<p>Last year still wasn’t as early as other years- I think it would be easier this year, plus they’re ready sooner since they have to get them to the colleges sooner, so shouldn’t they be ready sooner by phone as well?</p>
<p>" AP Macroeconomics results: 26.7%=1.</p>
<p>AP Environmental Science scores: ** 25.4%=1.**</p>
<p>AP Psychology Scores: 20.3%=1.</p>
<p>AP US History results: 26.5%=2</p>
<p>AP Human Geography scores: 29.6%=1. "</p>
<p>…It’s truly a shame that people are taking these courses, but don’t take them seriously. I don’t understand why some people enroll themselves in an AP course but never study for the exam. It defeats the whole purpose of taking an AP course.</p>
<p>^Not necessarily. This year I took AP Biology online, because it’s not offered in my school and I wanted a more advanced curriculum. I took the AP test not as a means to gain college credit, but because I wanted to see if I had mastered any of the material, which I had not. My class didn’t do enough true labs (online click and drag labs weren’t hammering the information home), and we spent too much of the year on plants and organ systems, which was something our teacher dictated, not personal choice. Plus, as my goal wasn’t to get a 4 or 5, I saw no need to study for the test at home on my own (not that I wouldn’t have taken a 4 or 5, but rather that I wasn’t striving to beat the test by memorizing a bunch of concepts at the last minute, so I took it without studying any more than I did for my final exam). </p>
<p>Now AP Bio wasn’t in the courses you mentioned, but I imagine others were in similar situations to mine, where they weren’t striving to get a 5 just for the credit. Just my 2 cents</p>
<p>Edit; You also have to realize that, because of the increased pressure to take the most advanced courses, kids are being pushed into taking courses they’re not ready for. All AP courses are designed to be a freshmen college course, yet 13/14 year olds are taking AP classes (while a very select few can take such advanced classes and excel, the majority of freshmen cannot deal with a college freshmen class).
Then, when teachers offer a grade boost, or a final exam exemption, for simply taking the test, it’s often seen as an escape from the impending B or C in the class. This makes the actual AP test seem trivial to students, as the class grade matters exponentially more</p>
<p>I will add to the above statement that it’s good that students are in AP classes to begin with even if they don’t take the exam seriously. Some kids are extremely bright, but do horribly on tests, but they still excel in class discussions and on hw assignments etc. I know my school ranks students based on weighted course difficulty grades i.e. AP classes are worth 5 times, Pre-AP worth 4 times, and regular worth 3 times and you accumulate points. Our GPA’s aren’t weighted though- but, I took 8 AP classes my senior year and so did everyone else in the top 3% of our school, and we all excelled. Now I will say that after th 4% mark at my school, there was a drop off between AP exam grades, but that doesn’t mean those students weren’t good students. They needed to be challenged more so than pre-ap and regular classes. I do believe that teachers should be able to choose who gets to be in AP classes, but that isn’t how it works. This may be the same reason that Calc BC students have 50% of students getting 5’s, because they are pretty much exclusively students who should be in that AP class, and is more regulated by schools as to who can be in that class.
Also, sometimes students just have a bad teacher, but are totally capable. I surprised the hell out of myself last year when I got a 2 on AP Bio with a teacher that barely covered a semester’s worth of the course. Meanwhile, I am interested in how I did on French this year, where I can’t speak the language due to poor French teaching from freshmen year on up, but that doesn’t mean the student didn’t try any less.
