Thanks. I now (finally) understand what you meant about APUSH. As some would say, I might be dumb, but I ain’t stupid.
Since we’re nearly there for the Opening Ceremonies at the Tokyo Olympics, the talk about “perfect scores” on APs reminds me of the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal. There, Nadia Comaneci scored a perfect 10.0 in gymnastics. The scoreboards couldn’t display the score because no one thought it was possible. Perfect 10 (gymnastics) - Wikipedia
Please tell me we are not at the point where students are vying for perfect scores on AP exams rather than what I thought was the Holy Grail of getting a 5? If that’s how competitive things have become, well, just, wow.
I actually don’t know, but please say it isn’t so!
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I have not heard so, at least not on non-STEM exams. At the end of the day, the 1-5 score is what matters. It’s like when I was in college - if my final grade were 100 or 94, I still got an A.
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It’s a big deal and an Honor to get a perfect score. I remember a girl a year older than my daughters earned a perfect score on one of the AP Econ tests a few years ago. It was such a huge recognition by AP and a BIG deal. So, I think people do care as it is such an accomplishment and quite honestly, many people care about more than just getting the 5. My kids didn’t take the tests for the college credit, they took the courses in the first place either for interest or because that’s the track they’re on. My daughter knew she couldn’t get credit for her AP Stats no matter what but she took the test regardless as it was just the normal completion of the course and she had worked hard. For her it wasn’t about the score, but about culmination of her hard work during the year, etc.
@CMCMLM I am glad my son just graduated because I wondered this last year. Our school was fully remote until late March when we were hybrid 50% and then 3 weeks later open 100% but even then open 100% wasn’t really 100%. Mondays was always “asynchronous” which same as you said was a joke but sounds the opposite of your situation. My son is highly motivated and one who did well in person and remote but it wasn’t until we went back in person that I realized how much better for him it really was. The school I work at was hybrid almost all year then fully in person from April on. The big difference between my school and my son’s is that where I worked they didn’t mandate testing, where my son goes testing was mandated twice/week. I think it made a huge difference in our school. Very few cases of covid. Where I work, not so much. Lots of kids out for contract tracing constantly, or kids just not coming in because they didn’t want to be contract traced and miss their sport. It was a mess but this district bowed down to parents who didn’t want the testing. Shame really. Calc BC in person 1 day a week is brutal. But depending where he goes to college (not sure if he’s a rising senior or college freshman) it may do good for him to repeat it anyway.
@mynameiswhatever Not dumb at all and you’re honest in admitting your lack of understanding on it. I don’t think kids are trying for perfect scores. That is near impossible and such a rare feat. I have never heard it discussed in my house, more just the wow factor like I said above with the girl from our school who got the perfect score on AP Econ. It is just that rare of an occurrence.
@skieurope Great example, or as my husband says about his favorite NFL team, if they win by 1 or 20 he doesn’t care. It’s still a W either way! This team of his needs the W big time so he will take any W he can get, lmao.
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For those of us betting on the game though, the spread and the over/under matters.
I think I just came up with a new business idea - betting on AP scores. I’m gonna be rich. 
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Haha, he’s such a dork he only bets moneyline. Too wimpy to even bet the lines. 
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Been there, done that. Sorry, @skieurope, parents and students have been betting on this for years! 
But, I guess the perfect score is the Powerball number!
Seriously, though, I had never even contemplated the perfect score. Decades ago, when I took AP, the 5 (or 4) was the only satisfaction students needed. AFAIK, there was nothing like a perfect score.
When I took 4 AP exams my senior year in high school, I was going to be overseas in August when the scores came out, only returning back to the US just before beginning university freshman year. I had my brother telegram (!) me each score based on a pre-agreed sequence. I was delighted to get that telegram that consisted of 4 digits. I am truly dating myself in so many ways!
I do think that a perfect score that comes from the passion and love/mastery of a subject is great, as opposed to that or a 5 being the end game. I’ve learned to tell my children to do your best, not be the best. And if that best results in a perfect score, that’s fine. If they get a 1 after doing their best, that’s fine too.
More power to the kids who can secure these scores, which are clearly an amazing feat.
Reflecting back on my final exams in college, I can’t recall one where I ever got 100%. I don’t know if anyone got 100% on any of them. Yes, in theory every student should have the material needed to score 100%. That should be true of every test given. But they don’t.
As these are supposed to be college-level courses, and score cutoffs are based on what college professors believe would be the equivalent to earn that grade in an actual class, I don’t see a problem.
As we see with SAT Raw Score Conversion tables (the erroneously called “curve”), it’s impossible to make a test with an exact level of difficulty. After a test is constructed, professors, college students, etc., take the test to calibrate what is A-level college performance, B-level performance etc. I see no issues with these being different by exam.
I remember having the top grade in the class on a Statics test with a 72 (range was 14-72, iirc). I received an A, not a C that same number would have received on my History exam the same week. Given the difficulty of the test, the professor decided I has exhibited A level performance. The number is just a number.
Fwiw, I’ve been working with the gifted program at our school for at least a decade and no one has ever mentioned or cared about anything higher than earning a 5. I’m sure that it’s a nice honor to get a perfect score, but I doubt it actually earns additional college credit, which is what the AP exam is for.
I also see no reason to hold off announcing the percentage of scores at each level in advance of the score release. A line of SQL or “Insert…Pivot Table” and tweeting the result isn’t going to slow the score release process. I see no harming in knowing these early.
You predate the “phenomenon.” Perfect scores were first announced, I think, in 2013 (I just don’t care enough to verify ) I can tell you that I was not one to get a perfect score, and if I had, I would have kept silent about it. But that’s just me. And not having ever received one has yet to hurt me I life
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I have, although not often, and not in a STEM course IIRC. But then I graduated years after you, and from a college well-known for grade inflation.
I am so antediluvian (which, b/t/w, was the winning word in the National Spelling Bee in 1994) that I didn’t even know there was a “phenomenon” or even an announcement about perfect scores.
Not to be a sycophant etc, but it is insight like this that makes CC invaluable! Thanks.
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Looking up “antediluvian.” 
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