<p>For the people taking the test at a later date (due to a conflict with another AP test), will the curve be the same as the regular test?</p>
<p>Or will they have a curve for all the people taking the retake? (Although I don't think this would be enough people for a curve.)</p>
<p>If it's the former, then I think the people taking the retake could potentially get very lucky haha.</p>
<p>i asked my ap coordinator and she said that its with all the people who take the test! (:</p>
<p>hopefully what she said is right</p>
<p>ah ok… hopefully the retakes turn out harder, so they will lower the curve! =)</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure there are different curves.</p>
<p>And you’d be surprised how many people end up taking the make-up exam for one reason or another. It may not be a lot per school, but even one for every high school leaves you with plenty of people to make a determination.</p>
<p>noooo… It’s much more difficult to make a curve than you’re making it out to be…</p>
<p>Think about most of the students who are taking retakes. They’re taking the retakes BECAUSE they took another AP test during that time, also implying that they are taking many AP’s (of course it could also be just 2… but probably not) since they missed a test. Most people weren’t absent for the AP, they had to retake it for other reasons. People who take multiple AP tests usually score higher scores (from my own experience… instead of just some person taking bio or stats for the heck of it as there only test). If they graded it based off either of the curves, it would be wrong. The retake could possibly be easier and thus it wouldn’t be fair off the old curve, and if people retaking the test had higher scores (by luck, easier test, or because the people were smarter in general) it wouldn’t be fair to curve it to the new test because many could’ve gotten 5’s on the last.</p>
<p>There should be many more people retaking this year due to the school closings.</p>
<p>Wfcxcopperx, so are you saying there are two curves? One for each?</p>
<p>hey yeah im also taking a late exam
but this is due to a broken wrist</p>
<p>so i delayed my stats exam</p>
<p>i heard the late exams are more difficult</p>
<p>It’s actually less complicated than you’re making it out to be, Wfcxcopperx, because frankly, the AP folks simply don’t care who is taking the test.</p>
<p>Who is taking the test would be a relevant factor if you had a desire to make sure that a fixed percentage of the population got 5’s, for instance.</p>
<p>But since they actually do an item analysis based on identical items that get repeated from the 2008 test on the 2009 test, and do comparisons based on achievement in that manner, it doesn’t really matter whether the retake population is smarter than the standard population, slower than the standard population, or approximately equivalent to the standard population.</p>
<p>I would venture that the population taking the late exam measures in the high-four to low-five digits for an exam like AP Calculus, which has approximately 1/4 of a million students annually. That type of population size would be plenty with which to make valid comparison studies.</p>
<p>@cadillac–the retakes harder? Like seriously. That’s…horrible. I’m hoping to God the AP US Government test isn’t harder b/c I had to miss my test (which turned out to be overly dramatic) due to high school state tennis. Ugh.
Regardless, I’m pretty sure the curve is based off of all the tests. =)</p>
<p>to ajibike:
well, since the late exam administered is different than the regular, a new curve would have to be made
in this respect they can’t use the curve for the regular test</p>
<p>on the collegeboard website
they say quote "Alternate exams are equivalent in depth and difficulty to the regularly scheduled exams. "
I hope this is true</p>
<p>haha, it’s ok guys. I said I HOPED the retake would be harder so it would lower the curve… I have no idea about how difficult they actually tend to be. Of course, collegeboard says they are equivalent.</p>
<p>But you guys still haven’t answered my question… or I just don’t understand it:</p>
<p>Are there two different curves or one curve?</p>
<p>An AP Calculus grader told me that she thinks that they’re curved the same…but I don’t know if that’s true or not :p</p>
<p>Good luck to all late testers! I’m taking Physics C this Friday! :]</p>
<p>Hate to break it to you guys, I called College Board asking them about the curves. They replied that there is a separate curve for the late testing exam, simply because the tests are different. I’m taking AP Chemistry late because AP Enviro was on the same day same time… stupid! I’m sooo angry because I heard the late AP Chemistry test is a lot HARDER!</p>
<p>Sorry for the double post, but I forgot to say something. Despite the fact that the curves are made separately, they will be similar or very close for the simple reason that many people are taking the late-test. So don’t freak out about it, just try to do your best. After all, 1 AP test is not as important as an SAT test!</p>
<p>^AznCo0Co0: thanks for the confirmation…I hope it’s not too too too terrible :p</p>
<p>Yea bad call AznCo0Co0. I took the Enviro today, and it wasn’t awful, but the Chem exam on the 12th was quite easy. You should be fine, i guess.</p>
<p>I heard the retake ap chem test was a lot harder</p>
<p>my WH teacher is a table leader reader person and she said that CB does care on the percentage of people that receive each scaled score.</p>
<p>^ well they want to keep around the same level each test
they don’t one to have like 8% for 5s while another has 23% for 5s
they scale accordingly</p>