<p>Can someone tell me what the grading curve on the AP Chem exam has been for tests as recently as possible?</p>
<p>In the past, ~60% was a 5. The AP format has changed, though, so the curve may change, depending on how the removal of alternative questions this year affects student performance.</p>
<p>should be easier this time since it's a new format</p>
<p>Princeton Review actually claimed that the curve is at 50%. 60% seemed a bit high?</p>
<p>My teacher says that about 75% right on the whole exam will get you a five, safely. About 50-55% correct is a four, according to him. Unless I'm forgetting and he was talking about a three, which hopefully can't be the case.</p>
<p>Princeton Review (which is a little outdated since this year's changes to the exam), claims that you can skip every third M.C. and get a five. It insists that the curve is really generous.</p>
<p>well, 75% correct - penalty i suppose.</p>
<p>if you get 100 percent you can get a 5</p>
<p>^^ I don't know. I think they're adding an extra-credit section so that one needs a 105%+ to get a '5'.</p>
<p>Typical cutoffs
5 - 65%
4 - 50-55%
3 - 35%
It varies a little from year to year, but the percentage of students who score 5's is a fairly consistent 15-17%.</p>
<p>Note, however, that if you are trying to self-score old practice tests, not only do you have to deduct 1/4 point for wrong MC answers, but you also should realize that each FR question is individually weighted. For example, in the 2002 test (the last released exam with a full scoring rubric), FR#1 had 10 points maximum with a multiplier of 1.76 for a total of 17.6 points possible. Compare that to FR#4 which had 15 points maximum with a multiplier of 0.88 for a total of 13.2 points maximum. Even though question 1 had fewer points, it was worth more in the final score. Unless you know the multipliers, its hard to get an accurate idea of your percentage.</p>
<p>65%? man that's a tough curve...</p>
<p>Just had a chance to look up the actual scores for the 2002 exam - after the weighting factors are applied
5 - 66.9%
4 - 53.1%
3 - 38.1%
In 2002, 14.8% of students received a 5.</p>
<p>I'm a little in the dark because of my teacher, but do you think this year's exam will be a little easier because of the new format? This IS the "guinea pig" year, if you will, so do you think this new exam will be easier the first year?</p>
<p>107/160 for a 5</p>
<p>is that for sure? my chem teacher said its 50-55% or higher, and he said that the new part of the chem test will take place of the older version of reaction predictions</p>
<p>Yes, that's for sure. 107/160 is the actual cut score from 2002. As for "the new part of the chem test will take the place of the older version of reaction predictions" ... the new part is still reaction predictions. The difference is (a) you aren't given any choice of reactions (b) you have to balance them and (c) you have to answer a quesiton about the reaction.</p>
<p>i took the 1999 ap test today, the first 34 multiple choice questions i got 16 right!</p>
<p>i should open up my barrons ap chem book</p>
<p>omarr, sorry to say, but the questions are arranged in order of difficulty. You might need to step it up before tuesday.</p>
<p>The AP Chem test, like every other standardized test, will grant percentile ranks and then distrbute those percentile into (appx.) 5 quintiles that we know as a 5,4,3,2, and 1. However, the exact score required depends on the difficulty of the exam. In my opinion, the MC will be fairly consistent in difficultly from other comparable exams (2002 for instance), but the FRQ will be extremely difficult to predict based on previous years. In fact, I think the FRQ average is decrease this year due to several factors.
1. Descriptive Chem: Its already a section where student barely get by. With no choice of reactions, not knowing the name of an organic or misreading a complex ion loses you 5 pts (ouch).
2. Lab section is moved from an essay to a math question. Students typically have difficultly with lab questions as it is. Forcing them to apply both lab skills and mathematical formula involves forcing them to connect each experiment to its chemical and mathematical basis - something that is sometimes difficult for them to do.
3. No choice of 2/3 math quesitons and 5/6 essays means students no longer can get away with knowing 75% of the exam - they must know everything.
4. Equilibrium hurts many students anyway, so no help there.</p>
<p>Unless of course, the CB anticipates these factors and makes the 2007 exam EASIER in degree of difficulty to make up for the format changes that make it harder. But then the question comes in - did they overcompensate? Did they underscompensate. Truly, the only way to go this year is to really know your stuff.</p>