<p>Why has the CollegeBoard made it harder to get 5s and 4s in certain classes over the past few years? For example, AP World History use to have a standard distribution, 10-11% of people got 5s, but recently the number has been dropping to nearly 5%. Do you think they'll make them even harsher next year?</p>
<p>It’s because people just did worse this year in general. The actual curve (raw score to scaled score) conversion changes very little, if at all, year to year. This holds true for all AP, not just World History.</p>
<p>Because Obama.</p>
<p>The distribution for Chem was higher this year :D</p>
<p>Collegeboard isn’t doing this. Under-performing students are. </p>
<p>For example look at the 1998 released APUSH MC questions. They seem VERY VERY simple. Even for those who haven’t taken APUSH…</p>
<p>Nothing like you would expect today.</p>
<p>For the two exams with very low scores (APWH and Bio) These exams, along with others, are introducing critical thinking skills into those subject areas. </p>
<p>I took APWH, although i slept through the FR (won’t get credit), i got a three. The MC section required more of a broader knowledge of the historical periods and an understanding of historical context in order to answer the questions.
ex: It wouldn’t have been good enough for me to know that buddhism spread to china. You need to know and understand the causes and effects of the religon spreading. This now, so you can explain why the words of a Chinese peasant were either typical or abnormal.</p>
<p>APWH is a mainly sophomore AP course. Which means this is often the 1st AP exam that they have taken resulting in lower scores.</p>
<p>They even got rid of the fifth answer choice.</p>
<p>True for it being mostly a 10th grade class, but not really sure why. No way I would have had the skills needed to pass the exam in 10th grade. APUSH is more appropriate for a 10th grade AP IMO. </p>
<p>Just because they got rid of an answer choice doesn’t mean they made it easier.</p>
<p>^ Yes I agree. I don’t know who started the trend of sophomores taking AP World History, but it is a stretch for many sophomores. I really wish I would have waited until I was a junior or senior to take it. It’s definitely not a good first AP class. Also, the sophomores at my school who take APUSH usually do fairly well with a decent pass rate compared to those who take AP World History.</p>
<p>A harder trend is AP World + AP Chem for Sophomores at my school for their first AP class.
Now those are tough >.>
But AP World, my teacher says to repeat it after Soph year and people usually get a 4/5 compare to 1,2, or 3.</p>