AP Tests this week, how are we feeling?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:anyone take ap gov today? how was it?

My dd said it wasn’t bad!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:anyone take ap gov today? how was it?

Word on the street is that it was unusually easy this year. Not sure how that will factor in grading, if true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:anyone take ap gov today? how was it?

Word on the street is that it was unusually easy this year. Not sure how that will factor in grading, if true.

Hmmm but how would anyone know? Curious.

My DD thought it was "easy." Last year she said the same thing about APUSH and got a 5. So... we'll see.

[Anonymous]

I feel fine because I don't have to take them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My sophomore goes to a private school that has no AP classes but has been studying on their own for 3 APs, including APUSH.

Let’s see how it goes.

You mean with the help of an expensive tutor? Same here.

Nope. No tutors.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No feelings. That is for my kids.

+1 My kid is marginally keyed up, but makes no difference to me.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:anyone take ap gov today? how was it?

Word on the street is that it was unusually easy this year. Not sure how that will factor in grading, if true.

my kid said mcq were easy but again they had a great teacher--no one can compare to last year, other kids in class said that it wasnt easy for them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My junior studied a lot outside of class for them. She took 1 last year and did some tutoring for it but got a 4 so I think was motivated to take it up a notch this year. Especially because she thinks AP Chem and APUSH will be hard. She’s not as worried for AP Lang for some reason. Good luck to them! I thought good scores mattered more for admissions but now I’m not sure when/if they get submitted

My (now) senior took those same exact three last year as a junior. He didn't do so well on the chemistry one, he says because the test covered a lot of things his teacher didn't teach. I wish he had studied more outside of class-I think it's great that your daughter did! Good luck to her!

This is timely- my son took the AP Chem test this afternoon. One of the FRQs was about something that they never learned in class. He wrote, "I have no idea what this means, so I'm not even going to attempt to answer this question."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s AP test week! My sophomore is taking two for the first time. Do most kids study beyond the class work? When are scores released this summer?

If they come from a good high school that regulary has 80-90%of the class earning 4s and 5s then no outside study is needed unless one is at the bottom of the class and in 3 territory. One of Ds teachers told her do NOT waste any time studying because she was stressing too much as a 10th grader and there was no way she would get anything other than a 5. AP calc. This school does at least two full practice tests in April for each AP so they are aware where they stand.
For the public schools that have only 30% get 3 or higher they probably need to study or do the AP classroom method on their own.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s AP test week! My sophomore is taking two for the first time. Do most kids study beyond the class work? When are scores released this summer?

If they come from a good high school that regulary has 80-90%of the class earning 4s and 5s then no outside study is needed unless one is at the bottom of the class and in 3 territory. One of Ds teachers told her do NOT waste any time studying because she was stressing too much as a 10th grader and there was no way she would get anything other than a 5. AP calc. This school does at least two full practice tests in April for each AP so they are aware where they stand.
For the public schools that have only 30% get 3 or higher they probably need to study or do the AP classroom method on their own.

This might be true for something like math -- you've either learned it or you haven't. But I think the tests like AP Art History and AP US History require some studying because you need to remember specific names, facts, dates -- you're unlikely to have perfect recall of the ones that were covered in the fall, so you really do need time to review your notes from the stuff that was covered earlier.

The other issue is that most kids might not know if their teacher was really good and covered everything. I told my kid taking AP Comp Sci Princ that it was worth looking at the online review stuff to make sure his teacher had covered it all -- it's a fairly new teacher and it's not 100% clear he's quite got it all. But his other AP teacher is experienced and knows the test really well, so I felt confident in whatever prep that teacher was giving the kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My sophomore goes to a private school that has no AP classes but has been studying on their own for 3 APs, including APUSH.

Let’s see how it goes.

You mean with the help of an expensive tutor? Same here.

Nope. No tutors.

