How rare is it to get all 5s on APs?

[Anonymous]

My college Freshmen did on every single one of his AP exams.

Younger brother, Junior in HS, is all 5s so far.

You can see the stats online:

https://apstudents.collegeboard.org/about-ap-scores/score-distributions

For my kids, their private HS has a really good AP profile exam score. They are required to take the AP exam or fail the class. They have a very high number of 4-5s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My college Freshmen did on every single one of his AP exams.

Younger brother, Junior in HS, is all 5s so far.

You can see the stats online:

https://apstudents.collegeboard.org/about-ap-scores/score-distributions

For my kids, their private HS has a really good AP profile exam score. They are required to take the AP exam or fail the class. They have a very high number of 4-5s.

Also, the numbers are deceiving. AP Environmental Science is one of the easiest AP courses, but has a low amount of '5s'---only 9%, whereas 45% of AP Cacl BC takers score 5. This has more with the TYPE of student taking the test than the test/subject matter itself. Then with languages you have native speakers in the mix, etc.

[Anonymous]

Is seven 5s and one 4 a higher or lower performance than seven 5s and 0 4s? 6 5s and 2 4s?


Answer: this is stupid.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My college Freshmen did on every single one of his AP exams.

Younger brother, Junior in HS, is all 5s so far.

You can see the stats online:

https://apstudents.collegeboard.org/about-ap-scores/score-distributions

For my kids, their private HS has a really good AP profile exam score. They are required to take the AP exam or fail the class. They have a very high number of 4-5s.

Also, the numbers are deceiving. AP Environmental Science is one of the easiest AP courses, but has a low amount of '5s'---only 9%, whereas 45% of AP Cacl BC takers score 5. This has more with the TYPE of student taking the test than the test/subject matter itself. Then with languages you have native speakers in the mix, etc.

A more thoughtful take is that they are totally different subjects so there absolutely no value in comparing them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Too bad the college board doesn’t report useful statistics about this. It would take them about 40 minutes to put together this report if they wanted to. Instead the info is obscured.

How would these statistics be "useful", aside from feeding your ego and anxiety?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My college Freshmen did on every single one of his AP exams.

Younger brother, Junior in HS, is all 5s so far.

You can see the stats online:

https://apstudents.collegeboard.org/about-ap-scores/score-distributions

For my kids, their private HS has a really good AP profile exam score. They are required to take the AP exam or fail the class. They have a very high number of 4-5s.

Also, the numbers are deceiving. AP Environmental Science is one of the easiest AP courses, but has a low amount of '5s'---only 9%, whereas 45% of AP Cacl BC takers score 5. This has more with the TYPE of student taking the test than the test/subject matter itself. Then with languages you have native speakers in the mix, etc.

A more thoughtful take is that they are totally different subjects so there absolutely no value in comparing them.

Perhaps, but a more realistic take is that there are certain APs that are not known to be as rigorous and for students that do not meet the prerequs (which some schools require) to get in the higher level math, science, english, etc., they are the subjects more general ed and not honors/ap kids take. There is nothing bad about analyzing data this way. I know people like to be all 'everyone gets a trophy, everyone is capable', but some kids are more intellectually capable. No harm in saying that. These other kids may be much more gifted in a variety of other things and ways---artistically, emotionally, socially, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's discontinued, but there was the "National AP Scholar: Granted to students in the United States who receive an average score of at least 4 on all AP Exams taken, and scores of 4 or higher on eight or more of these exams." (https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/exam-administration-ordering-scores/scores/awards/scholar-awards)

There were about 39,000 students at that level in 2020 (last year they reported it) - https://reports.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/ap-scholar-data-2020.pdf

So I'd guess the number with all 5s would be much smaller - but whether it's, for example, 3,000 or 15,000, I don't know.

Is it discontinued? They still have the AP Scholar distinction and all the levels of it (with honors, etc).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My college Freshmen did on every single one of his AP exams.

Younger brother, Junior in HS, is all 5s so far.

You can see the stats online:

https://apstudents.collegeboard.org/about-ap-scores/score-distributions

For my kids, their private HS has a really good AP profile exam score. They are required to take the AP exam or fail the class. They have a very high number of 4-5s.

Also, the numbers are deceiving. AP Environmental Science is one of the easiest AP courses, but has a low amount of '5s'---only 9%, whereas 45% of AP Cacl BC takers score 5. This has more with the TYPE of student taking the test than the test/subject matter itself. Then with languages you have native speakers in the mix, etc.

A more thoughtful take is that they are totally different subjects so there absolutely no value in comparing them.

this isn't more thoughtful. there are easier AP tests with lower pass rates because of the cohort of test takers. Calc BC cohort is self selecting and very different academic profile than Human Geography

[Anonymous]

The AP exams are a test. All of the information is there. Study groups, flash cards, YouTube videos, etc.

My overachieving kid, started studying and pacing herself in January for each of their exams. She scored 5 across the board - even though up until the date The actual scores are released, she’s convinced that it’s probably a 3-4.

OTOH, her brother scored 4s in English and history and only a 5 in calculus.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My college Freshmen did on every single one of his AP exams.

Younger brother, Junior in HS, is all 5s so far.

You can see the stats online:

https://apstudents.collegeboard.org/about-ap-scores/score-distributions

For my kids, their private HS has a really good AP profile exam score. They are required to take the AP exam or fail the class. They have a very high number of 4-5s.

Also, the numbers are deceiving. AP Environmental Science is one of the easiest AP courses, but has a low amount of '5s'---only 9%, whereas 45% of AP Cacl BC takers score 5. This has more with the TYPE of student taking the test than the test/subject matter itself. Then with languages you have native speakers in the mix, etc.

A missing detail here is that you can get 100% of the environmental science exam correct, but they have conventions for FRQ to limit the amount of 5s. Much like the history and English language exams, you need to known the format and what AP is looking for to get points, not be the most correct.

[Anonymous]

DD has only 5s so far, but that puts a lot of pressure on next two years. She’s a Junior.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just wondering how rare this is and if helpful with T25 admissions? All 5s across disciplines - like BC calc, APush, lit, foreign language , chem ….if you report all 5s for exams taken through junior year

It helps with schools in the U.K.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The AP exams are a test. All of the information is there. Study groups, flash cards, YouTube videos, etc.

My overachieving kid, started studying and pacing herself in January for each of their exams. She scored 5 across the board - even though up until the date The actual scores are released, she’s convinced that it’s probably a 3-4.

OTOH, her brother scored 4s in English and history and only a 5 in calculus.

My sons did no outside prep (absolutely zero) and scored all 5s.

Great teachers, great school.

[Anonymous]

The only value I see is Oxford/Cambridge admission, but you also need high SATs. My kids at a large, mediocre public have some 5s and 4s and one 3 in Spanish. That teacher is excellent and prepared them well. The exam was just difficult.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's discontinued, but there was the "National AP Scholar: Granted to students in the United States who receive an average score of at least 4 on all AP Exams taken, and scores of 4 or higher on eight or more of these exams." (https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/exam-administration-ordering-scores/scores/awards/scholar-awards)

There were about 39,000 students at that level in 2020 (last year they reported it) - https://reports.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/ap-scholar-data-2020.pdf

So I'd guess the number with all 5s would be much smaller - but whether it's, for example, 3,000 or 15,000, I don't know.

Is it discontinued? They still have the AP Scholar distinction and all the levels of it (with honors, etc).

From the first linked page: "AP has discontinued awards that encouraged students to take a large number of exams. " https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/exam-administration-ordering-scores/scores/awards/scholar-awards

There are 6 types of awards listed as discontinued.