<p>None of my other teachers do! Like for Chem..he says it's good if you get 50% of the MC right because as long as you do well on the open response ones you can still get a 3+ but then he doesn't curve it so you end up getting like a 50% for your test grade..
Sometimes he throws in a little curve if nobody gets 100..but still...most people end up with Cs..</p>
<p>None of my other AP teachers use the AP test curves...</p>
<p>LOVE the calc curve though :) I would NOT have an A in that class without it!</p>
<p>Uh, actually no. Some of my class tests are easy enough that half the class get A's or B's without any curve. For the ones that uses any curve, they use the curve that makes the highest grade in the class 100, and I am used to that curve. But some time it's kind of unfair because once in chem, this dude got 100, and the second highest grade was 75, and 70% of the class failed. And we still didn't get any curve.</p>
<p>This really doesn't make much sense. How could teachers not curve an AP test? On the AP Calc BC exam for instance, 60% correct answers will be very close to a 5 (yes I know points are deducted for wrong answers but still). That would be ridiculous for a teacher to give a student a 60% F when that same performance could very well be a 5 on the AP exam.</p>
<p>For my Calc BC final exam, we took an actual AP Calc AB exam, because we have covered all the material for the AB exam in the first semester. I got an 80% on it, which would be a solid 5 on the AP test. With the curve (my calc teacher grades on weird curves that I don't quite understand) I got a 97%.</p>
<p>I'm glad that my teachers grade fairly. I'd hate to be in a class where AP tests are graded but not curved.</p>
<p>Hrm... I've taken "AP Classes", but they're not really teaching the full AP material. I did some self-studying for the exam though, and the first time I looked through the Princeton Review book in January last year, I was like "Man, am I ever glad I looked at this now, and not in May" :P. If I recall correctly, in 2004, most people who got a 50% on the exam, received a 5 for Physics AP C Mechanics. Granted, I would say that's one of the hardest AP's out there, but still pretty low in my opinion. But I guess we are still in high school. However, though I realize that these exams can be extremely badass hard, I would disagree that a 85%, or even a 95% is unrealistic to attain, even if you're not a prodigy in the subject of the AP you take. It just takes a hell lot of work in your precious free time :P For the average student though, definitely unrealistic. I wish I knew what percentage I got on the exam, and not just the score. I don't care how hard it is, I still want to get a A XD I think I'm going to make myself suffer too much when I get to university -_-</p>
<p>"That's about the dumbest thing I've ever heard. Getting 95% or 85% of the possible points is simply not realistic."</p>
<p>Not dumb. Many people do it. Our teachers get the College Board report for how their kids as a group did on AP tests, and because of a long and complicated story, I was placed in my own "group", so the "average performance" was really my performance. And on the Physics B exam last year, I only missed one MC question and got perfects on all the FRQs. On Calc, I got a perfect overall. If you have covered the material, there is nothing unreasonable about teachers using AP questions as test questions without curving. There is nothing magical about AP questions... the reason the curve exists is because all AP courses cannot be expected to cover everything.</p>
<p>No, just no. Many people do not do it. Yes, it's possible, there's no point in denying that, but expecting students to correctly answer 95% of questions on an AP test is not realistic at all. A very small amount of the most intelligent and most qualified students may be able to do that, but an overwhelming majority of students will not even be able to come close to 95%.</p>
<p>Granted, I don't go to a highly competitive high school, but I have yet to see anyone capable of getting 95% of the possible points on any AP exam. I know there are people who can do it, but I just don't think it should be expected to score that high.</p>
<p>guitarman89, could you talk to my BC Calc teacher please? All of our tests are past AP exam questions, and our midterm was an AP Calc AB exam (because we finished all of AB in 1st semester). She doesn't believe in curves. According to school district policy, an A is 100-94. B+ = 93-90, B= 89-84, etc and that's what she follows. How on earth is anyone supposed to get a decent grade? I'm BARELY scraping by with a B, and that's all due to homework. A C+ is immenent, yet her only consolation is that we're practically guaranteed a 5 on the AP exam. Now, what use is a 5 if you get RESCINDED FROM A COLLEGE BECAUSE OF A C?!?!??</p>
<p>^ Wow that's some serious grade deflation there. If you have the ability to score a 5 on the AP exam I see no reason why you should not be getting an A or at the very least a B in the class.</p>
<p>I usually score in the 80%'s on AP tests administered in my Calc BC class, so I'd probably be getting a low B or C in your class lol.</p>