<p>Out of the numerous people I've asked, I haven't heard of a single non-5 score on the BC calculus exam. That's outrageous. I believe that they need to make it way harder to achieve a 5 on this exam. Anyone else think so?</p>
<p>^I disagree. The 30,000 people who did get 5’s in calc BC last year were some of the best math students in the country / world. It is as difficult as it needs to be. And, if you talked to all the people who got 5’s on it, I would say that they all did the highest (or close to) math track available to them at their high school.</p>
<p>I got a 5 so I’m not writing this out of anger. I just think they should make 5’s on the BC test more worthy.</p>
<p>No thanks. I’m taking it next year and I would like a 5 :D</p>
<p>It’s because the schools have typically have tough requirements to even take the BC course. I know in my school you had to have a 95+ GPA in previous math courses and get a recommendation.</p>
<p>^ Sheesh! Don’t you hate that? It’s like they’re limiting how much you can learn…the same with honors courses reqs. How is someone supposed to better themselves if they can’t get access to better courses with better teachers and teaching methods?</p>
<p>This class isn’t open to everybody in the world that wants to try to take an AP course… unlike APUSH, APWH, etc.</p>
<p>Collegeboard arbitrarily selects a cut-off point for the 5’s, 4’s, 3’s, 2’s, 1’s. It just so happens that most people that take the exam happen to know the amount of material needed for a 5. Why? Because the students that take this exam are already the best and brightest at math. In fact, I’d be shocked if less than 60% of my class got 5’s, and if anybody got less than a 4.</p>
<p>Tl;dr: only the people that are good at math take the class, and thus score highly on the exam.</p>
<p>That’s like saying that the AP languages should be made much tougher because native speakers take the exam. Many students shy away from calculus, and out of those who do take it, most prefer AB.</p>
<p>There are 230,000 AB’ers versus around 70,000 BCers, and about 45% of BC gets a 5, which means around 40,000 people don’t. That’s good enough for an already self selecting exam.</p>
<p>Collegeboard says that it conducts research every year to ensure that the 5 is equal to an A in the respective college class.</p>
<p>So, I don’t think the test has to be any harder.</p>
<p>Um… I got a three on the calc BC exam, and a 5 on the rest. It couldn’t have been THAT easy…?</p>
<p>No way, man. People who are trying to self-study 5 exams need a life. They don’t need harder exams just because the curve is supposedly to lenient.</p>
<p>I second the majority of people here. The majority of the people who take BC are VERY VERY bright at math.</p>
<p>Like some others said, CB makes the curve such that a 5 is equivalent to an A in the average college calculus class, and since most people taking BC have above-average ability in math, you will get a larger number of high scores than in other AP exams.</p>
<p>If you want less people to get a 5, you can either convince college professors to make their calculus classes harder or convince more average (or below-average) people to take the BC exam.</p>
<p>proofs, proofs, proofs</p>
<p>The FRQs should be taken out of Spivak or Apostol</p>
<p>^Then we would have like 5% (or less!) getting a 5, which would make people RAEEGGGG at CB. :P</p>
<p>I know someone who didnt get 5 on calc bc! My brother! He had B in that class… Btw does anyone know what i should do if i feel like theres something wrong with the AP exam grade?</p>
<p>I disagree</p>
<p>I received a 5 on AB and BC, but with a lot of preparation
This year’s exam was harder, and my friend got a 4. It’s all based on curve, so I believe that not EVERYONE got a 5.</p>
<p>Quite frankly, I agree with the OP. I know many people who didn’t bother studying for the exam because they knew they were pretty much guaranteed a 5 with that ridiculous curve.</p>
<p>Personally, I hardly tried at all, and, after looking at the FRQ’s in retrospect, I know I messed up a bunch of stuff. Still ended up with a 5.</p>
<p>When the top 40% of test takers score 5’s, you know the curve is ridiculous. Top 40%. Basically, if you’re slightly better at Calculus than half of the test takers, you’ll likely get a 5.</p>
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<p>Blaming someone else for their own shortcomings eh? Not gonna cut it in college, and isn’t that what the AP is for? :P</p>
<p>In my belief, BC exam should emphasize more on BC topics rather than AB topics. On 2010 exam, I did not encounter any polar functions problems, which were a disappointment, but I am glad there were sufficient number of series questions. Besides, some people can get a 5 on this exam without that much knowledge of polar/parametric functions and series since the exam is basically 60% AB, which is a bit too much.</p>