<p>my friend who's in the top 15 of our class of 500 something got a 2 on the english lang test and his other tests are all 4s so it is possible that it was a mistake so one could try and rescore.</p>
<p>It's no big deal. My daughter took five AP exams while she was in high school. She got a 5 in English Literature, 4s in Biology and U.S. History, a 2 in European History and a 1 in Calculus BC. As for the last two, the material that appeared on the test in Euro was not the material that her teacher emphasized in class (and for which she allocated most of her study time) and she was sick with pneumonia for the Calculus exam and was just plain worn out. She got into her first choice of college with two merit scholarships. Admissions committees will look at the whole student -- they realize that anyone can have a bad day, bad course, etc. It's not fatal. What counts is the overall picture.</p>
<p>I got my students scores today. Overall, I was relatively pleased. I teach AP US History to sophomores with open enrollment. 110 students took the exam. With only 1 or 2 exceptions the day before the exam I could have predicted every student who got a 1.</p>
<p>Under the circumstances 2's don't really bother me. I may be living in a dream world but I just tell myself that any students who scored a 2 were just 1 question a way from a 3. That's the frustrating thing about the scores, it could very easily be the case. They also could have been a question away from a 1 but why think about that?</p>
<p>My point is that scores are not always a reflection of the teacher, nor are they always the fault of the students. There are always going to be surprises. I had a handful of students get 3's who I wouldn't have predicted and a couple who got 1's that I absolutely would have bet on a 3 before the exam.</p>
<p>Like the post before stated, anyone can have a good or bad day.</p>
<p>There are significant differences among AP courses and what the are intended to cover. Many are only designed to cover a semester of college work in a full year of high school - these would be considered the easiest classes. Other courses cover a full year of college work, and the language tests aim even higher, towards second or third-year proficiency. It's no wonder that we see a gap between students who succeed at AP Psych but flounder in AP Physics. Does everyone really know what they are getting into? </p>
<p>I've summarized the courses by college equivalencies, as published in the AP Guide that students all receive.</p>
<p>AP classes equivalent to 1 semester college classes - Computer Science A, Environmental Science, Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, Human Geography, Government and Politics, Psychology, Statistics. Calc AB is listed as "two-thirds of a year" Studio Art is described as "one or two semesters." (The Econ classes are usually taught as one semester apiece at the high school level, and so are among the harder classes.)</p>
<p>AP classes equivalent to full year introductory college classes - Art History, Biology, Calc BC, Computer Science AB, English Language, English Lit, European History, Music Theory, Physics, US History, World History</p>
<p>AP classes equivalent to mid-level college classes -
"4th semester" - Chinese, Italian
"4th to 6th semester" Latin Literature, Latin Vergil
"3rd year" - French, German, Spanish
"the point at which students complete approximately 300 hours of college-level classroom instruction" - Japanese</p>
<p>At my kids' school, most of the AP teachers are also graders for the exams. They are among the most senior of teachers, and the AP classes are open, but feared - they are a good way to lower one's GPA. This tends to keep underqualified kids at bay. Of course, the school has to offer an alternative in terms of honor courses, but the APs have the highest weighted ranking. It seems to work well.</p>
<p>To add to midwesterns post-
The science classes Biology, Chem, and Physics cover not only one year of college science, but the accompanying labs as well (8 credits total).</p>
<p>If it makes her feel any better, I just got a 1 on AP German and I tested into 4th semester German at UMich...</p>
<p>AP scores aren't everything</p>
<p>My son just finished IB Spanish 5 (last year of Spanish at his HS) and took the IB SL Test (6 out of 7), the SAT II Test (700) and the AP Test (3). At his HS the Spanish Dept. is weak and it is an IB course, not AP, but I was still surprised by the variance of scores for the same subject.</p>
<p>Students who plan to use their AP credit to start at a more advanced level (as opposed to taking credits only) would be advised to both take a placement exam or speak with the instructor. D rec'd a 5 on AP Music Theory and tested into 3rd level Theory at college. Fortunately the instructor advised her to read over the summer, otherwise she would have been missing some critical content to be successful at that level. AP courses are usually NOT equivalent to the content of a college class.</p>
<p>Mostly, D uses her AP credits (she took 7 classes and scored 6 5's and one 4) to advance her standing so she could register as a sophomore, rather than a freshman. She doesn't have any interest in graduating early. She is having the time of her life in college. Since school is paid for, we are not encouraging her to finish early. Why rush out of college and into the rest of her life? I say, enjoy the 4 years (and probably grad school too.)</p>
<p>"Mostly, D uses her AP credits (she took 7 classes and scored 6 5's and one 4) to advance her standing so she could register as a sophomore, rather than a freshman. She doesn't have any interest in graduating early. She is having the time of her life in college. Since school is paid for, we are not encouraging her to finish early. Why rush out of college and into the rest of her life? I say, enjoy the 4 years (and probably grad school too.)"</p>
<p>ditto for mine too. The real advantage of AP is registration.. never having to settle for a class you don't want at a time you don't like. Housing too.
