College Board Changes Scoring for Biology (Possibly Others)

<p>UNC-Chapel Hill also gives 8 hours of credit for a 5 on the AP Biology exam (credit for BIO-101/BIO-101LAB & BIO-289/BIO-289LAB), but only 4 hours of credit for a 3 on the exam.</p>

<p>u of washington offers 0 ap bio credit for the major sequence.</p>

<p>That's your retort? Fine, I'll concede that for the major tract at that one school, the only other one worth squat on your list I might add, but what about the rest?</p>

<p>Do you attend CUP? If so, that's awesome.</p>

<p>u of wisconsin 1 semester as an elective
ga. tech 1 semester as an elective
vanderbilt 1 semester as an elective
case western 1 semester
notre dame "ap biology courses, or examinations, will not be considered as substitutes."</p>

<p>^^looks like CUP, i assume it's in PA, is in better company than UC Davis, UT Austin, and Cornell departments of biology.</p>

<p>to UC Davis, UT Austin, and Cornell, add West Virginia U for giving a full year credit toward the major.</p>

<p>If you'd rather have a degree in Biology from CUP rather than Cornell, UCD, or UT, then you have truly amazing powers of comparison and decision making. I can only assume they rival your cunning powers of observation by deducing that California University of Pennsylvania is indeed, in Pennsylvania.</p>

<p>Oh, a word of warning if you do go to CUP - they don't offer Masters or Doctorate degrees in any science, including Biology, only teaching certifications in those areas. =( I'm sure they're still a top program though!</p>

<p>Also, if you're going to try to go through them all, then you might as well start at</a> the beginning.</p>

<p>I am anxiously awaiting your post!</p>

<p>ap bio is the equivalent of a solid, one semester, introductory course for non majors.
any school that offers more to a bio major is little more than a prestigious high school.
the very concept of rigour has been lost.</p>

<p>When did you take AP Bio and when did you take Biology in college?</p>

<p>don't you guyz think the college board tests are kinda unfair? i loved biology (minus the teacher, and the plants portion). I esp. loved the mole gen and microbio part. i was down with the flu over the weekend, and i was in a very crappy condition for the ap test. i was expecting a 5, and got a 4. how can they judge our passion for the subject by labeling us with these scores? we need to raise the anarchy and bring TCB DOWN!</p>

<p>My AP Biology teacher explained at the beginning of the year that our class would be structured as two semesters of college biology for SCIENCE MAJORS. I will be attending the University of Texas at Austin next year, where credit for two semesters of biology for majors is given for a score of 5 on the AP Biology exam. NO CREDIT is given for a 4. I do not understand how people can say that this is NOT a big deal. Yes. AP Exams are hard and are designed to be that way. However, if "grade compatibility studies" are going to be conducted, it is essential that they are conducted CORRECTLY, especially since a student's entire knowledge of college introductory biology is consolidated into the AP 1-5 score format. Unlike other some tests with much larger scales, a loss of one point from the top score (in the case of UT AUSTIN) loses credit for two semesters of biology and at least six hours of credit. Since I will be attending UT-Austin, I will put this into my perspective; I'm sure it is a different case for everyone. 6 hours of biology credit is granted for a 5. The cost for 6 hours of credit is $3,040. Obviously, it would be economically beneficial to earn credit through the AP Exam. This means that a lot also rides on the exam. For the College Board to base scores on tests given to college students under different conditions seems completely ridiculous to me. In my eyes, they had two major advantages. The first is that they were tested over about HALF the information tested on the AP Biology exam. It takes a lot to study for an exam covering so much material. The second is that their tests were MUCH shorter. I personally found the AP exam to be grueling. The AP exam is 4 times longer than the test given to the college students, in both the multiple choice and free-response sections. Part of the test taking is having endurance and keeping up stamina. Given that the scientific method makes up a large part of the AP Biology curriculum, I find it ironic that the College Board could use control variables that are so completely different. It may have changed the results of their study significantly and thus AP Scores, which can and do make a big difference to students. Standardized examinations should not be so subjective.</p>

<p>Hifi, did you ever locate the information TheMathProf asked for regarding the college board's alleged policy of targeting 50% > score of 3</p>

<p>hifi- You are quick to make many statements, but you have no sources to back you up. If there is a more legitimate source for the AP Biology course description than the College Board, please let me know. You should not throw around blanket statements about both AP courses and universities without any backing!</p>

<p>they should either accept 4's or we should start boycotting against TCB</p>

<p>While I think we all have our beefs with the CB, I don't think it would be realistic to boycott them. :-) However, I do think they should be informed when they are in the wrong.</p>

<p>they're so hardheaded that they wont listen to us. what are we to them? we're a bunch of nerdy high school students. i think it's about time they consider us as rational beings</p>

<p>

That should convince them you're a rational being :)</p>

<p>I can't find the 2008 grade distributions anywhere online.</p>

<p>Any idea of where I can find that?</p>

<p>They're not on line yet. Probably not for another month or so.</p>

<p>exactly. lol</p>