My kid’s school doesn’t break out the number of tests by AP. 854 students (out of 2300) took 1614 tests. 97% were 3, 4, or 5…with about almost all of those 4 or 5 (over 50% are 5). But you can only get into an AP if your current year teacher approves you for it. They definitely shut kids out who don’t want to try and whose parents aren’t willing to do battle. Unfortunately some parents push back hard at teachers when kids don’t get a 5…for many in our community a 4 is seen as failure.
just checked . only 70% get 3-4-5. . Guess HS is not as competitive as others.
In our school based on supplied data, it seems that about 1/2 of juniors and seniors take at least 1 AP during high school, and 90% of those kids get a 3 or above on the tests.
Very few sophomores take any AP, I think they can only take something like AP English or Lit. The STEM subjects are for Jr and Sr’s.
Our school also only offers one AP in Sophmore year - AP Global. My D1 took it and it was brutal. I wouldn’t let D2 take it so she only has APs starting in Jr. year.
@momtogkc - I think you made a wise decision with regard to math. I often regretted letting my son move ahead an extra year. He missed pre-algebra completely and I feel like he struggled. He says he just made a lot of stupid mistakes, and that he just doesn’t like algebra. But I think he could have used that extra year of foundation under his belt. He’s taking AP Calc AB now - I discouraged him from taking BC this year, and he’s doing very well. At least one of his friends is taking BC, and he tells me he wishes he had done it too, and that it would have helped him with his Physics exam yesterday, but I don’t regret having him slow down a bit.
Since people are talking about their kids’ school’ AP classes, my D19’s school offers three or, occasionally, four: calc AB, stats, and world history, with physics 1 offered every once in a while. Plenty of options for DE classes, however, which my college professor self finds more useful, even though Jay Mathews’s horrible, horrible challenge index doesn’t count them at all.
So how did the calc kids do today? S19 felt really good about it - much better than physics yesterday. Tomorrow is AP Lang and then Macro, then having a bunch of kids over to relax, so I have to go clean.
D19’s school offers 6 AP classes: Eng Lit, Government, APUSH, Music Theory (I think that’s new this year), Calc AB/BC (though I’m not sure anyone takes BC?), and Statistics. D19’s only AP next year will be Government (Music Theory conflicts, I believe, with other classes and she’s opting for Calc BC in lieu of Stats). I wish they offered some science APs, but oh well.
My kids’ school had a large number of both AP and DE offerings. The APs are significantly cheaper. For those courses that offer both, the colleges my d is looking at don’t seem to care which she takes. It seems unnecessarily silly to pay more than double for DE when AP is available.
I think kids are ready for more advanced math at different ages. I wasn’t until college. My kids were ready earlier and I’m glad they had the opportunity to challenge themselves with it. Our schools pulled back on the advanced math track between my older and younger kids. My younger one has determined that she will double up to “catch up” to where her sister is at this point. Unless her confidence, grades, ambitions and abilities drastically change between now and the point she would double up, I won’t stand in her way.
@Trixy34 The BC Calc kids were given two different tests. Some had version E and some had version O. Apparently, version E was “easy” and version O was a nightmare. S19 got version O. His teacher sent an email out to the kids and copied the parents this afternoon. She said this happened last year as well. No one should freak out. She had just as many 5s on the hard version as on the easier version and the cut off for a 5 will be lower on version O. She cited times when the cut off was as high as 70 percent and as low as 59 percent depending on the version. She told the kids that the kids in last year’s class ended up with an average of 4.85 with 80 percent of the kids getting a 5. She told the kids that this year’s class has stronger students overall and that she’s sure they all did fine.
S19 thought he did ok on the multiple choice. He thought the short answer questions were the hardest with one that he didn’t get very far on at all. The second part of the free response was hard but he thinks he picked up enough partial credit. He was a little shell shocked afterwards!
So @homerdog just to clarify, did some students at your HS receive the E version and some the O version? Just curious whether they mix it up at one HS. My D19 tests with accommodations so I generally assume she gets a different version of the test. (Also she was taking Calc AB.)
@Corinthian yes. As far as S19 can tell, half of the kids got E and half got O. He’s not sure if there were two different tests for the AB kids.
I think all of the AP tests have different forms, some 3, others 2. Interestingly @homerdog, when S took APUSH last year, he felt that he got the “harder” version and was bummed about it. But in the end, he managed a 5 while some of his friend with the “easier” version got 4’s. So absolutely agree with your teacher that it all comes out even in the wash at the end.
This round, S said the AP Cal wasn’t so bad, so I’m sure he got Form E.
My D19 tests with audio accommodations for dyslexia. On the SAT/ACT she has had mp3 audio. For the AP exams she has a reader instead of mp3 audio. Her proctor today was the same as she had for the SAT on May 5, but the proctor apparently didn’t find out until 24 hours prior that he was supposed to “read” the test to her. She said it was fine and her biggest problem was with the non-calculator section (same as with the SAT).
In the mist of all these AP tests my kids are taking, I almost forgot that the SAT results will be released this Friday!
D took the SAT Chem test and thinks she did okay (wasn’t sure on 5 of the questions, but was able to answer all of them). She’s one where she’s never confident after a test, but this one she said she did “okay”. We shall see.
Wow some schools have a lot of students taking APs! Our school offers a fair amount (20) but the biggest test is APEL at 170. We had 127 in Calculus AB and BC combined and 87 in bio yesterday. The data are interesting – I’d be curious to see my school district’s…
I proctored for my last test this morning and saw a lot of kids struggling through both the AB and BC tests. Ten multiple choice questions bubbled in with 15 minutes to spare (there are 30; they get one hour). Lots of white space on free-response sections with little time left, or extensive work entirely crossed out. Etc. I myself was cold and hungry the whole time and it’s a looooong test. If even the proctor is relieved when it’s over…
And yes, there are two versions of every test, evenly distributed among the students and placed in alternating order.
We’re halfway through May!! Our school still has a whole month to go! Not out til June 14. I guarantee those last two weeks after Memorial Day are going to be pretty much useless. My D still has her biggest choir concert of the year, two nights with what feels like a ridiculous number of outfit requirements. Because we moms don’t have enough to do…
Hope all the AP tests are going well for everyone. I’m noticing a lot of seniors wearing their college hoodies to these tests. Aww. Seems like a fun thing to do as a senior. Won’t it be nice to be over on the other side of this bridge…
I still haven’t booked our travel arrangements for our college visit trip this summer. Still hedging a bit on what schools to go to. I guess I’m all about 180s at this stage of the process.
D just has 2.5 weeks of school left and S has 3 weeks. I don’t think Junior year was all that bad for them, but I think a big factor was that they got their SAT test done in August, and most of their SAT Subject tests done in Freshman and Sophomore year.
Good luck to all the AP English Language test takers tomorrow!
Our kids have one and a half weeks left and then finals. Done June 1st! So close…
I’m not sure how many APs are offered at our school but I think it is strange that the one AP that freshman can take is World History. It seems a bit much to start with that one in ninth grade. D opted to wait until sophomore year but S was all in. Then, most of the high achieving kids take the following AP classes in 10th grade: Lang, Gov., Econ, and either Chem or Bio. I don’t get it, but it seems that the kids feel pressure to take all of those if they want to keep up with their peers.
My S always seems to have a lot of time on his hands. Even with 2 time consuming EC’s throughout highschool, he never seems to be pressed for time or stressed out about school work. And so for a kid like him, the more opportunities to take more challenging courses right at the school…the better. I think it depends on the child of course, but I applaud the schools that offer these opportunities.