; yet not think.</p>

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<p>I disagree, I think that AP encourages not teaching to a test because the teacher has no idea what will be on it. In every other class teachers point out specific facts that you need to know and that fact will be on the test. It doesn’t work that way in AP. I don’t understand why AP is teaching to a test any more then a normal class is teaching to tests all year.</p>

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<p>Who the hell should pay 100 dollars for each AP exam? For something has little weight towards college admissions, that’s a little too much.</p>