Some hidden perks.</p>
<p>D did so poorly on her senior AP exams, it's hard to imagine how she did it. She did well sophomore & junior years on exams. By the time she took her exams this year, though, school was over & she had basically "checked out." Even so, she can't believe how awful her scores are! She definitely thought she did better on a couple tests than she did (especially Lit). It is not the fault of her teacher, and she did earn the A's she got in her classes (and the B's she got in a couple the last semester, when she began suffering from severe senioritis). I can only guess that the scores are the last hurrah of a severely burned out young woman ... she didn't want to take the exams, and she obviously didn't overexert herself when she had to (school requires). No one to blame but herself ... but to be honest, it doesn't really matter. There are placement tests for a couple subjects, she already has credit for English from her Comp score, and a couple would only have gotten distribution credits, anyway. </p>
<p>When I said she was suffering from severe senioritis at the end, I sure wasn't kidding!</p>
<p>wharfrat: Just a question to a teacher; If you could predict students who would be getting a 1 or 2 on the AP exam, why didn't you counsel them not to take the exam? If my S or D was a weak writer, had taken the practice tests/ written to the prompts and not done well and a teacher told me that they did not think my child was ready for the test, I would have appreciated that.</p>
<p>At our school, it's required to take the AP. Maybe the school wants the data to see how the teachers are doing???
I'm sure a teacher who knows that a student is going to fail the AP exam would naturally NOT want the student to take it.</p>
<p>The reason is that our system is fixated on the Jay Matthews Challenge Index which looks at number of A.P. courses and number of A.P. exams that are taken. I actually agree with you. There are a number of students whom I would have at least told that their prospects weren't great. Then the decision would be left to them and their parents. </p>
<p>On the flip side, they are sophomores, it's their first A.P. class. If they plan on taking more A.P. courses in the future you could certainly make the argument that the experience of taking an A.P. exam has value so they are better prepared in future courses.</p>
<p>I guess I am glad that our school had strict guidelines on who can/cannot get into AP classes, had students pass a written exam to get in, plus teacher rec's, etc. Taking the AP exam is encouraged but not required. The gc's tell the kids that colleges will wonder why they did not take the test. I guess I would rather my kid explain that they chose not to take the exam because they felt unprepared than to take it and get a 1 or 2. Also, APUSH is taken Junior year; our kids get almost all 4's, some 3's and some 5's. The kids are really well prepared even with the west coast disadvantage (we start school mid September) AP World is offered to a small select group Sophomore year. It is the only sophomore course offered. Some exceptional kids can petition to take AP chem instead of general chem as a sophomore and some really musical kids take AP music theory. We have had a few rare birds take AP Calc or AP Spanish sophomore year.</p>
<p>For the most part, I don't think sophomores, in general, have the writing and analytical skills for the essay portion of the APUSH exam.</p>
<p>My school also teaches APUSH as a Junior class, and instead teaches AP Euro as a Sophomore class...I agree that the APUSH essays are pretty challenging for Sophomore students, more so than AP Euro essays, in my opinion (outside information and knowledge is required for all APUSH essays, including the DBQs, while it isn't as much required for AP Euro). </p>
<p>My HS is also somewhat vague about disclosing the AP scores received, but I do know that we as a whole pass more than 80% of our exams, which seems pretty good to me, seeing as it encompasses 20 different subjects and many hundreds, if not even a thousand, exams. I guess our teachers are pretty good and rigorous (or the students have a decent idea about whether or not they should take the test), because I have known several kids who seemingly amazingly passed their AP tests even though they were hardly model students (I know a kid who got a D in BC Calc and he still got a 3 on the exam...and believe me, it's not because he studied really hard leading up to the exam!). </p>
