Creation of The 6

aje
Mon, 21 May 2007 00:08:31 +0000

I think it’s important to note that the AP program measures students’ levels of proficiency according to their own grading scale (1-5), not on percentage points, which is why the scale is the way it is. Thus, a 3 is considered a decent grade (“average,”-ish, in college lingo), a 4 is good (“well-qualified,” in college board terms) and a 5 is really good (“extremely well-qualified”). After sitting through a number of AP courses, I can honestly tell you that the grades correspond pretty well with the ability levels of those in the class. Considering I’m currently observing students who are at the top of their class with very high standardized test scores and only a couple of months away from actual college (for those of you thinking there may be a discrepency of sorts), I think these comparisons and grade knowledges (what I know about what they’ve achieved) confirm the AP grading scale. Remember, the College Board admits to writing the tests difficultly, in order to test critical-thinking as well as basic knowledge of the material, so questions the questions are designed to be difficult. This is why so many classes spend time taking old AP tests and doing practice questions in addition to learning the material, as well as why you see people on sites like this one studying for and discussing these courses. If the tests merely tested knowledge, then all of the students who achieved A’s on textbook tests all year in their class would always do well, but they don’t. AP doesn’t want everyone getting a perfect score. It’s fine the way it is. If they added a six, they would have to change so many things, which might very well be worthless since the current system seems to correspond nicely to college grading scales (remembering that achieving college credit was the first purpose of AP courses).