My kid is in IB and self-studied for several APs. It's generally fine, assuming you took a class that covers similar topics. I think it's worth getting one of the Barron's books to review -- sometimes the terminology used is different in the AP class versus a different system, so it's helpful to know that, or there might be one topic that's covered in the AP that wasn't covered in their class. Something like AP English Lang is the kind of thing that any educated kid can probably just walk into and ace.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s AP test week! My sophomore is taking two for the first time. Do most kids study beyond the class work? When are scores released this summer?

If they come from a good high school that regulary has 80-90%of the class earning 4s and 5s then no outside study is needed unless one is at the bottom of the class and in 3 territory. One of Ds teachers told her do NOT waste any time studying because she was stressing too much as a 10th grader and there was no way she would get anything other than a 5. AP calc. This school does at least two full practice tests in April for each AP so they are aware where they stand.
For the public schools that have only 30% get 3 or higher they probably need to study or do the AP classroom method on their own.

This might be true for something like math -- you've either learned it or you haven't. But I think the tests like AP Art History and AP US History require some studying because you need to remember specific names, facts, dates -- you're unlikely to have perfect recall of the ones that were covered in the fall, so you really do need time to review your notes from the stuff that was covered earlier.

The other issue is that most kids might not know if their teacher was really good and covered everything. I told my kid taking AP Comp Sci Princ that it was worth looking at the online review stuff to make sure his teacher had covered it all -- it's a fairly new teacher and it's not 100% clear he's quite got it all. But his other AP teacher is experienced and knows the test really well, so I felt confident in whatever prep that teacher was giving the kids.

YMMV. Neither of mine studied more than an hour or two note-reviewing the night before and got 5s on APUSH. For English Lit which they take in 11th, there was zero studying besides the mandated practice test..one 4, one 5. Since Lit only had 6% get a 5 those years, the 4 is no slouch.

[Anonymous]

My son took 6 AP exams over 3 days last year.

Scored great.. entered college with 43 credits with 11 APs and 2 DE courses.

One of the DE courses got him a paid federal internship.

It's all worth it! Good luck everyone!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My junior studied a lot outside of class for them. She took 1 last year and did some tutoring for it but got a 4 so I think was motivated to take it up a notch this year. Especially because she thinks AP Chem and APUSH will be hard. She’s not as worried for AP Lang for some reason. Good luck to them! I thought good scores mattered more for admissions but now I’m not sure when/if they get submitted

My (now) senior took those same exact three last year as a junior. He didn't do so well on the chemistry one, he says because the test covered a lot of things his teacher didn't teach. I wish he had studied more outside of class-I think it's great that your daughter did! Good luck to her!

This is timely- my son took the AP Chem test this afternoon. One of the FRQs was about something that they never learned in class. He wrote, "I have no idea what this means, so I'm not even going to attempt to answer this question."

Similar experience in chem— my DC took the AP as a sophomore and got a 3. The teacher said that they could do well on the AP with self-study, but DC was overwhelmed with studying for BC calculus. Chem is no joke.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Couldn’t care less. My DD is taking 4 AP’s but only one test. Literally don’t care how she does. She’s heading to college in the fall so the score matters not at this point.

It matters if the college allows the kid to skip an intro class if they get a good score on the exam. My senior cancelled all his AP exams except those.

Me again. He studied hard for all the dozen AP courses he took over 4 years. We got him a tutor to prep for some of the exams.

We also have used tutors, especially when the teacher is severely lacking. This year my DD's AP Bio teacher hasn't bothered to cover everything (something she does every single year with dire results).

the teachers should get bonus based on AP test results, there is one in our school where the AP average is 2, yet no one does anything about it, its a dump on the kids, we pay taxes--that is what they are for--quality teachers

If teachers are to be held accountable for AP scores, it's only fair they are allowed to assess and approve students for enrollment in AP-level class. Students who lack the prerequisites would then remain in the non-AP class, which is also supported by your taxes.