<p>A high school in our district has begun the policy of retroactively raising the class grade in the AP classes for students who receive scores of 3, 4, or 5 on their AP tests. So if they previously received a D in the class, but receives a 3 on the test, they receive a C as a class grade. Obviously a grade of 5 on the AP test results in a grade of A in the class, even if the student did not earn that grade during the regular school year. </p>
<p>Has anyone else heard of this practice? I think that it dilutes the value of an A earned in class in another school, and further penalizes anyone who might get a B or C in the class.</p>
<p>I have contacted the admissions office of a local university (UCSD) but they had not heard about this "policy" and have not commented about it yet. There are other parents in our district who are concerned that the policy will taint all of the AP grades of the high schools in our district.</p>
<p>I'm just wondering if this is common in other areas of the country, and what your thoughts are on this policy.</p>
<p>My sophomore year history teacher said that anyone who got a 5 on the Euro history AP (it wasn't a euro history AP class) would get an automatic A for the year. Anyone that got a 4 would get an automatic B (if they didn't have one already). Anything else wasn't worth squat.</p>
<p>The basic point is that class grades in all high school classes are ARBITRARY. There isn't any national standard for grading a high school class, just as the only meager approach to a national standard syllabus for a high school class is the set of AP syllabi. High schools do as they please, which is one of the reasons that colleges still resort to standardized test scores to distinguish applicants. </p>
<p>By the way, did I mention that high school grades are arbitrary? That's the root of the problem.</p>
<p>Since AP test scores don't come until sometime in July, I find it odd that the grade in the course would be affected by the AP test score. This would be especially difficult for seniors whose final transcripts often have to be at their colleges BEFORE the AP results are available. It seems to me that if the school can't apply this policy to all students (and it would be virtually impossible to do with seniors) it should not be applicable at all. The AP test is an AP test. I'm sorry but I do not support the policy that the developers of the AP test would dictate the grades given to students by their teachers for the course.</p>
<p>Wait... don't the AP scores come out months after your term ends? Wouldn't that mess up your grades a bit if your scores didn't correlate?</p>
<p>I think a minor miracle needs to occur and we need to get off this emphasis on testing... In the end, it dilutes the quality of education and the point of learning to survive. -_-'''</p>
<p>The problem is that so many people have turned to "teaching the test" or trying to "beat the test" instead of learning what they're supposed to learn, and letting the test take care of itself. It's why the SAT scores have gone up so much, because people are studying for a test that was never meant to be studied for. While it's not cheating, in a sense I view it (perhaps unfairly so) as a bit dishonest.</p>
<p>I think the grade on the test is a much better measure of how students really compare to each other nationally and how well they know the subject than the grade in the course. Courses are a function of how well the teacher likes you, attendance, turning in homework on time, behaving in class, completing required busywork, and a whole lot of other clap-trap that has nothing to do with how well you have learned the subject. I like the proposed rule! It will help smart people who do not play the classroom game very well. And it doesn't hurt people who do well in the course but don't test well, since grades only go up, never down. It doesn't affect seniors, but so what? Neither their test scores NOR their final semester grades are important.</p>
<p>In my son's prep school, they do not emphasize AP testing at all, because they do not like teaching to a test curriculum. They offer only a few AP classes: Calc AB/BC, French/Span/Japanese 4 and 5, Advanced Physics, and APUSH. </p>
<p>APUSH is taught junior year. The teacher's policy is that anyone who gets a 5 gets an A, but no other grades get changed. My S earned an A in class and a 4 on the exam and that is how it remains. The kids love the class and the teacher and most earn As or Bs through their class work. The AP exam is icing on the cake and not the reason they take the class at all.</p>
<p>BTW, the kids do very well in college admissions even though they can't show a transcript with a dozen APs!</p>
<p>I disagree with doing this. I find it to be just another way to increase grade inflation at a school. AP grades may reflect how well someone does on the subject at a national level but it can also reflect how well someone did at cramming the week before the test. Perhaps someone slacks off in the AP class. They do not do homework, they cut occasionally, they do not study for tests. However, they cram for the actual AP test and get a 5. Despite their previous behavior in class they get an A. I do not believe this should happen.</p>
<p>That doesn't seem to make sense when people can get 3's, 4's, and 5's on AP tests without ever having taken the class. My son did so on one and received a 4 on another after not doing enough homework to get above his only C in the class. As much as I like my son and hate that he has a C on his transcript (not that it matters any more), I don't think he should have gotten a B in the class he didn't take the time to work on just because he got that 4 on the AP test.</p>
