<p>I took the AP European History alternate exam because I was out of town for the regular test. I thought the alternate test was okay if it wasn't for the stupid essay questions! The alternate essay prompts were without a doubt much harder than the regular prompts.</p>
<p>So, my question is if the alternate AP tests are curved on based on their own results or are the curves of the normal AP tests applied? </p>
<p>Thanks so much for your help!</p>
<p>Firstly, I'd like to point out a common misconception about AP curves: They have absolutely nothing to do with the bell curve. Nothing. 0. When questions are chosen to appear on the exam, their difficulty level is pre-determined (most multiple choice questions are taken from previous exams, and I'm not 100% sure about how this works for free-response, but it's probably very similar to the MC), which means that their curve is, likewise, pre-determined.</p>
<p>Now, to answer your question. The curves for the late testing version of a particular exam aren't the same as the curves for the normal testing version.</p>
<p>The curves aren't predetermined. They're determined after the fact, and based on the idea that students who score a certain way on the common multiple choice questions that are repeated should score 5's, 4's, 3's, 2's, and 1's in roughly the same proportion each year, regardless of the "difficulty" of the rest of the exam. The cut scores are determined to make this match as much as possible.</p>
<p>That's not true. I'm 100% sure that the curves are pre-determined, for the multiple choice, at least. Since the questions are mostly all taken from a previous exam, the psychometricians are able to gauge their difficulty, and thus determine the appropriate curve. It may not be done in a similar way for the FRQs, but curves are definitely predetermined.</p>
<p>^ alternate tests aren't graded on the same way as their normal counterparts. although, it should've been easier for you if you would've asked a fellow student on the content of the AP exam prior to yours since they or their theme wouldn't show up on the latter. No adviceable since it breaks all the rules of CB. LOL. But it still happens.</p>
<p>The curves can't be predetermined. The MC and the FR are considered together to do the overall curve for the entire test.</p>
<p>Every AP workshop that I've attended has discussed this on Day 1.</p>