Kym wrote:
What are AP exams?
In America, you can take college-level classes in high school. The AP exam is a standardized test that you take at the end of the course to ensure you have learned the material well enough to get college credit. The tests are scored on a scale from one to five; most colleges require at least a three for credit to be earned.
All the tests I've taken so far:
World History:
5US History:
5Calculus AB:
5Statistics:
5English Composition:
5Computer Science A:
5Physics C Mechanics:
4 (darn it!)
Physics C Electricity/Magnetism:
5Calculus BC:
5-AB subscore:
5US Government:
5Macroeconomics:
5Chemistry:
512 AP tests, 1 four and 11 fives. Not a bad record
I'll be entering college with about 35 credit hours, many of them honors.
Sakura wrote:
Also, Syrill, if you get a 5 on Calculus BC exam you can still get a lower number on the Calculus AB exam. That happened to my friend. Frankly, I don't understand why, but haha guess that's a weird quirk.
The Calculus BC exam includes material from both the AB and BC classes. Because of this, you are given an "AB subscore" based on your performance on the AB portion of the test only. The score for the entire test is comprised of both parts. You can still earn credit for Calculus AB with an AB subscore, so there's really no point in taking the Calculus AB test.
Pickles wrote:
I honestly can't remember if they were called AP or pre-AP, but the tests were not required for any of us - we had to pay extra, though only a few people in the classes didn't take 'em. TOSO might be able to remind me, as he just grad'd from my high school, though a lot of things have changed since, as they went from 6 class periods a day to 8 split over two days shortly after I grad'd, and other minor changes. But yeah. They called all of our "honors" classes AP or pre-AP or something like that (though I could've sworn it was pre-AP in intermediate school). I was in mostly honor's classes, but our HS was crazy competitive and thus we had multiple sections of said honors classes (for instance, there were usually at *least* 6 honors math classes per grade).
Pre-AP classes were classes for the younger students that were at a more advanced level than their regular counterparts, but were not designed to prepare for any specific AP test. For instance, my sister just finished a Pre-AP Chemistry class. It was designed to prepare students for the AP Chemistry class the following year.
AP tests are never required for students who have taken an AP class. I took AP Spanish my sophomore year, but decided against taking the AP test as I would have bombed it. You can even take a test without taking the class. They cost about $100 each, but many school districts subsidize them (I only had to pay $57 for each one my senior year).
Finally, Pickles, they converted away from the block schedule before my freshman year
We had 7 classes per day, plus one lunch period which was the length of a regular class. The district has been trying to go back to block schedule for several years, but they have had trouble coordinating it with athletic and fine arts instructors who want to meet with their students every day.