AP Test Results

[Anonymous]

My DD is kind of upset because she scored a 3 on the AP US Government Test. Is there anyway to find out her raw score to see if she missed the cutoff by 1 point (4) or conversely if she barely made a 3. It would be helpful for her to know for next year. She’s going to be a sophomore.

[Anonymous]

DS was expecting a 5 but got a 4. Rising sophomore and first AP.

[Anonymous]

But PP do you know your DS’ raw score and how close he was to a 5?

[Anonymous]

My understanding is there is no other info than the number..which is frustrating. In the end it does not matter. The 3 will be accepted at some school and not at others. My Blair magnet junior get a 4 on the AP Calc exam which was very unexpected but life goes on. One test score is just that.

[Anonymous]

As I am reading on AP Central, there are certain terms you must use in your answer to get the full marks. Seems a bit tricky and does not really measure content knowledge but what you must do to fulfill the rubrics requirements.

[Anonymous]

Is it worth it to retake the AP exam next year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Is it worth it to retake the AP exam next year?

Your kid will never be more prepared then they are taking the test after a year of being in the class. They can sign up for another AP test next year in another course. They can take what they learned about AP test taking in general this year and use it for next year.

Many, many schools give credit for 3. More importantly, it's showing your kid is taking rigorous courses, which is great for application.

[Anonymous]

Op my child got a 3 also. I had older children take the same class with the same teacher and all got 5s. We were a bit surprised too.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As I am reading on AP Central, there are certain terms you must use in your answer to get the full marks. Seems a bit tricky and does not really measure content knowledge but what you must do to fulfill the rubrics requirements.

Thank you that’s helpful and I’ll make sure DD reviews that before next years test.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My understanding is there is no other info than the number..which is frustrating. In the end it does not matter. The 3 will be accepted at some school and not at others. My Blair magnet junior get a 4 on the AP Calc exam which was very unexpected but life goes on. One test score is just that.

OP here. Thank you for that too. It is frustrating because it would have been nice to know for the exam, where DD was on the 3 curve which I think is quite large.

[Anonymous]

To my knowledge, you will never know the exact points. You can ask the school to pay to get the free response books back, but you will not have the scores written in them nor will you know where the points were earned. You can use the rubric online to get a ball park grade, but you won't know how the graders pointed it.
I believe that you can appeal the score but, what is the point in knowing the exact score? It won't change the college credit-they won't curve it up if you were close.
It's just one test on one day. Don't put so much emphasis on it. This is why we have such stressed out kids!
-AP teacher and grader

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Op my child got a 3 also. I had older children take the same class with the same teacher and all got 5s. We were a bit surprised too.

Test changed this year for many subjects, which means that the way teachers had been teaching would not have worked this year to get a 5. Most teachers did not change how they teach or what they teach. My DS is great in taking tests and usually does very well. So we are currently develving deep into why he got a 4 instead of a 5. Mainly because there are certain things he will need to change if he wants to get 5s on the APs in the coming year, and he cannot rely on the MCPS teachers.

Here are my observations -
1) Exams were in beginning of May. The teacher had not entirely finished the course and the textbook by the end of April. Lesson learned - student is on his own and should start from summer to prep for the exam and course so that they get at least 9 months of studying instead of 7 months of studying. He cannot have the expectation that the teacher will be able to finish everything and teach in a way that the student will be successful in the AP exam

2) The few exams that the teacher gave were all multiple-choice questions. These were easy to score 100% on. Lesson learned - focus more on the essay type questions where the board is looking for some "Key Terms" that fulfills the rubrics and get you full marks. Also, these kinds of questions are weighed more.

3) Student was told to buy Barrons AP book in March. Lesson learned - Buy the book now and start studying from tomorrow. Also, use Barrons every day through the school year to do assignments for the course.

4) Teacher did not teach for the AP test. He taught for the MCPS test. Lesson learned - AP course grade inflation is a reality. No wonder colleges are not happy about AP courses that MCPS students take and report their GPA on. Lesson learned - Find the right resource to teach for the test. What the MCPS teachers are teaching is not cutting it.

5) The textbook was dated. Barron's was also sort of dated. Lesson learned - Go to the source. Prepare from the college board website mainly.

I do not want to boast but I know the caliber of my kids. If my DS did not get 5, it was because he did what the teacher told him to do. Never again. If the AP exam is testing him on how well he takes the exam then he will do that next time.

MCPS fails yet again!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:To my knowledge, you will never know the exact points. You can ask the school to pay to get the free response books back, but you will not have the scores written in them nor will you know where the points were earned. You can use the rubric online to get a ball park grade, but you won't know how the graders pointed it.
I believe that you can appeal the score but, what is the point in knowing the exact score? It won't change the college credit-they won't curve it up if you were close.
It's just one test on one day. Don't put so much emphasis on it. This is why we have such stressed out kids!
-AP teacher and grader

I think the problem is the caliber of most of the MCPS teachers and the fact that if the student gets a 3 or a 4, the teachers think that they have done a good job. No. I know my kid. He is in a magnet program and got easy A's this whole past year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My DD is kind of upset because she scored a 3 on the AP US Government Test. Is there anyway to find out her raw score to see if she missed the cutoff by 1 point (4) or conversely if she barely made a 3. It would be helpful for her to know for next year. She’s going to be a sophomore.

This number does not mean anything except that the teacher did not do a good job of guiding the students to take AP exams.

There is a new digital tool that will be available from August 1st from CollegeBoard, which will allow her to practice and understand how she is doing. If she wants she can certainly take the exam again. If she is doing AP US History this year, then the topics of AP Gov somewhat overlap. She will have to be diligent about studying early and study hard because her workload will increase with the retake. Go prepared this time.
https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/about-ap/news-changes/ap-2019/support-students-new-online-tools

[Anonymous]

Here are the AP score distributions for 2018. They don’t tell the whole story of course. In some cases (for example AP Calculus BC) you have to take self selection into account. Only the top Math students take this exam and they tend to do well

https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/digitalServices/pdf/research/2018/Student-Score-Distributions-2018.pdf