College Board's Reason for 2011 AP Exams Without Guessing Penalty

Test Preparation AP Test Preparation
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<p>35% more males meet the thresholds, but there is a 7 percentage point difference in the percent of people who do so as broken out by gender.</p>

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<p>I suppose this decision might end up better than say, making different curves for each gender lol.</p>

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<p>What affect will this have on the curves of AP exams (I know that they will be harsher, but how is CollegeBoard going to determine how much they will alter the curves?)?</p>

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<p>^College Board has revised the curves for the released exams in response to the new rule. If you want to see the new curves, go to the College Board store, look up a released AP exam, and click the hyperlink under “NOTE.”</p>

<p>However, the revised curves seem somewhat unreliable though.</p>

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<p>I agree. The revised curve for 2009 AP Euro has a lower “5 threshold” than the unrevised (i.e. with guessing penalty still factored in) 2004 AP Euro curve.</p>

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<p>That is the dumbest reason I ever heard</p>

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<p>I know that your teacher heard it from the National AP Conference, but is it possible that she heard wrong? It’s just that this reason sounds a bit stupid and unnecessary. I had expected something like too much stress put on students and stuff. But this is just shocking. o.o</p>

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<p>I would really hope that she heard correctly, hahaha.</p>

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<p>How much of a difference would this make overall? Right now, it’s not hard to pass an AP exam with adequate studying and it’s not too difficult to achieve a 5 either.</p>

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<p>This is the dumbest reason i’ve heard ever.</p>

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<p>I think this is one of the reasons. I’d be surprised if one of the major motivators isn’t competition with the ACT, which does not have a guessing penalty.</p>

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<p>AP tests are not the counterpart to the ACT, though.</p>

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<p>Wait. There’s no more penalty for guessing next year?</p>

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<p>According to earlier posts, they plan to expand this to the SAT eventually. That is a counterpart to the ACT.</p>

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<p>Why is it being done for AP tests then?</p>

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<p>I’m happy there’s no guessing penalty anymore, but that might affect the test difficulty. Extra points gained from guessing would bring some people up a whole point on their overall scores, so in order to combat that they would make the AP exam harder.</p>

<p>I also heard that the AP exams will be available online, and that AP scores will be available at the same place as the SAT scores. Does anyone know if that’s true?</p>

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<p>Or they can just adjust the curve to their liking. Either way, it shouldn’t affect your score on a basis of 1-5.</p>

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<p>^It could if you are borderline (like 1% above/below what is needed to get a 4/5).</p>

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<p>To test it out? See how it goes? </p>

<p>As you or someone else said earlier, to guess or not to guess added a strategic aspect of the test, which is unnecessary in an achievement test. It makes sense to implement this in AP exams, which are [were] theoretically achievement tests. The SAT vs. ACT distinction, at least in the common public’s mind, is that SAT tests aptitude whereas ACT tests achievement. If they feel this is successful in AP exams, then they will apply it to SAT 1/2’s in an effort to recapture market share.</p>

<p>It might not be the principle factor, but it’s definitely a factor.</p>

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<p>I don’t understand how removing the guessing penalty would strengthen the SAT’s standing as the number one college admissions test.</p>