<p>I was looking at the AP Environmental Science grade distribution and it was quite scary! the mean grade is a 2.59 and 32% of people get a 1! I was going to self study it next year (I got a 5 on AP Bio this year and am a science fiend), but this worries me, I'm really starting to rethink.... Any thoughts as to why its so low?</p>
<p>I've thought about this question, actually. I gave a plausible explanation in the other AP Env Sci thread.</p>
<p>I'm not claiming to be a genius or anything, but AP Env Sci is most definitely one of the easiest APs I had encoutered. I think it's even easier than Psych! It only took me four hours to cover ALL of Env Sci, and I scored a 5 on the exam (I'm not joking).</p>
<p>I think the very bad score distribution comes from the fact that many people think that this is an easy AP, so they go in thinking that they will be able to ace it without studying (this kind of mindset is very common - some of my friends took APES in school and slept through all of the classes because they thought it was an easy AP exam. They didn't study at all, and ended with 1s and 2s). </p>
<p>APES is an easy AP to self-study, but you need to study. If you don't have a solid Ecology background or have not taken AP Bio, perhaps you need to review the ecological part of Biology. You should also go through Smarty Pants (a review guide) at a reasonable time period before the test. If you do this, I think you will be able to end with at least a 4, depending on how good your essay writing is.</p>
<p>I took AP Bio this year as well, so I was already familiar with at least half of the essay prompts and 1/3 of the multiple choice on the test without studying. Smarty Pants got me through the rest :D </p>
<p>Don't be like the slackers who think the test is beneath them! Those are the people with 1s, 2s, and 3s. If you pick up the study guide and READ THROUGH it (while retaining the info), you will get a 5.</p>
<p>Yeah, I agree with oasis. When I initially saw the grade distribution i thought it would be a super hard test, but when I looked at an actual exam it didn't look too bad, but you still need to know the info, just as oasis pointed out. Michael1, i think it would be a really good idea to look at an actual ap es test, judge for yourself whether it would be hard or not, and then decide, rather than base your decision on grade distributions. If you have a good knowledge of es and can get that knowledge across in your essays, you'll do just fine, just don't be an idiot and say, wow, this test is going to be super easy, i mean, it's environmental science! and get a one. That would be a real embarrassment.</p>
<p>I'm basically seconding oasis's comment.</p>
<p>true that..</p>
<p>10 chars</p>
<p>would oasis's perspective hold true for social studies APs such as history and government?</p>
<p>I think for US Government, yes.</p>
<p>I think APUSH's low distribution just comes from the fact that it's the most widely-taken AP exam. When more than 300,000 people take the exam, the percentage of 5s will seem to be lower because more people will get the median scores.</p>
<p>For APWH and AP Euro, it seems normal, or at least from what I remembered from the score distributions. Through I might concede, it does seem a little bit like what I said above for APWH - that test often has been underestimated as well.</p>
<p>where do you see those grade distributions? are they like on the reports that you get back?</p>
<p>u can get em on wikipedia. just search APs.</p>
<p>I self studied APES this year... I bought the Smartypants guide... let it rot on my bookshelf.. took the test... </p>
<p>got a 5...</p>
<p>I think a lot of people think they can get a 5 without studying since they figure that they already know a lot about the environment... but then bomb the test</p>