And that AP BC test is/was brutal today. The preponderance of kids say the FRQ’s were “impossible.” But you need about 62% in order to get a 5, which is a big curve. Multi-variable Calc for my D18 as a senior next year.
It’s interesting that out of all the AP Tests, Calc BC has one of the highest pass rates and overall scores - 48.5% of students getting a 5. No other AP Test is even close to this except AP Chinese. With that said there is no doubt in my mind that it is a challenging class. Also interesting to note that on most AP tests, 40-45% don’t pass (i.e., get 2 or less). Here is a link to the score distributions by test for past years: https://apscore.collegeboard.org/scores/about-ap-scores/score-distributions//
Actually, Japanese is 51.8, but neither here nor there. Thanks for link. I hadn’t seen it.
I can only assume that by the time kids are taking BC, they’ve weeded out a lot of lower scoring math kids. As I mentioned above, at my D18’s school, you must have an A in PreCalc and a minimum of a B in AB to even get into BC.
And the 60-62%-ish on BC test will get a student a 5. D18 and most kids said they thought the MC (multiple choice) was reasonably easy, which is 1/2 of the test, so even if a student got almost nothing correct on the FRQ (free response questions), a student will likely still get a 5.
@my2caligirls – my guess is that the BC students are a selective group (e.g. going into engineering) so they’re very good at math already. Same goes for the Physics 1/2 scores vs. the Physics C scores. Top physics kids take C while the weaker ones take 1/2, resulting in the slope of the scores going in opposite directions. The AP Calc AB score shape is unusual; a dumbbell shape.
D18 thinks she got at least a 3 on the AB test today. She had no idea what to do on at least one FRQ. She said the BC kids thought their test was tough.
Re AP tests in general I am mystified as to why they don’t curve these tests - makes absolutely no sense to me. I’m really not complaining and don’t care that much but a more consistent distribution of scores across all tests can easily be achieved with curving these results. Oh well, on to more important things . . . 8-|
@mycali2girls they do curve the tests, so that a 5 in 2016 in APUSH means the same as a 5 in 2017. However, they don’t do a bell curve or anything bc that would be unfair to kids in BC for example where the kids taking that class are already tippy top and do well on tests. Also, curving students against their peers across the country is unfair. What if in 2017, the chem teachers nationwide figure out a much better teaching strategy that 2016? Are you going to penalize kids for ALL improving?
TL;DR AP tests are “curved” so that a score reflects the same amount of achievement from year to year.
@droppedit I agree that many students on an advanced math track to Calc BC are probably pretty solid or they would have gotten off the track along the way, so no surprise to see good overall test scores. Also find it interesting that APES appears to be one of the harder tests in terms of results despite it’s reputation as one of the easier AP’s - BTW not easy at my D’s HS - think the class experience varies greatly from school to school.
Interestingly, S15 had an option for “Calc 1 and 2 for AP students” class at Temple (including an Honors program version) in a single semester course. I think reinforcing the content in college is well worth it. The struggle is that many colleges use Calc 1 and 2 as weed out courses, designed to kick out “weaker” engineers and pre-meds. I hate the practice but if you can give yourself a leg up on the content, it’ll be for the best. Oddly, our HS didn’t require AB in order to take BC like my high school did. I was a bit nervous about it when S18 was offered the choice, but we have an awesome calc teacher and it’s worked out.
The tales S18 had of the BC exam’s FRQs weren’t pleasant but … that curve!
4 down. Comp/Lang tomorrow and he is done. Woot!
One thing about Calc BC having such a high rate of 5 is that most schools (not all but most) do Ap Calc AB before BC, so then by the time they take the BC exam, they will have 2 years of calculus under their belt and the BC content is just the AB content plus a few advanced concepts.
I agree that the Calc BC having a high rate of 5’s is probably in large part due to selection bias. Generally smarter kids taking Calc BC. With that same concept in mind it is interesting to note that AP Environmental Science which is often considered the easiest of the AP classes has one of the lowest rate of 5’s. APES also has >50% of testers scoring < 3
Whoops, @my2caligirls I just noticed we posted essentially the same thing. Well, that creates a consensus and it’s on the internet so it must be correct 
@snowfairy I agree that the overall objective is for a 3 on AP X one year to be equivalent to a 3 on AP X the next year. With that said they do vary year to year and recall College Board tweeting out last year at score release time how a given set of test scores had dropped and/or increased vs previous years. For us it was AP Euro and the trend is lower scores year to year. With a statistically valid large sample of students taking the test I don’t believe the scores should fluctuate year to year - simple solution - grade them and curve them. The test variance each year is the root of that issue not the overall student capability at an aggregate level.
Regarding year to year differences, I don’t buy into the premise that all the kids improved or fell back as a group - does not make sense with thousands of students taking an AP test. At a classroom level, sure it’s possible but with thousands in the sample size I doubt it. And yes, like it or not, students are being compared to one another at a national basis - seems fair enough to me.
BTW - totally agree with you about higher level math students doing well on Calc BC.
Best wishes to everyone’s kiddos taking APs today! S is doing AP Lang.
So is D. She hasn’t studied at all, outside of class assignments. She says either you know it or you don’t. We’ll see how that strategy works. 
S hasn’t studied beyond classwork, either. For AP Bio, yes, but not for AP Lang and not for AP Micro on Friday. Like you, we’ll see how that goes. 
His Japanese class at the CC is a time suck that’s been kicking his butt, so his expendable time & effort have gone mostly to Japanese. If he gets a B+ / A- in a weighted HS class, no big, but he doesn’t want to blow his 4.0 CC GPA.
D18 is taking AP Lang too. She talks a good game by saying the same thing “you either know how to write essay or you don’t.”
However, she was definitely studying her notes, her teacher’s strategies and also a whole bunch of pages of some author’s work. Not sure what that was, but it was on the kitchen table this morning.
Also, several weeks ago, they all went into school early on a Saturday morning and took a practice AP Lang exam. Hopefully that helped.
She was confident about AP BC yesterday, but very nervous about AP Lang this morning. Good luck to all.
Only 10.6% of the students taking the AP Lang exam get 5’s. But for the BC exam, 48%+ get 5’s. Hmmm.
DS18 said the same thing about the AP Lang. I just hope he write legibly enough so it can read! He said AP psychology was easy and didn’t have a problem with BC but Physic C was brutal!
My daughter is in honors pre-calc this year, and will take AP Calc AB next year (no BC option). She started algebra in 8th grade, which is the accelerated math track here.
I always thought it was sad that a kid’s math track was determined in 6th grade by a test, which then led to pre-algebra in 7th grade and onward. You were shut out of a bunch of honors math courses, even if by the time you were in high school you could handle it. Last year they changed that a bit to add an Honors Algebra 1 class for freshmen. That still means you don’t take pre-calculus until your senior year, though, unless you want to double up with geometry and algebra 2 as a sophomore.
She is no math genius.She works very hard, though. She thinks she is the least capable in her HPC class, yet she’s the one everyone turns to for help. Go figure.
She is taking the AP Stats test tomorrow. She will gladly share that she hates stats, but is only taking it so it will make nursing school easier. She holds out no hope of doing well on the test.
@bearcatfan - I agree about the whole math track determined in the grade school. My S18 changed schools in the 5th grade and was not tested in his previous private school so the new school put him in the grade level math. He had to eventually take a double year of Algebra 2 and Trig this year so he could take AP Calc next year. He is good at math and has been bored many years and hopefully he will be ready for Calc next year.