<p>My HS doesn't have strict guidelines for who can and cannot take AP classes, and generally I think it works out fine. Usually you can get recommended as long as you have at least a B+ or sometimes even a B in the prerequisite course, and that's it--no tests or anything. Additionally, if you have parents who are willing to make enough of a fuss, when it comes right down to it the school won't keep you out of the class. There was one kid in my AP BC Calc class like this (mother was a calc teacher), and his previous teacher was so set against him moving up to BC Calc that she made him sign a promise that he was taking the class against her wishes and that he would not drop out of it, no matter what his grade was. He wasn't the greatest student, but he wasn't terrible either--probably floated around in the C or C+ area...there have been worse Calc grades than his, for sure.</p>
<p>
[quote]
For the most part, I don't think sophomores, in general, have the writing and analytical skills for the essay portion of the APUSH exam.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>I don't necessarily disagree. I will add however, that our kids do extremely well on the AP World and AP Language and Comp exams. I truly believe that a major reason for their performance is because of what I do with them as sophomores. Combine what they gained sophomore year with the tremendous difference a year can make developmentally and wonderful things happen. </p>
<p>I can live with somewhat lower US scores. I see much of my job as being to teach my sophomores what it means to be an AP student.</p>
<p>
[quote]
The real advantage of AP is registration.. never having to settle for a class you don't want at a time you don't like. Housing too.
Some hidden perks.
[/quote]
My d experenced some nice benefits as a result of entering as a freshman with sophomore academic standing. This was particularly so in the housing lottery: when she was a sophomore and had a junior's points, she could draw her room earlier in the process. But there was a disadvantage, too - though most students didn't have to declare a major until the beginning of junior year, she had to declare hers as an entering sophomore, based on the number of credits earned. Not a big deal, since she knew what major she wanted, but she did have to chase down an advisor and file the paperwork on short notice. She knew she'd spend four years on campus, so it didn't occur to her that the administration would consider her a junior after just one year.</p>
<p>On the quality of teaching and its impact on AP results: I'm a big fan of the teaching profession, and want to stress that this little anecdote represents an exception. I know an AP English teacher at a nearby parochial school. She surprised me by reporting (without embarrassment, even) that her school's valedictorian had received a 2 on the AP test for her class. She explained it by saying that the student wasn't really intelligent, simply a hard worker. I was amused that she didn't seem to question her own impact at all. I mean, she has a student in her class who's hard-working enough to graduate first in a class of 100 (and be accepted to a fairly selective college). Seems to me that a reasonably competent teacher could prepare that student well enough to get a 3 on the AP exam.</p>
<p>This same teacher changed the subject during a conversation about what books a group of us were currently reading by saying, "I never read on my own time. I don't really like to." I imagine she may be the only English teacher in the known world who's ever said such a thing - but she really did!</p>
<p>^^^My question to the teacher would be an innocent, "Did she work hard in your class as well?"</p>
<p>I am seriously not impressed that CB hasn't managed to get AP scores out by now. It doesn't even matter for my kid and I'm still thinking why can't they get the scores out in a timely manner. They could and they don't.</p>
<p>My son's AP scores arrived by mail some time last week. When we returned from vacation on Monday, they were here waiting for him. I can't believe you don't have them yet.</p>