<p>First I'd like to say, this is first time in a year that I found the HSL Forum to be a grey tab rather than yellow, and more importantly, this is a NYTIMES article about the new AP's and their formats</p>
<p>Any Opinions or thoughts on this? Is it fair? Are you 9th grader's excited about this??</p>
<p>I feel like our school is doing something wrong, I always have like 20 min of free time in biology in a 48 minute period. That is, the teacher lectures for about 15-30m, and then we just chill do labs or whatever. idk, 85% of students got 4 or above last year, so I guess it works but hearing these teachers complain about not having enough time is just lol.</p>
<p>Interesting article. I only took 4 AP classes in high school, but I took 10 or 11 tests. I hated the classes, which is why I didn’t take many. The article hit the AP class problems right on the nose- they’re more interested in simply cramming facts down our throat than in making sure we actually learn something. </p>
<p>I did find one major issue with the article: the idea that CB and schools want to cap the number of APs a student can take. If a student wants to take 3 or 4 AP classes, then more power to them. I had three AP classes and three honors classes my junior year, as well as balancing a job and having multiple crew head positions for our plays/musicals - and I did just fine. I would have been furious if a school decided what I could and could not take because of what THEY thought I could handle. Give me a break. Let students deal with the consequences of their actions.</p>
<p>made the right choice with IB… HA!</p>
<p>AP Bio sounds more challenging, and APUSH sounds easier.</p>
<p>The US History sample questions don’t look that much different… I doubt the author of this article has taken the exam. There were questions based off tables, quotes, etc not just memorization, and you never had to memorize the exact dates of pointless wars, as the article suggests.</p>
<p>The AP Bio curriculum is excessive, no doubt about it. However, my class did not cover all of Campbell - we left at least 25 chapters unopened - and still did very well on the AP exam. My conclusion is that even in the status quo it is possible to do well by focusing on certain conceptual areas rather than memorizing the whole book.</p>
<p>IMO, a bigger overhaul needs to occur in the labs. The current 12 labs are just awful.</p>
<p>I don’t like the idea of restricting the number of APs available in a given year.</p>
<p>^I hope they don’t restrict the number of courses someone can take. Instead, perhaps, schools should limit who can take them…</p>
<p>^ and ^^ I disagree on on both accounts, A student is the only one who knows himself best, not the teachers. I am a sophomore, and just yesterday my AP Director told me I can only self study 2 Social Sciences, forget about Calculus, Physics or Chemistry even though I am willing to do the work. I would not like to be limited on my AP’s nor have a school decide for me either, just because the school does not have enough math courses for me in Junior/Senior year if I took calculus this year. It is my legal right assuming I follow all regulations and am in good standing with CollegeBoard. So I would be nerved if CB handed over that regulatory power to incompetent schools who can’t properly asses what’s best for the students, only for themselves.</p>
<p>^ All I said was “I don’t like the idea of restricting the number of APs available in a given year.”</p>
<p>so these ap tests will suddenly become easier the year after I graduate…</p>
<p>:(</p>
<p>Is there such a thing as easier? If something becomes diluted, then colleges will make their standards less strict. Ever since SAT prep books came, and people actually studied, getting a 2200 was not enough to get into your ivy league as opposed to the 70’s when a 1200 was good enough, nowadays that is a failing grade for top tier colleges, same with AP’s, 4’s will become horrid grades and the 5’s will be less impressive, and colleges will resort to their own tests.</p>
<p>The AP Bio syllabus as it stands is absurd… I get the feeling that someone that had an eidetic memory but who’s IQ rivaled that of celery would do better than a smart person without an epic memory…</p>
<p>I also think that the AP needs cut all multiple choice questions, add more essays and longer questions and introduce a “6” grade. Or at least make a 5 more difficult to get…</p>
<p>^Already done at several colleges.</p>
<p>^^ What is already done?</p>
<p>^ care to elaborate?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I definitely disagree. Some science tests (like Chemistry, and Physics to a lesser extent) rely on MC questions to test basic concepts that essays might not be able to test. Other tests (like the language tests) use MC questions to test listening and reading comprehension, which work quite effectively, in my opinion.</p>
<p>Plus, CB wouldn’t want to write that many more FR scoring guidelines, hire that many more graders, extend the grading period, I don’t think. And most importantly, I doubt any student wants to pay even HIGHER fees for the exam.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>My apologies. When someone said that the new AP program would make getting credit a headache and that it would result in colleges implementing their own exams, I pointed out that’s it’s already done at some places. UT-Austin still wants you to take a math test if if you haven’t taken the Math II Subject Test; Georgetown still makes you take a language placement test, regardless of your AP and SAT II scores. I’m sure other schools do something similar; these are just the ones I’ve looked at. Just about anyone (on CC, anyway) can walk into any college with a year or so of college credit. Good for the students and their families, but detrimental to colleges.</p>
<p>^^ Not essays for chem and stuff… For that you would ask the same question but instead of choosing from 4 things it would be a free response. If the answer would be more/less then instead of merely asking a multiple choice question ask the same thing but instead of more/less ask why more/less?</p>
<p>I agree with you on the languages though…</p>
<p>^I agree with both of you about MC and languages, but I can see FRQs working out. Students are given a piece of literature, and write an essay summarizing what they read in the target language, for instance. For listening, they could write about what they heard and the main points of the conversation (this would work for the long exchanges on the French AP) and/or outline the points of each speaker’s argument.</p>