Advanced Placement classes failing students

[Beliavsky]

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@ariesathena

Not to be overly flippant, but isn’t it the point of AP tests that some kids will fail? Unless you are doing all of the weed-out preemptively, by not letting those kids into AP classes or not letting them take the AP tests, a certain number are simply not going to master the material in a way that colleges would like to see them master it. They may not have enough innate intelligence, may not have worked hard, might have had a lousy teacher, or might have taken an “AP” class that was really their first high-school level exposure to the subject.

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<p>The choice is not between an AP course or nothing. Students need to master algebra, trigonometry and the concept of functions – tested on the SAT Math subject test level 2 – before they study calculus. If they have not, they are better off in an Algebra II or pre-calculus course than in AP Calculus, and the people who are ready for AP Calculus will benefit from not having class time spent on pre-calculus topics. Similar arguments could be made about other AP courses.</p>