How did your HS Freshman perform on AP exams?

[Anonymous]

For the typically taught or required history APs, from easiest to hardest, it should be:

easiest: AP US History (less facts to memorize, less data to organize on flash cards).

hard: AP Gov (it's a lot of definitions and examples to sort out on flash cards, and most students aren't entirely familiar with them as they are for US history).

hardest: AP World History (a TON to read through and learn).

The other history APs are not usually part of the core history courses, and not as hard.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Does anyone else think this is a sign that something is off? Full disclosure, I think you should have to sit for the exam to receive AP credit (I think school districts should pay for it). To get the GPA and rigor bump of an AP but not be prepared for the test makes no sense to me.

This is a systemic problem - so understand why kids would not subject themselves to the test if it doesn’t matter - but I think it devalues the AP distinction.

Agree. It’s the AP arms race at its finest. Thank you, Jay Matthews and the Challenge Index. Combine that with grade inflation and easy standards and this is the result: kids getting As in the class but 3 or under on the exam.

Full disclosure for me is that my kids go to private schools that do not offer APs. I feel very strongly that the CB has their hooks in our education system and is laughing all the way to the bank. I get it, though, if your school offers AP, you basically have to take it for college purposes.

I don’t think you understand AP courses very well. Many of them have challenging and difficult content and give you a good foundation for college.
I would say it takes a few years to figure out how to optimally teach an AP course. So if you have a teacher who has taught it for 3 years or less, they could be doing their best but will likely fall short. It is often tricky to get the pacing right. It took me until year 5 when I felt I finally nailed it and my students scores dramatically improved. I also teach an AP course that is considered very difficult and has a low pass rate

They give an excellent foundation for college. They wee designed by teams of college professors and high school teachers and are graded by these same groups. I regularly had my students come back to tell me their freshman and sophomore years of college were significantly easier for them than for their classmates who hadn't taken AP (or IB) classes.

Interesting because there are multiple posts here and elsewhere from college profs who feel these test do not prepare kids for college:

College prof here. Content coverage is solid but, generally speaking, insufficient depth, critical thinking, and analytical writing to prep for a college course imo. IB courses much more effective in those respects. I consider AP courses valuable to a point but students who receive AP course credit and opt out of college intro courses do not tend to do well in intermediate and UL coursework.

I think it may depend on the subject. My kid is at an Ivy and went straight into multi variable calculus after getting a 5 in AP Calculus BC. Had no trouble keeping up and got an A. The Ivy also put my kid in an advanced chemistry class after they got a 4 in AP Chem. It was a little bit of a struggle to keep up but no real issue and kid got an A- in the advanced college class. Also, went straight into the 2nd year of college physics after taking AP Physics and had no issues keeping up. My kid was not able to coast their freshman year of college. They worked very hard but the AP classes from a mediocre public had prepared them well.

It makes sense that courses which are not writing-intensive would transfer more effectively to college-level work. It's the analytical writing part that public school kids tend to lack when they go to college, even if they managed to score reasonably well (3s/4s) on the exams in the humanities and social sciences. My kid's US Gov and Politics teacher was solid in terms of content but spent no time on writing / essay preparation. DH and I worked with DS on that when he did practice tests.

Same re no work on writing/essay portion. MCPS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
For the typically taught or required history APs, from easiest to hardest, it should be:

easiest: AP US History (less facts to memorize, less data to organize on flash cards).

hard: AP Gov (it's a lot of definitions and examples to sort out on flash cards, and most students aren't entirely familiar with them as they are for US history).

hardest: AP World History (a TON to read through and learn).

The other history APs are not usually part of the core history courses, and not as hard.

This is not at all the conventional wisdom. Most people say Gov is easiest, then World, the. APUSH. None are easy though.

[Anonymous]

All 5 since 9th
9th CS Principles-5; USHist-5
10th CS A-5, USG-5;
11th Calc BC-5, Spanish-5

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All 5 since 9th
9th CS Principles-5; USHist-5
10th CS A-5, USG-5;
11th Calc BC-5, Spanish-5

My kid just got all 5s on 5 APs. Not sure it’s that unusual. Public school.

[Anonymous]

What is the typical number of AP classes for a VA freshman as opposed to a Md (MCPS) freshman?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is the typical number of AP classes for a VA freshman as opposed to a Md (MCPS) freshman?

MCPS usually only 1, maybe 2 at a push.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All 5 since 9th
9th CS Principles-5; USHist-5
10th CS A-5, USG-5;
11th Calc BC-5, Spanish-5

My kid just got all 5s on 5 APs. Not sure it’s that unusual. Public school.

Smart kid. I’m surprised he didn’t take more APs in 11th grade

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did any 9th graders take the AP Physics 1 exam?
My kid got a 2 and was a bit crushed by it.
Said the 3 h exam was the worst experience of his life. It is a hard class.
I’m not sure why they have some 9th graders take it.

My then 9th grader ( a couple years ago) also got a 2 - we were expecting it because, well, AP Physics in 9th grade and quarantine ... Not crushed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All 5 since 9th
9th CS Principles-5; USHist-5
10th CS A-5, USG-5;
11th Calc BC-5, Spanish-5

My kid just got all 5s on 5 APs. Not sure it’s that unusual. Public school.

Smart kid. I’m surprised he didn’t take more APs in 11th grade

You can look at the distribution on the AP site - most of the APs show that a 5 is the top 10% of test takers across the country. Now, we can argue whether all MD test takers are superior and thus would get more 5s across the board - but, just on this basis, it is "unusual".

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
For the typically taught or required history APs, from easiest to hardest, it should be:

easiest: AP US History (less facts to memorize, less data to organize on flash cards).

hard: AP Gov (it's a lot of definitions and examples to sort out on flash cards, and most students aren't entirely familiar with them as they are for US history).

hardest: AP World History (a TON to read through and learn).

The other history APs are not usually part of the core history courses, and not as hard.

Euro history is thought to be the hardest.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What is the typical number of AP classes for a VA freshman as opposed to a Md (MCPS) freshman?

Mine took 2 classes as a 9th grader but only took apush exam. Did not feel confident with Physics during remote learning (similar experience to a pp who mentioned it). Also figured it wouldn't count for much as interested in engineering and likely taking Physics C senior year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
For the typically taught or required history APs, from easiest to hardest, it should be:

easiest: AP US History (less facts to memorize, less data to organize on flash cards).

hard: AP Gov (it's a lot of definitions and examples to sort out on flash cards, and most students aren't entirely familiar with them as they are for US history).

hardest: AP World History (a TON to read through and learn).

The other history APs are not usually part of the core history courses, and not as hard.

Euro history is thought to be the hardest.

Why?

[Anonymous]

Ok - here is the break down - this is data that would support whether an AP exam is "hard" vs not to get a "5" on the exam -

AP English Language and Composition - 9.1%

AP English Literature and Composition - 4.9%

AP European History - 10.6%

AP United States Government and Politics - 12.0%

AP United States History - 10.1%

AP World History - 9.7%

Of course - it's self-selecting in a way - because Calculus/Maths:

AP Calculus AB - 17.6%
AP Calculus BC - 38.3%
AP Statistics - 16.2%

[Anonymous]

Oh - and AP Physics 1? 6.9% - Over 1/2 of the test takers received a 2 or below. Similar curves to most of the other exams with outliers being foreign languages and Fine Arts