<p>This is interesting. At my school, we have open enrollment, so if you want to be in a class you must be allowed to take it. But we don’t have a swarm of unqualified students rushing to take them, and our passing rates are pretty good…</p>
<p>And it’s just a decent public school too.</p>
<p>mook, anomaly: I rest my case…</p>
<p>I personally believe it is a motivation problem. (I know a person who took over 20 AP’s and got 5’s on all…)</p>
<p>raiderade</p>
<p>“Killer is not right. Technology that simulates AP exams will not make the answers come to the student’s more readily. It’s all knowing the facts. If you can get a teacher who makes remembering the facts easier becasue the class is more interesting, then you will most likely do better. My teacher stepped up her game and made tests really really hard so that you had to study exceptionally hard to do well meaning that you knew a lot of information come May. Teaching has everything to do with it.”</p>
<p>Thats true. You have to know the facts. Obviously. What the practice tests mainly do is get rid of test anxiety. You know, the feeling that you aren’t prepared. Likewise, the tests help students to know their strong points and weak points. Well, at least if the test actually tells you that information.</p>
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Then the people who aren’t motivated or qualified enough shouldn’t be allowed to take an AP course.</p>
<p>The only thing that is sure is that the lazy people are wasting their time since they won’t get any credit anyways.</p>
<p>Teachers do matter. My APUSH teacher was a phenomenal teacher and got a pass rate of 100%, with an average score of 4.5 At a public high school. And 60 students took the class, out of 400 for the overall. And they were also sophomores. Definitely because of the teacher.</p>
<p>At my high school (small, private), there are requirements to get into any AP course. For example, to get into AP Chemistry, you must take Honors Chemistry the previous year and get a B+ or higher. Consequently, 94% of all students who have taken the AP Chem exam in the past 10 years have received a 4+. </p>
<p>Then again, there was also a student who had an average of about 98 in Honors Chem, self-studied for the AP, and got a 5 that same year.</p>
<p>Lately, there’s a push for students to take AP classes. For what? To burn themselves out and hate school? I think students should take AP’s only if they believe they’re capable of doing great (not just passing) on both the course and the AP exams. </p>
<p>One of the AP social studies classes in my school had 80-90 students enrolled in 4 sections, and the AP pass rate was barely above 50%. Not impressive, but not deplorable, either. In contrast, the AP Chem class in my school has 8-12 students on average per year, and the pass rate is 94%. The instructor is devoted to making sure the students know their material cold. I feel like I have a good chance to pass the exam.</p>
<p>I am taking a tough class schedule next year and I will take fewer AP’s, but reward myself with a diverse course schedule (video production and American Sign Language sound more engaging than being in a study hall).</p>
<p>There’s a push for students who want to get into the best colleges to take AP classes, because a challenging courseload is an important part of admissions. The root of the problem is the idea people have that, if you don’t go to a prestigious college, you’re going to spend the rest of your life digging holes.</p>
<p>See how your state/demographics fared… 
[AP:</a> Exam Grades: Summary Reports: 2009](<a href=“College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools”>AP Program Results – Reports | College Board)</p>
<p>I can sort of feel for a lot of people in this thread. In the “advanced placement” courses, education truly isn’t the primary concern for both the teacher and pupil. I, the student, have in some respects been used at the teacher’s disposal to identify the need for AP certification and extra perks teachers receive as a result. Students, then, are handed good grades and look good on paper to colleges. What it is, really, is a transmission of false credibility to make everyone look good on paper. Motivation comes within when it comes to these kinds of classes. Depending on the group of students, you might need a motivational teacher. Not all AP teachers offer that vital motivation. That’s why, as previously mentioned, only 15% pass AP Euro in class yet over 80% for another AP. However, it lies on you if you fail. If you are taking AP, you are probably smart enough to find your own resources and information to self-study. It’s a shame, though, that in a lot of these classes, I wasn’t allowed to fail. The teacher(s) simply couldn’t have it because they were the ones citing the necessity of the classes. The best AP teachers give you a quantifiable notification, that is, some sort of declining grade, that you are clearly slipping and you need to focus more on your academics. That’s why, for instance, I did fail one or two government tests but yielded a 5. I wasn’t given that “false hope” that surrounds most APs…</p>
<p>At this point I feel as if I’m rambling. But I’ll tell you, these classes are far more better than college-prep and applied levels for english, math, and sciences. Education itself needs a lot of tweaking. AP is not perfect, not even close at all, but most other levels of tracking have far more negatives. For an economic analogy, as an AP student, you are “too big to fail”, you are the Goldman Sachs of investment, whereas the rest of the student populous is left high and dry. The entire system is what needs fixing.</p>
<p>My AP Statistics class is a perfect microcosm of the issue at hand here.</p>