<p>I took a 2008 and 2002 exam for AP Biology and on the multiple choice sections I got a 71/100 and 88/100 respectively. I thought the questions in the 2008 required more critical thinking while the 2002 questions were very straightforward. This got my wondering… are the AP exams progressively getting harder every year? If so, why and which tests?</p>
<p>When you say 2008, are you actually talking about the audit exams? If so, I’ve found the audit versions to be unusually more difficult (or sometimes easier) than other practice exams, so I would assume that it’s not an accurate reflection of what you might get on the real exam.</p>
<p>If by audit you mean exams released from College Board then yes.</p>
<p>The released exams are actual exams administered previously. This means that they are exactly as hard as the real exams because they are real exams.</p>
<p>How can you infer anything about difficulty with only 2 sample points?</p>
<p>Where did you find the 2008 and 2002 AP exams? Could you possibly give me a link? I can’t seem to find any practice exams besides the 1999 released one.</p>
<p>Even if it’s getting more difficult each year (it’s not), the curve sets the grading distribution the same depending on how good or bad people do on the test overall. If it was super easy, the curve won’t be that high. I think there’s more pressure to do well on the real exam that you take so that it may seem harder because of test anxiety and the pressure of trying to do well on a test that counts</p>
<p>On 2002, I scored 101/120 = 84%
On 2008, I scored 75/100 = 75%
On the Audit, I scored 67/100 = 67%</p>
<p>I hadn’t finished studying or reviewing, so that probably contributes to my difference in scores. I don’t think they’re getting harder, though. Lit, Art History, and Euro this year have been very easy. Last year Calc BC was easy, as was Lang and Spanish and Human Geo.</p>
<p>Yeah, you guys make a good point about the curve and such. Plus I just asked a few of my friends who took other APs already and they said that they felt that the difficulty was just about the same as their other released exams.</p>
<p>QUICK EDIT: I got a 104/120 on the 2002 exam… I just found the other 20 questions haha.</p>
<p>The audit exams are not the same as other released exams. They were never administered, so while they’re probably more accurate than something a test-prep company makes, it’s far less reliable than actual released exams that were administered.</p>
<p>I don’t have any personal experience with Biology, but I know for sure that the AP Calc BC audit is much more difficult - I scored around ~50% of the MC for audit, and ~70% for two other released exams. I also took the AP Macro audit today and scored 43/60 even though I had taken the 2010 exam yesterday and scored 53/60.</p>
<p>Also, I’m pretty sure the curve is not set on how people do on your test day. The test is administered to college students before they ever get to us, and the curves are already set by the time we take it.</p>
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<p>There was a page on the CB website that mentioned that the curve is determined by the Chief Reader of each subject only after all exams are scored. The Chief Reader takes into account FRQ performance/difficulty and a cross-year comparison of repeated MC questions, so I’m pretty sure the curve isn’t pre-determined.</p>
<p>AP exam grades are based on a curve, not by raw score alone. Also, “difficulty” is somewhat subjective; you’d need a larger sample size to really assess if a test has gotten more difficult.</p>
<p>An alternative question: Do you think AMCs and USAMOs have gotten harder?</p>
<p>For some exams and SAT, recent exams are more easier than older exams. For example, I took the multiple choice sections for the 1994 and 2009 AP US Government test. For 1994 I got 41/60, for 2009 I got 51/60. I’m been told a 730 in SAT Verbal = 800 in SAT Critical Reading.</p>
<p>id say ap calculus BC is getting much easier…</p>
<p>it could be, because there’s no penalty for guessing now</p>
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<p>yeah some people are better at critical thinking than plug-and-chug and vice versa</p>
<p>rspence, I think starting in 2010, MAA switched test-writers, which is why that year the AMCs suddenly jumped about 1-2 questions in difficulty (this is not just my opinion, it’s supported by the statistics released on the website).
As to the USAMO I have no clue since I’m not at that level :p</p>