<p>The AP exam system is fundamentally flawed; its ceiling is not high enough. Although a 5 may very well be a good score, someone who has truly mastered the material on the exam would most certainly score about a 70-75%. The lower ranges of a score of 5 do not correspond to mastery of the subject material. A "6" score should be created that represents acquiring at minimum 85-90% of the possible points.</p>
<p>The 6 would just become the new "5". its pointless in that you'd just have more cramers aiming for the highest mark (regardless of what that mark is). Besides, why dont I just create a new "7" for people who'd achieve 95%+? This is only going to create more segregation and thus competition. </p>
<p>I see it as pointless, if they want to take the credits, then so be it. And if they fail the upper level course afterwards, well whos to blame?</p>
<p>nah, harsher system more anger more competishion enough of that, just study take exam and pass (but first you must pass the evil registration!!)</p>
<p>Competition is good! It encourages people to do better. There's nothing wrong with working towards a high level. Many people don't feel the need to know things to the highest possible level for AP exams because of the cap at 5.</p>
<p>Of course, the logical thing to do would to just raise the curve.....</p>
<p>A six would make sense if so many kids didn't straight up fail. 3 is passing, TONS of kids get 1s, 2s, and 3s.</p>
<p>The IB grading system goes to 7, I believe. And passing is a 3 or a four. So there are more levels of proficency.</p>
<p>the numbers are meant to correspond to an a, b, etc. in college, so having a 6 wouldnt fit into the system appropriately</p>
<p>If you're going to add a 6, you might as well add a 7, then an 8, then a 9, and next thing you know, you've got yourself an 800-point SAT grading scale.</p>
<p>i agree rocker, you get that scale then again the bs about i got 760 you got 75, who cares for crying out loud if you got a 5 just shut up and celebrate you got a perfect score what more can you want geez, strange people</p>
<p>i think looking on these forums can distort your perception of what is good and what is bad. everyone on here seems to get 4's and 5's, most likely because they care about their schooling enough to come here and therefore are good students. believe it or not a 3 is a good score, it means you know the material. a 4 is impressive and a 5 does mean you've mastered the material. just because a lot of people here are smart enough and work hard enough that a 5 is a given doesnt mean that it isnt an impressive score.</p>
<p>I think it's important to note that the AP program measures students' levels of proficiency according to their own grading scale (1-5), not on percentage points, which is why the scale is the way it is. Thus, a 3 is considered a decent grade ("average,"-ish, in college lingo), a 4 is good ("well-qualified," in college board terms) and a 5 is really good ("extremely well-qualified"). After sitting through a number of AP courses, I can honestly tell you that the grades correspond pretty well with the ability levels of those in the class. Considering I'm currently observing students who are at the top of their class with very high standardized test scores and only a couple of months away from actual college (for those of you thinking there may be a discrepency of sorts), I think these comparisons and grade knowledges (what I know about what they've achieved) confirm the AP grading scale. Remember, the College Board admits to writing the tests difficultly, in order to test critical-thinking as well as basic knowledge of the material, so questions the questions are designed to be difficult. This is why so many classes spend time taking old AP tests and doing practice questions in addition to learning the material, as well as why you see people on sites like this one studying for and discussing these courses. If the tests merely tested knowledge, then all of the students who achieved A's on textbook tests all year in their class would always do well, but they don't. AP doesn't want everyone getting a perfect score. It's fine the way it is. If they added a six, they would have to change so many things, which might very well be worthless since the current system seems to correspond nicely to college grading scales (remembering that achieving college credit was the first purpose of AP courses).</p>
<p>well said aje</p>