Calculus AB: This Year's Exam Worst AP Ever

<p>I'm not going to lie. Free Response on AP Calculus was impossible. I also skipped 7 to 8 M.C. I know I got the rest of them right though. Anyone else thought there was a collegeboard conspiracy?</p>

<p>Well, if it's as hard as everyone says, expect a nice curve (hopefully) :D.</p>

<p>I completely agree...this year's free response was much harder with different kinds of questions than those of years past. Hopefully a very generous curve will be given...</p>

<p>Shouldn't that be the point though? If the questions are the same kind each year, you could just study the types of questions and get them all right based on patterns. </p>

<p>I took the Calc BC test this year, and yes, it was tougher than expected, but not impossible. They just required you to actually know the calculus, not just regurgitate the patterns of FR questions from years past. </p>

<p>That said, I definitely hope for a good curve, but I don't necessarily think that Collegeboard did anything wrong.</p>

<p>I haven't seen anybody remarking that the college board was in some way incorrect in making their test(s) harder; most of the comments I've read simply say they found the test difficult. I agree that knowing the subject is better than only learning the questions that will likely be on the test. </p>

<p>I am really, really hoping for a nice curve on this (calc ab) test...</p>

<p>I didn't think that the college board was trying to hurt us either...they just didn't like how students were basically memorizing past exams and expecting the same questions, so they changed a few things.</p>

<p>I've seen some free response question averages circulating that seem unofficial that suggest to me that it might be curved more generously than usual this year.</p>

<p>In particular, the claim is that the national average on question #3 was below 1 out of 9.</p>

<p>Interestingly enough, the question that most of my students complained about (#6) had one of the highest averages on the whole test. Go figure.</p>

<p>I didn't think the MC was horrible but the FRQs killed me, I didn't touch about half of them. We'll see! I'm not expecting anything good though.</p>

<p>Well I wouldn't be surprised about the national average for #3 being 1 out of 9. SInce I didn't even write anything for since I had little idea or what to do, & the results coming out on my calculator weren't helpful</p>

<p>I took AB last year. There are always three problems that are identical on both exams. This year's AB free response problems that I saw on the BC test were insanely more difficult than last year's.</p>

<p>According to a reader:</p>

<p>AB</p>

<p>Average Average without including zeros
1) 4.33 5.12
2) 3.02 3.54
3) 0.95 (yes, this is not a typo) 2.36
4) 2.91 4.34
5) 2.47 3.82
6) 3.49 4.20</p>

<p>Um, yea the free response were kind of tricky. They actually made you "think." I know, how could the College Board do such a horrible thing? On the other the hand, the multiple choice was a complete joke.</p>

<p>By the way, which one was #3?</p>

<p>I honestly didn't think they were any worse than the MC... they were exactly what my teacher had prepared us for. :) I feel lucky.</p>

<p>I believe number 3 was one about rate of water entering and leaving a resevoire, in which one was a trig function, and the other a piecewise-linear.</p>

<p>I'm still angry at finding the area of the wrong region on number 1 !!</p>

<p>^^^ that was 2
ques. 3 involved intermediate value thm, mean value thm, 2nd fundamental thm, and differentiation of inverse functions</p>

<p>I've heard a lot of negative things about the free-response. When I took BC last year, the questions were significantly harder than in years past. I just think it's an upward trend.</p>

<p>I thought number 3 was where they used the f(x) = blah g(x)=more blah h(x)=f(g(x)) and blah.</p>

<p>that was number 3, the correct way to solve it was the intermediate value theorem, mean value theorem, that stuff mentioned above. luckily i got 2 points on that i'm sure... yay for higher than nat average.</p>