<p>^^ or rather a mismathc of class material to test. How does a conclusion that something is wrong with the test based such a small sample jive with all the kids out there who received 4s and 5s?</p>
<p>Of course it’s a mismatch of class material to the test. I thought the class material was first rate. I have no actual idea what is on the test. But I infer that I would not be impressed by the content of a course that taught kids what they needed to know to get high scores on the test, especially if that involved giving up aspects of the class my kids took that made it a great class.</p>
<p>When I was a student, AP tests were memorization fests, nothing more, and nothing resembling an actual college curriculum. I have the impression that they have improved somewhat over the past decade, especially since the College Board started to hear the footsteps of IB as a rival. But I think the AP tests still tend to be more a matter of regurgitation than of actual thought.</p>
<p>The essay portions of AP exams are like any blue book exam that one might take in a college intro class - something like 3 prompts and pick 2 (I’m sure a student here can correct my numbers). I was very impressed by the instructor and the content of the course that my D had to succeed on both the AP Gov and HL History in one class in one year. I’m sure your kid’s class was great, but that does not mean that others are bad because more kids did well on the test. It is just a false inference.</p>
<p>I have to agree with saintfan that the AP Lit, at least, was similar to a typical college test, with essays. In that class, in particular, I don’t know how you would even teach to the test. APUSH scores have large sections based on interpreting documents and their relation to the time, etc and that is not about memorization as well. Even Chemistry required a lot of lab work, so the class would have been engaged in discovery.</p>
<p>Theoretically, AP scores are very much dependent on how well the teachers can teach the material and the student level in the class. My kid paid attention in classes last year and got mostly 5s but she blew off school as well as tests in the last semester and her scores totally reflected the preparation. The economics teacher told the parents at the beginning of the year his classes average 4.5. This guy won the city’s teacher of the year award this year. Essentially my kid got a 5 and 4 because she paid attention the first semester and missed lots of classes in second. The Calculus teacher said 4.2 was the average and calc AB piece was a 4 and overall was a 3. So remember - teachers can make a difference and those who are good will tell you what your kid will get from their AP test.</p>
<p>Many reasons why even smart kids might “fail” a particular AP test. S took 9 AP tests and bombed 2 of them. Similar to what JHS said her kid experienced with Calc BC–S was a top math student, one of a few juniors in BC. He just started to lose it 2nd semester and was too shy about approaching the rather gruff teacher when he didn’t understand. He got an A in the class, and a 1 (with AB subscore 3) on the test. He was studying for other tests that he did very well on, but didn’t devote enough time to calc and just choked on the test. The other bad one was US GOV. It was a semester course that he’d taken first semester–that didn’t help. Plus, he had 4 other AP tests to study for this year and though he went to review sessions, just couldn’t put in the time for this one-- so ended with a 2.
Overall he’s happy with the AP program in general and will get 22-25 credits for his other good scores. Win some, lose some.</p>
<p>My son found out he couldn’t transfer in more than a certain number of credit to his college, and his motivation for doing well on most AP tests went way down hill. He wanted to get credit for Bio, and he managed a 5 on that test. He realized stat wouldn’t give him any credit, so he didn’t try on that (he’s very good at math… 5 on AP calc BC and 36 on math ACT). He should have just canceled his score, but he didn’t really care. As others have said, he was already accepted to college. His scores in 11th grade were very good, but in 12th grade the motivation just wasn’t there.</p>
@limabeans01 It really depends on the test itself. Like the questions and essays. This happened for me last year and this year. I felt totally prepared, kept an really high A in class all year, never getting below a 75 on a test.Took tons of practice exams and studied my butt off. Took the APUSH exam yesterday and it was over NOTHING I had studied. It was over the unimportant things/things that shouldn’t have been on there. I was totally prepared but because of the questions and content tested, I maybe got a 3 or 4.
I took the AP Lit exam this week. I may be in the minority but I don’t think of failing I think of doing my very best. It doesn’t factor into your class average so the pressure with finals(and Regents for NY people) isn’t there. And if you don’t do well, you don’t have to report it to colleges.
I understand how you feel. I mean, an AP class is essentially a 1 semester college GE class that should meet for 3 hours a week stretched out over a full school year meeting 5 hours a week. How could a kid getting almost 4 times the instructional hours manage to fail?
Personally, I’m not one to throw this generation under the bus. There are enough system flaws that we don’t need to focus on potential inadequacies of the kids. AP’s used to be rare and only the very top students were encouraged to take them. The classes used to be small and only a handful of the best teachers were allowed to teach them. But time can water down good intentions. Now every campus has 9 or 10+ AP courses. Many have dropped the honors options so if a kid wants those weighted classes, they have to take AP. The class sizes have soared. The expectation that you offer so many AP’s means you have to assign teachers who aren’t up for the task. To get those 5’s, you really have to teach to the test and teaching to a test you didn’t design yourself is complicated. On top of that, you are also supposed to teach to any state tests required of your students as well. Then add that teacher’s with a conscience really hate anything that smacks of “teaching to the test.”
As a teen, I loved the 3 (and only 3) AP options at high school… AP’s the school chose based on the teachers they felt would succeed at it. My classes were tiny with only the best students offered a spot. Our teachers were passionate and highly experienced. Only a couple didn’t get at least a 3 on the exams. Fast forward to my D (who only took one AP before we moved her to a middle college program.) She was stuffed in a class with 30+ kids, a teacher who spent most of class yapping about her personal life, assigned 4+ hours of ridiculous and mind-numbing busy work each night… D, considered a gifted student, only managed a 3 on the exam and was 1 of only 3 in her class to get that score… the rest of the class scored lower. D was not taught the material and the time she spent on the homework precluded her from doing the outside study she would have needed to actually get a 4 or 5 on the exam AND pass her other 6 classes AND have the extracurricular life colleges expect. Despite her transcript showing an “A” in that class, she chose to retake in college because she felt she didn’t have the foundation in that subject she should have had… and she didn’t.
AP is a model that started out great and for which there are still random teachers and student pairings that are doing it really well. Unfortunately, the more wide spread any program, the less effective and more poorly run it can be.
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