<p>European History</p>
<p>AP US is a cakewalk compared to Euro.</p>
<p>Art History didn’t seem hard at all (the test), but I only got a four.</p>
<p>Personally, I think it’s kind of ridiculous that they can put ANY art work on the exam, no matter if it wasn’t in your book or if the artist wasn’t in your book. I mean, knowing characteristics takes you only so far.</p>
<p>physics C, even though majority get fives, a very little amount of people take it</p>
<p>I don’t know, it really does depend on the person. I’m not a math/science person so I didn’t think USH was all that impossible, but I thought Chem was the hardest thing in the world.</p>
<p>I have no idea why Gov. and Pol. has the lowest rate of 5s though, that test was a JOKE. I honestly think most competent people could get at least a 3 without any prep, so that statistic eludes me.</p>
<p>From the one’s I took I’d say French. I could’ve studied more but with languages it’s just pointless. After 5 years either you know it or you don’t. lol</p>
<p>gov has the lowest five rate because every kid out there (dumb and smart) take it</p>
<p>Foreign Languages (Spanish…)!</p>
<p>Calc BC was cake, seriously, and I was in an AB class. I got a 5 easily.</p>
<p>Chemistry - also not that hard, at all. Neither was Biology. 5s again.</p>
<p>Physics C - probably the hardest. I’m taking it this year (gulp)</p>
<p>Music Theory, in the sense that the aural part is almost impossible for those not blessed with a good ear</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure AP Physics C is the toughest of the exams, just because it’s curve is the biggest, to my knowledge.</p>
<p>Pigs_…</p>
<p>I don’t think your analysis for Gov US is quite right. Most people that take AP Gov US are seniors that have already taken APUS and they still only pass at around 50%. Most APUS students are in 11th grade with a growing chunk in 10th grade and roughly half get 3-5. The students that continue on to AP Gov (almost all gov is 12th graders) are disproportionately those that have earned 3-5 in APUS already. APUS is well over 300K exams and Gov is around 175K. The “toughness” of the 5 seems more a function of ETS running their stats on student results more than the quality of student responses. </p>
<p>I agree with many prior posts that assert “hardest” exam is a individual matter, but it may be interesting to work out what, if any, more general criteria could be used.</p>
<p>Foreign Lang exams are notoriously difficult to 5 for non-native speakers.</p>
<p>Calc BC and PHY C are a joke for the math-minded and a killer for others to 5.</p>
<p>AP Lit is right with GovUS on lowest rate of 5s for most years, (although 6.5% 5-ed in Lit in '08 and 12% in Gov), and Lit had 320K exams for almost exclusively 12th grade. Pigs argument works a little better with Lit in that it appears hard to get a 1 or 5 based on grade distributions and draws from the deepest single grade pool of any AP exam.</p>
<p>Microeconomics has the highest raw composite point requirement for a 5, but is a very doable course for those that figure out the type of reasoning involved (18% 5s in 2008). I do not think many would call Micro the hardest 5 even though it requires the most points out of what is available.</p>
<p>I’ll say micro is the hardest 5 (although cleary not) just to see what people think of the composite point criteria.</p>
<p>Just my thoughts.</p>
<p>A ton of people at my school took the Gov course this year but not the exam.</p>
<p>The exam was cake though.</p>
<p>In talking about the most difficult AP Exam, we should not really discuss specialized exams (i.e. Music Theory, Studio Art, et cetera). Specialized exams are taken by a minority of students and they hold no weight over the general AP Exam testing population. That being said, even with the more commonly taken exams, it depends from year to year and even on what FRQs you get on test day (for example, for Biology, I happened to get Form A FRQs, which were all molecular biology based questions, my forte). Generally speaking, AP Exams are a lot of preparation, and a little luck…but, if you prepared well for the exam, then it should not be too bad.</p>
<p>In discussing the most “difficult” AP exam, we should distinguish the course from the exam. For example, APUSH was my most difficult class, largely due to the breadth of the course, extensive writing requirements, and sophisticated primary documents. I had the most homework from APUSH by far out of all of my classes; however, the exam was a piece of cake because of the extensive preparation. Similarly, AP Calculus BC, AP Physics C, and AP Chemistry may require a tremendous investment of time and intellectual energy from the non-scientifically inclined (although I found Chem and Calc to be effortlessly easy classes), the exams are usually quite simple if you have invested the time in the material or have an aptitude for those subjects. Personally, I think that the foreign language exams present the greatest challenge. I took French Lit after self-studying this year (got a 2 haha) and I found the test to be one of the hardest I’ve ever taken. That’s just my $.02, though.</p>
<p>Has anyone AP Latined before?? AP Latin MC is impossible. My teacher even said she feels stupid when she reads them. The free response isn’t extremely bad, but still BAD. It’s nice having to know about 1,400 lines of Latin poetry…
I heard Calc BC was really hard because my brother took it. Also Physics…
Most of the sciences are usually hard.</p>
<p>Alright all of you saying AP Calc BC is ridiculous, not so much. It is the exam where the highest percentage get 5s (like 45%). English Lit, English lang, and US History have the fewest people get 5s. Maybe the exam is harder, but the curve makes up for it.</p>
<p>I think USH is the hardest, but I just hate history.</p>
<p>dreamsofivy, Calc BC has the highest percentage of 5s not because it’s easier or a better curve, but because the students who take it are a select group. Compared to English Lang and US History, tests which are very popular and taken by almost every AP student and many “non-AP” students, only the most excelling take Calc BC. Naturally, the scores will be higher.</p>
<p>AP Art History is impossible, mainly because there’s such a wide range of material. You can be tested on any work of art or architecture ever made and be required to state the exact date, title, artist, location and medium. It has an easy curve but its still a hard test. There’s also a harder time restraint on the multiple choice and so much to do. </p>
<p>AP French and I’m sure any other language is hard. I took French for 7 years and got a 1. Albeit my teacher for AP French was horrible, the average for our mid-term was a C.</p>
<p>Comparative Gov seemed hard when I took it (there were like 8 essays and some of them were on such specific random things) but I ended up getting a five despite writing all 8 essays in like 20 minutes because it was senior cut day and I wanted to go to the beach.</p>
<p>Out of the ones I’ve taken definitely chem.</p>
<p>Comparative Politics was the hardest exam for me because the teacher didn’t teach us half the stuff that appeared on the exams (he left out entire countries in the curriculum). This would have been fine if I realized that he had left so much out BEFORE the exam date so I could have studied on my own with outside materials. But, alas, it was not to be and I made a 2. :(</p>
<p>Physics C: E&M was difficult, but I managed a 4. I was well-prepared, but I would say that this was the most challenging test I took (excluding Comp. Poli.). I bet the foreign language tests are more difficult, though.</p>