What's with the ridiculous AP Calc BC curve?

<p>Go to college and throw the curve for everyone else in your classes. Then you’ll be OMG AWSUM STUDENT ;)</p>

<p>Ahaha…good one.</p>

<p>I would love to do that on a test. Get a 100% when the next highest score is a 70%.</p>

<p>And have everyone in the class half hate you, half worship you.</p>

<p>Hey, I can deal with that. As long as I can get into my dream grad school :)</p>

<p>Where do you want to go?</p>

<p>My favorites are: BU, UMass Amherst, MIT, and Harvard. They’re close by and have awesome EE programs.</p>

<p>Woah! I can’t wait for you to be in grad school so I can see you do brain surgery on YOURSELF in order to switch some circuit around and be able to solve problems faster.</p>

<p>(I think I’ll be worshiping you a little more than your classmates…)</p>

<p>Haha OMG AWSUM STUDENT XD</p>

<p>my friends and I actually joke around when we get our AP scores - like if we get 5’s we’re always like “that sucks - i expected a 7 from you” but yeah I really wish they would fix this curve.</p>

<p>Would this curve actually stop being ridiculous if they stopped making your grade depend on others? Like if they just set a 5 and 75% wouldn’t it be better?</p>

<p>You grade really doesn’t depend on others, or at least not in the sense that you’re likely thinking about.</p>

<p>There are two things that are roughly comparable from year-to-year:</p>

<ul>
<li>How students this year who achieved at a certain standard on common questions performed overall</li>
<li>How students last year who achieved at a certain standard on the same common questions performed overall</li>
</ul>

<p>And really, you need this standard in order to make sure that a 5 means roughly the same thing from year-to-year. 75% of the points earned doesn’t actually do this unless the questions are of comparable difficulty, which is really difficult to compare from year-to-year.</p>

<p>@Stimulus: If the AP wasn’t graded on a curve, I wouldn’t have gotten a 5 on the World History Late Exam :S haha</p>

<p>The Calc BC currently hovers around 60-65% of the POINTS, but for MC, half of the exam, you get points off compared to how many you get wrong, which I have never seen on a non standardized test. Which means you wanna shoot for at least 75-80% of the questions right.</p>

<p>And due to the fact that it is a standardized test and all teachers might not teach every piece of Calc BC in the same way as the Collegeboard teaches. They want to loosen it up for each student. Think of it this way, it is such a large amount of material on one test, that to be able to recall that much and (even if aced during the year) know every individual section that well, requires a lot more thought than not.</p>

<p>It’s like a final, usually kids get much lower grades on the final exams than on their tests because it covers such a large amount of varying material. But because collegeboard doesn’t have quizzes, tests, and homework to make up the imperfection on the final. They have to lower the standards.</p>

<p>In reality, how many people who get an A in a class get a 93+ % on the final? It is many times the classwork, etc, that pulls it up. Which is why AP tests have the large curve. </p>

<p>However, for Calc BC, since people who are not good at math typically choose STAT or Calc AB, you get a strange distribution of people much smarter than the average AP taker in that class. Hence the high percentage of 5’s. Same goes for Computer Science AB(definitely) and in some part, AP Physics C.</p>

<p>^Very true, indeed. </p>

<p>If you’re one of the few who are good at memorizing a lot of material all at once, I guess the AP exam may be “easy” for you, but to the majority, it’s not as easy. Considering that BC covers AB and BC material (and you have to know every concept all at once!) and the test is very strenuous and brain-consuming (Recall that it’s a 3-hr exam and you’d be lucky if you have time to double check). Again, not many non-standardized exams are that time-crunching either.</p>

<p>And manyman234 does make a good point about deducting points for incorrect answers.</p>

<p>In my opinion, the bigger the curve the better :D</p>

<p>@enwenw16: yeah, it’s better for the student, but colleges will probably be aware of the curve, and if you apply to top colleges, the curve will only increase the number of 5’s and thus competition</p>

<p>It’s just annoying to know half of your class got a ‘5’. At least SATs differentiate (no pun intended) people…somewhat.</p>

<p>^hahahahaha</p>

<p>i love when people say differentiate and don’t mean it in the calculus way :D</p>

<p>psh and you think 43.5% 5s is crazy? O.o
at my school 90%+ of the BCers(around 200 of them) get 5s and no have have gotten below a 3 on the AP test
talk about the ridiculous curve…</p>

<p>Whoah do you go to a magnet school or something?</p>

<p>yeah im with zala on this one. my school gets ridiculous results and its a regular public HS</p>