<p>No way you took 25 AP exams throughout highschool.</p>
<p>Some schools pay AP fees for their students; so the students take whatever tests they “believe” they can do.</p>
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<p>You’re right, I didn’t. However, I WILL probably be taking 25-27, most likely, unless my parents don’t let me/my grades begin to suffer/I don’t feel confident of a 2400 on the SAT.</p>
<p>The South.</p>
<p>1’s come from students that are inherently lazy and don’t really work hard. I mean taking a class is one thing, but an AP test is designed to be cumulative, not specific…People who didn’t study may just remember the first and last things they learned</p>
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<p>Sure, if you’re fluent in German, Spanish, French, Japanese, Chinese and Latin as well as being good at comp sci, music composition and studio art.</p>
<p>I actually have a friend who have taken 26 ap tests. (Good in comp sci, music composition, studio art, but only fluent in french and spanish though lol). He started college at a local state school with junior standings.</p>
<p>^DAMN. Did he receive the State AP Scholar Award?</p>
<p>^^Wow, junior standing? That’s amazing. I’m getting sophomore standing myself, but 26 exams? That is just intense, but probably worth it.</p>
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OMG STORY OF MY APUSH CLASS! Except somehow I think my APUSH teacher manages like 90% of kids passing even though 90-95% of kids cheat and take shortcuts. Hey, whatever works I guess…
I’m just grateful that I go to a well-funded public school that has such wonderful teachers that most AP classes have like 70-100% passing every year. It’s pretty awesome :)</p>
<p>It’s strange at my school though. The APs that are seen as “easier” have a lot less people take them, but a lot more 1s.</p>
<p>The difficulty of each exam is subjective.</p>
<p>A girl in my school got 1 in French two years ago. She ended up going to MIT last fall and is doing very well there. She is extremely smart, got close to 800 in almost all her SATs and 5/4 in most of her APs except for French. That shows the despicable french teaching quality in my school. That’s what I’m REALLY afraid of. One has to do a lot extra by herself outside the school in FL to get a decent AP score.</p>
<p>Just guesses on my part, really:</p>
<p>Schools are pushing for more students to take the AP classes, so more non-elite students are taking them and not doing well.</p>
<p>At my son’s school, and maybe others, the AP teachers are left very much on their own to make up their own rules and standards (for better or for worse?).</p>
<p>Schools are still adding AP classes (my son’s school has added four or five in the past couple of years), so the teachers are new at this and don’t realize the effort required. And teachers are being pushed to teach AP classes the same way students are being pushed to take them.</p>
<p>Students are overloading on AP courses in order to impress colleges, and are finding out too late that they have no time to self-study. My son’s school wants more students to take AP courses; instead, the same students are taking more AP courses.</p>
<p>Some AP exams are not designed for what students learn in class. Is there anyone who thinks it makes sense for there to be more 5’s in AP Chinese than in AP French? I can guarantee it’s not because of all the great Chinese language programs in our high schools. There were 990 scores of 5 last year in AP French by non-native French speakers. Does that makes sense to anyone? So either our French (and probably other language) programs stink, or else the test is designed for Quebecois and Cajuns.</p>
<p>CollegeBoard fouls up on a lot more tests than we suspect (locate the thread on re-scoring of tests) and not many bother to get their tests re-scored. My son’s APUSH score last year went from 2 to 5, and a classmate’s went from 3 to 5; but CollegeBoard blamed it on them fouling up their scoresheets.</p>
<p>My APUSH teacher didn’t know who George Washington other than the fact that he was a “yank” and a “farmer.” True story.</p>
<p>Ouch! I hope that’s a rare story.</p>
<p>My son’s APUSH teacher was excellent, but very demanding and a very tough grader. Anyone who thinks that students take AP courses to boost their GPAs aren’t always right. There were more 5’s on the exam than there were A’s in her class. For the last half dozen tests she gave, there wasn’t a single A in either of her APUSH classes. </p>
<p>His AP French teacher speaks seven languages. I just hope French is among her two or three best. Her courses was not demanding enough; my son’s the best student she’s had in years, but I doubt he’ll do better than a 3 on the AP exam.</p>
<p>AP Calc teacher was terrible – speaks in a monotone, teaches to the kids who don’t need teaching, only knows one way to explain things; in other words, a typical Math teacher.</p>
<p>AP Euro was good – soph year – got an A and a 4. AP English Language was his least favorite teacher ever – he had no idea what she was looking for and her feedback was awful. AP Environmental Science – we’ll see – last year there were lots of 1’s and 2’s, but he said the exam was a piece of cake.</p>
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<p>I’m sorry to hear that math teachers are so bad in your school.</p>
<p>It’s mainly just his Calculus teacher. But my son’s complaints are similar to the complaints I had (different state) when I was in HS and college – math and physics teachers are those for whom those subjects came easily. When their students don’t understand something, they don’t understand what the problem is, so they assume that the students just aren’t working. Calculus and physics are conceptual, and they don’t come easy for most people, and the teachers just don’t get it. I’m not making this up – I’ve spoken with a former math teacher who told me that it took a long time for him to realize this; he just confirmed what I’ve always believed.</p>
<p>The AP Calculus AB score distribution is instructive – there are more 1’s and 5’s than anything else – a dumbbell distribution. What ever happened to the bell-shaped curve? It means that the two largest groups taking the test are those who grasp the concepts easily and those who aren’t going succeed no matter what they do.</p>
<p>I have been pretty fortunate for most of my classes. There have just been a few who were new to the game and it made things more difficult. However, I did find that although there are all kinds of teachers out there, generally I can adapt to their different teaching styles. I have also found that AP teachers tend to focus on AP exams and the material specific to the exam, whereas non-AP teachers are able to take the curriculum in basically any way they choose. I like AP better simply because there are certain topics that are tested, so certain topics are taught, no matter what. But for those who haven’t adjusted to the AP environment may be taken off guard, resulting in more 1’s.</p>
<p>AP exams (or the SATs) aren’t graded to the bell-shaped curve: the scaled score of 1 to 5 is meant roughly to correspond to the grade that the student would receive in the corresponding college course, where A=5, B=4, etc. If a large % of students are getting 1’s, it means that a large % of students would not pass and/or were not prepared for the college course.</p>
<p>Here is a comparison of the 2002 distribution vs. the 2009 for calc AB:</p>
<p>sc 2002 2009</p>
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<p>5 18% 23%
4 23% 19%
3 27% 18%
2 17% 16%
1 16% 25%</p>