<p>At my son's school the AP exam counted as their final, so it impacted the final grade but did not determine the total grade for the class. They received one report card when they got out of school in June, and a revised report card once the AP scores came out in July.</p>
<p>Let's be fair here. If a student has a less than A grade raised to that level due to a score of 5 on the test, then a student with an A grade should have it reduced to a B for a score of 4 on the test. And so on... When my students propose that I "raise" grades, I tell them that I will "award" everyone the equivalent of their score on the AP Exam. They don't ask again. (This request really only applies to underclassmen, the seniors aren't really affected as long as they passed the class.)</p>
<p>Actually, I think it's quite fair, esp. for classes with severe grade deflation. </p>
<p>For example, my AP Bio class just ended, with a grade distribution as follows: C/C/C/C/C/D/F/F/F.</p>
<p>Now, this is a class with our class valedictorian, me, several members of the Academic Decathlon team; yet, everyone is barely hanging on to a C! (I doubt my admissions will be revoked over a C, considering the rest of my classes are A's and the C is standard for me and AP sciences.. I received a C in Environmental last year.)..</p>
<p>There's opportunity to move up.. with the AP exam.. You only have a grade change if you receive a 5, however.</p>
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<p>There's opportunity to move up.. with the AP exam.. You only have a grade change if you receive a 5, however.>></p>
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<p>It must be nice to know that your grade for the year doesn't really matter at all...and that you only need to do well on the AP exam to get a decent grade in the course. Perhaps some of those C/D/F grades in the class for the term were because the students KNEW that the exam was the way to the grade they wanted. I'm sorry, but I don't support this at all.</p>
<p>I think part of the purpose of grades in classes is to show how much you work and do required assignments, not just take tests. </p>
<p>In my AP Statistics class last year, almost no work was required outside of school because she gave us sufficent time in class to do homework. Some students received Bs because they just messed around instead of doing the homework, but many of them got 5s on the test. Do they deserve to have their grades raised to As?</p>
<p>I don't agree with it, especially in foreign language classes where the class should cover so much more than the test.</p>
<p>It is a policy to give retroactive grades for some, but not other courses at my S's HS. But, there is a broader issue here. My S felt that AP courses were the least valuable he took. It felt like he was in continuous test prep mode. I understand that Stanford has publicly stated they would no longer give extra weight for AP courses and feel that they are overall a bad idea. If true, I agree with Stanford. Courses should be challenging and perhaps designated as honors, but they should not be defined by a common test, particularly in history or literature.</p>
<p>At my school, typically the only course options are AP and "advanced." Advanced is the lowest level of a class; the name is wonderfully misleading. Thus, students have no choice but to take AP classes if they want any challenge at all. (Often students who get out of AP classes to take advanced go from B/C averages to 98-100s with no effort.) </p>
<p>I've found my AP classes to be better than my honors classes freshman and sophomore year because the teachers know they have to cover a certain amount of material by the test. In the honors classes, teachers often took too long on concepts some students (who probably were not of the caliber to be in the class) did not understand, so we rarely got through what we should of. Particularly in physics, we didn't cover any optics, had a about three days about sound, and a not-very-in-depth look at magnetism.</p>
<p>Our public schools have the same policy as the OPs, and they've had it for years. I'm glad my kid's school doesn't do this, as it diminishes what they are doing day to day.
Lab work, class participation, projects, etc. all are a part of my son's AP classes, and they are what the grades are based on, as well as classroom tests. The curriculum may follow the AP coursework, but the teacher adds a lot to that to enhance the learning experience. If grades were changed after the fact based on one test, I can see how that would greatly detract from the learning process.</p>
<p>I think this is ridiculous! The AP test should be totally separate from the class/grade. It is this way, in my S's case. He did not take a single AP class, electing instead to take subjects such as Physics with Calculus instead of AP Physics. He will nonetheless take several AP tests over the next two weeks. The AP tests are serving a totally different function from the learning which took place in the classes. The learning which took place will (I hope) prepare my S for the subject matter in his electrical engineering studies in college. The AP tests are to attempt to gain higher placement once there. I do not think that there should be a tie-in, gradewise, between coursework and an AP test!</p>
<p>I don't think it all really matters very much what the policy is. My S's HS has a high number of students that go to the schools represented by the Ivy Dean's group, (the 8 Ivy's, Chicago, MIT, & Stanford), some of their grades were retroactive A's or B's, others were not, but a follow-up of the kids at these schools finds they tend to be very successful students, and that is probably all that really matters to the admissions folks.</p>