Also I know my school makes it mandatory to take the exam if you were in the class or they will expunge your 5 times credit toward rank.</p>
<p>As for specifics on those exams above-
Macro- for some reason most people do not see the common sense in the class and deeply struggle with it. For example in my class the students who saw the simplicity had 100’s on tests while the rest failed and the tests were bimodal, rather than bell shaped.</p>
<p>APES- it is an easy course, and there isn’t a curve (I know they say there is no curves, but I mean it in the sense that you need a much higher percentage to be deemed eligible for college credit) and students think they can get by on common sense, which only students who have more common knowledge than the common person saying globally warming is bad etc.</p>
<p>Psych- I never took the course, but I know this is the one course that threw off the top 3 in my school, and destroyed two of their 4.0’s and the other worked his you know what off to keep his 4.0 by doing ridiculous amounts of extra credit projects. Their complaints were mostly with vocab, which can be difficult for logical thinkers since they re used to understanding something versus memorizing vocal on top of understanding. (if that makes sense for those who aren’t logical thinkers…)</p>
<p>APUSH- Those stats are for 2’s which means they knew the material, but either didn’t study, or can’t write. Plus it is commonly taken junior year when students are transitioning from 1 or 2 exams to 5 to 7 exams, which could spread them thin.</p>
<p>Human- is often taken by freshmen. I did, and although I got a 5, I know many students didn’t know what to expect or aren’t logical thinkers and had trouble grasping the class like some do with math or econ (meaning the stuff you learn first you need to know to understand the rest). Plus with it being their first not knowing what to expect, they also don’t think of the implications of the exam etc.</p>
<p>Jus my thoughts…</p>
<p>^ I agree with both of the above users. I also may add some people have test anxiety and don’t do well when they feel pressured. A test that could end up being a college credit can be very nerve racking to some causing them to panic or not go with their immediate thoughts. Some people in my school only take the AP exams for an easy final or they take it because they tell themselves they are going to study and end up not studying.Other take the AP classes as a GPA booster and take the AP exam just because they are expected to. (there was this girl that my schools salutatorian, smart girl, but took AP’s for the easy final or GPA booster and never cared about the AP exams and barely passed any exams). If i did bad on an exam it would be because i was nervous. I get a bit edgy when it comes to big tests, especially since i take AP classes seriously. Just because people don’t do well on AP exams doesn’t mean they are not intelligent.</p>
<p>You guys are really forgetting that not all people come from cushy, well-off schools in upper-middle class neighborhoods. There are many inner-city schools and poor, rural schools that offer AP courses.</p>
<p>I posted this in another topic, but our school, for example, does not really consist of the brightest students and does not really offer honors or advanced classes - only regular and AP levels. So because of that, some of the kids who may not necessarily be smart but would like to challenge themselves enroll in AP courses for the more challenging curriculum regardless of how they perform on the exam. Last year’s APUSH class, for example - out of the 12 or so exam-takers, not one received a passing grade on the exam.</p>
<p>Man I got a 2 on whap last year, but whatever. Hoping to do well this year, took psych, apush, eng lang, and span lang. But most of all, I would really like getting the English and history credit. </p>
<p>Sent from my Desire HD using CC</p>
<p>ROB1995 is right. My school is one of those large inner-city public schools where 70% of the school receives federal free or reduced lunch. I would like to say that it goes further than that because these students are SMART and some smarter than the kids passing, but many kids have to go to work or watch their siblings and still can’t afford practice tests or books etc. They don’t have computers or easy access to a library, let alone time to study quietly or even do their homework. Fact of the matter is that richer kids do better on exams because they have the privilege of getting all the resources to study.</p>
<p>^ the truth. Nice to see some realistic posts on college confidential instead of posts of pompous individuals.</p>
<p>I have been waiting for a conversation like this since I joined CC. You guys spoke the truth… there’s nothing I should even add to it. :)</p>
<p>I am so happy to see some REAL and AVERAGE high school students on this site.</p>
<p>I think it’s funny our definition of average. I’ve tried even telling my mom this too. Our definition of average is still way above national average. Actual average would be people getting B’s in regular classes, not people not doing well on AP exams.</p>
<p>@cfl, very true. Going for AP’s is a beyond average push if you did decent in the class.</p>
<p>Is the art history distribution up yet?</p>
<p>^ all distributions are up</p>
<p>I went to a public school where many students had free/reduced lunch, and many kids failed the math portion of the HSPA. Now we weren’t a large inner city urban school, but we were close enough. There are years where we don’t offer classes such as AP Physics B and AP Calc AB because not enough kids sign up. And Physics C and Calc BC aren’t even listed in the course selection handbook. So inevitably I thought that I was smart because I took honors math (Geometry) and honors English since English and math are the only subject where honors courses are offered in our school. I took three ap’s last year and four this year. And I ended up getting above a 2100 on my SAT’s and I was like wow this is pretty good. My parents were happy. </p>
<p>Then Google forced me to enter the vile realms of College Confidential.</p>