Reply to Why 5s on the a bunch of APs doesn't move the needle anymore

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]My kid reported 5s on all 4 AP exams this Fall. He will have 7 APs total.

His school does not have APs Freshmen year and there are prerequisites to get into APs (need Honors Bio before AP Bio, etc).

5s in Euro Hist, Bio, Eng lang & APUSH.

He has received zero rejections so far. 7 college acceptances --all T25 and better. A few 5% acceptance rate schools.

I'm not sure if this factored in, but also reported a 35ACT (36V/R) one sitting.  All As.

I definitely think for the high stat schools--the more 'proof' you can provide it definitely helps.
[/quote]

Those are fabulous results. Did you employ outside tutors to help with any of this?[/quote]

No. He had a few weeks of ACT test prep, but that was the only outside help.

We reviewed his essays/supplemental/common app.  I did a TOOONNNN of research his junior year.  Fwiw, I've never used a realtor to buy homes, etc.  I think I can do a better job..lol. [/quote]

What about the AP exams? Any prep for that? Statistically only 14% of AP takers get a 5 so this is unusual.[/quote]

AP Exams are far more straightforward than ACT/SAT.  At my kid's school they finish the content by mid-April and then spend 2-3 weeks prepping for the actual exam.  Also, homework and tests are done in "AP test" format, so you are getting used to the test all year.  Kids will often take at least one full practice test and the teacher will grade it according to AP rubrics.

There are no "trick" questions, nor will say the AP US History test decide this year 90% of the test will be on US History from 1492-1600 just to trip up everyone.

There is little need for 3rd party AP prep if your HS prepares you well.[/quote]

... and yet, they still are not going to give 5s to more than a small percentage of students. They just don't.[/quote]

They give as many 5s as kids who hit a certain grade.  If everyone scored a 90 on the AP rubric they would all get 5s.

They would probably change the next year’s test if that happened, but there is no quota.

Not sure I understand your point.[/quote]

If everyone were hitting 5s they'd make the test harder, but they know what to expect, and so it is already calibrated to make sure there will be a small percentage of 5s -- and the essays are graded partially subjectively, so they can control this on the non-math tests. If everyone scored a 90, the test would lose its significance, so it isn't going to happen. The highest percentages of 5s are in the self-selecting hardest courses where they are not going to penalize test takers for taking the hardest class.

It isn't exact, but they try to keep it level year to year. Consider the most popular test: APUSH. Here is a chart of the scores over 5 years.  Very little fluctuation in percentages, and you can see the hard correct after 2020, but even that was still a low percentage of 5s.

https://collegeprep.uworld.com/ap-us-history/scores-and-calculator/#:~:text=58.7%25%20of%20students%20scored%20a,success%20rate%20falling%20to%2048%25.[/quote]

Yes, I understand.  However, there is no quota. [color=darkred] It isn’t scaled like the SAT.[/color]

Also, the 89%ile on the SAT is around a 1320.  I didn’t say you don’t need a HS that teaches the course well in order to do well.

There is a pretty direct correlation with HS average SAT scores and how well their students perform on AP tests.[/quote]

I don't think this is correct. If the link above is to be believed, they do curve AP tests:
"In order to maintain the integrity and reliability of the scoring process, the College Board curves AP exams annually; AP U.S. History is no exception. The goal of curving is to make sure that a particular score (such as a 4 or a 5) represents the same level of achievement across different versions and years of the exam. This is important because AP exams can have multiple versions with slightly varying questions, and the difficulty of the questions can vary from one year to another."[/quote]

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