<p>I have an in my AP chemistry class but I have absolutely not intent on taking the exam I took the class just so I would have a headstart in college we took a practice ap exam in class and really could see my self getting hire than a three andthe school I will be attending requires a 4 or a 5.</p>
<p>A lot of schools put kids in AP classes who aren’t ready for them.
And some people just don’t understand the material (i.e. the two people I took AP Comp Sci with last year… I got 5, they got 1s)</p>
<p>willshaq - what are you saying? couldn’t read the post.</p>
<p>
^There, I fixed it up for you.</p>
<p>Like some people have said before, there are students who just don’t care. For example, in AP Calc, the teacher told the students that if they took the AP exam, then they would not have to take the semester exam. Thus, almost the entire class took it to get out of finals when normally maybe a few would have signed up for the AP exam. Those students who signed up for it like that are not very likely to do well.</p>
<p>In my opinion, $86 seems like a lot to pay just so that you don’t have to take a semester exam. If they get credit for college, then that’s good, but if they are unprepared…</p>
<p>^My school has a similar policy. You have to take every AP test in every AP subject you sign up for, unless you have a financial issue. If you don’t, then you take a similar test which counts for a grade in the class.</p>
<p>There have been a lot of people here who were already doing poorly in their AP classes and decided to shell out the cash and fail the test instead of completely bombing the class. I watched one kid in my AP Spanish class fill in random answers for all 70 MC questions, write one sentence for the essay, and didn’t even bother to do the speaking part.</p>
<p>I can understand not wanting to fail the class or feeling unprepared b/c of a teacher or whatever, but to me, it’s really sad to see how little people care.</p>
<p>Not taking the AP test at my school is highly frowned upon, but there really isn’t anything that the teacher can do to make the kids take the test. Some resort to assigning a really long essay or a difficult final to punish the kid for not taking the exam. I only know of one of the teachers at my school that does this though. Because of policies like that, some kids are pressured into taking the exams and then end up getting 1’s because they simply don’t care/want to get out of taking a final that counts against their grade.</p>
<p>No motivation to do well on it or no preparation at all. Although, I can’t understand either why about 20 - 50% of test takers (the kids who get 1’s and 2’s) even bother taking the exam if they are totally unmotivated/not at all prepared.</p>
<p>My school also has a pretty open policy. We allow just about everyone and anyone to sign up for AP exams, and while this supposedly helps them work harder, most students in my school never pass an exam. Alongside that, many of my teachers make taking the test mandatory. If you don’t take it, you lose serious points that can easily cause your grade to drop a whole letter. So really teachers want them to take it, but really they’re just signing up for failure. This is, at least for my school, why the majority of kids taking an AP exam get a 1 or a 2.</p>
<p>@dannav147 - this is 100% true for my school as well. AP exams are “free” as paid by the school system. Thus, one would have to * pay * to not take the AP exam (about $13 I believe), so I know a girl in both Micro and Government slept through the entire exam. Maybe she bubbled in a few answers on her answer sheet, but I can’t imagine it’ll save her from that inevitable 1. This same girl also had several 1’s last year from her AP courses. Who the hell knows why she keeps taking them? I don’t.</p>
<p>Starting this year my school made the AP exams free. Also for taking the tests you get to be exempt from finals. Many kids take them, just because. My school is even adding in additional AP courses next year. If I counted correctly my school offers around 20 AP courses. We take the tests because we’re expected to, not necessarily because we’re ready. IMO i think that there are too many kids in the classes for a majority to pass. Too many people get left behind early on and as a result the top kids get slowed down and the bottom group either gives up/doesn’t care or never catches up. I wish the classes could max out at 15 students, but I know that would never happen in public schools. I guess 28-33 isn’t too bad? psh.</p>
<p>People who don’t belong in AP classes end up in them because the school/superintendent/whatever gets bonuses/funds for the # of kids in AP classes</p>
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What state do you live in?? That would save me about $2500… sigh. a perfect world</p>
<p>@MirrorImage - 28-33 really isn’t that bad. This year I was stuck in AP lit with about 40 other students…it’s getting ridiculous how many unprepared students are in these classes.
-_-
Although you can always count on AP stats and calc to be pretty empty, since most students at my school are scared to death about any math past Trig.</p>
<p>
Florida. The school system here is atrocious, but for some reason my county is very generous when it comes to AP exams.</p>
<p>I didn’t want to click through every AP course’s grade distribution, but I have yet to find one where fewer than 50% of the test takers scored 3 or more, much less where “most people” get 1’s. Why are we trying to answer the thread question when the premise is false?</p>
<p>My school has record enrollment for APWH, AP Psych, AP Biology, and APUSH. The teachers of some courses planned mandatory meetings for each student enrolled in the AP class. They’re trying to tell them what they’re getting themselves into and they’re trying to get rid of the students who are unprepared.</p>
<p>fignewton- Okay I didn’t mean that the majority of the test takers get 1’s, it’s just that out of grades of 1-5, the grade with the most people getting the score is usually a 1. Sorry for the confusion.</p>
<p>Yeah, out of the 5 grades that can be scored, 1 is usually the score that the most people get. And as it has been pointed out many times in this thread, it is due to simply not caring.</p>
<p>1’s come from low income public schools like mine, the kids that don;t care in rich prep schools hardly make up a majority of the 1’s</p>