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  1. Orbital Bee Cannon
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    Default 2012 AP (Advanced Placement) Scores Thread!


    I know this is a bit late, but this thread is for AP students who wish to post their scores from this year's exams here and discuss with other SPers about the exams itself (in general).

    Scores should be trickling in via mail to most AP test takers by now. If you wish, post your score here as soon as you get them!

    Otherwise, feel free to post and discuss away!

    (Note: I'm a college student now, but I still have somewhat of a vested interest in this :3)

    If anyone is interested
    Last edited by WillDaSnail; 2012-07-17 at 01:16 AM.

  2. Default Re: 2012 AP (Advance Placement) Scores Thread!


    Yes! I shall post them again because I like talking about myself!

    Biology - 4 (expected, didn't exactly study too hard and bs'ed all of the free response because wtp they were actually hard)
    Calculus BC - 5 (wooooo! All credit goes to patrickJMT, my teacher could NOT explain the topics. She failed Calculus twice in college, as she consistently reminded us)
    Computer Science - 5 (SOOOO easy, pretty sure I got a perfect score on the free response. Most of my friends got 2's and 3's lololol. My girlfriend (if only ) got a 1. She's... INTENDED... majoring in Computer Science)


    Last year:
    Physics - 4 (Didn't study at all or really understand how important APs were. I regret not studying because it looks meh when I want to major in physics)



    Also, it's not late - I got my scores today in the mail.

  3. Default Re: 2012 AP (Advance Placement) Scores Thread!


    Ooo, just got them in the mail the other day too.

    Gov/Politics - 5 (Teacher was a boss, really enjoyed his lessons and was pretty worried I wouldn't do well when going in but very intelligent teacher)
    Psychology - 5 (Loved the subject, planning on minoring in some field of it when I go to college this fall. Teacher was had a lot of examples and real life scenarios to go with lessons, helped a lot!)

    And my favorite, because I basically bought my grade out of the class because if we took the AP test we didn't have to take the impossible final...

    Macroeconomics - 1 LOL... The teacher was literally so oblivious to anything and didn't know a single thing about teaching. Very nice lady, but not a clue what she was doing and so half way through the year I just self-studied for most of the tests because it was unbearable to listen to her lessons and got an A in the class, then drew a bunch of pictures for the FRQs for the AP test.

    Yeah, plus they didn't count for many elective credits at my University so it didn't bother me too much.

  4. Default Re: 2012 AP (Advance Placement) Scores Thread!


    Wow. you guys are so lucky to have such a diverse AP curriculum! My high school has basically lost all of its AP teachers. When I was in school, we had AP physics, calculus (AB/BC), US/Gov/econ/psych/spanish/french/ chem. almost 4 years since then, my school has all but eliminated the calculus curriculum (1 teacher instead of 3), no chemistry, biology, physics, or psych, 2 english classes, 1 of each language, and the history teachers quit because my school ended up being the pomegranatetiest school of all the pomegranatety schools in my city. They still have an AP english teacher who came into class high (it felt like every day though. Literally, he did not know what the pineapple he was talking about). They're also trying to fire the only legitimate Calculus BC teacher they have because she can't "teach" the way she's "supposed to" (i.e. she teaches her class like it's a college class and not like a high school class; meaning her class is EXACTLY how a college lecture is, which you would think is awesome, but it's not the "right way"). Yeah my high school, at face value, is "the best high school" in my city, but under preforms because they send every single kid who DOESN'T want to be there to my school to make them "smarter".

    I think my brother was lucky enough to be really smart (compared to myself). Did WAY better than me in everything except the history classes- He got 4/5s in calc AB/BC, both english classes and AP environmental Science; 3s in the history ones. Y'all are smarty pants' xD

  5. Deluxe Refrigerator
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    Default Re: 2012 AP (Advance Placement) Scores Thread!


    APUSH - 4
    Bio - 5
    Calc AB - 5

    The Bio test was such a troll. We didn't learn very much about a few of the essay questions. Guess the curve was pretty good though.

  6. Default Re: 2012 AP (Advance Placement) Scores Thread!


    Anyone take the AP World test? Wondering how hard it is on a scale from 1-10.

    I'm taking it next year. o-o

  7. Default Re: 2012 AP (Advance Placement) Scores Thread!


    APUSH- 5
    Lit/Comp- 4
    Psych- 4
    Government/Politics- 3

    I did alright on Psych and Gov despite my classes not teaching to the test too well and me getting senioritis when it came for prepping for my tests this year. Glad I finally got a 5 in my last year of AP testing because I used to suck at managing time to write essays on past AP tests; but most of all, my 4 in Lit gets me out of a mandatory Expository Writing class for the Fall Semester of freshman year in college! Thank you, Collegeboard.
    Me and @WillDaSnail; both self-studied for it in the past. It's not that bad. Multiple-choice isn't bad; and you do need to think for a few compare/contrast questions between a few different units as well as multiple choice that aren't grilling you on key figures/events. DBQs are always easy to do, considering it gives you most of the information-- you just need to have even a little knowledge of the topic to bring in outside information to your answer (AP graders love when you do this). And FRQs- almost anything is game. It depends on what question you get and how well you were taught the topic; in some cases, it's possible you'll get easy topics that'll be smooth cruising to a 5; others, very tricky and you may have to BS a bit.

    All in all, I rate it a 4/10; because you still do need to take it somewhat seriously.

  8. Default Re: 2012 AP (Advance Placement) Scores Thread!


    When I took them:
    APUSH - 4
    APES - 4
    Comparative Poli - 5
    APAH - 3
    AP Lang - 3
    AP World - 3 (did none of the essays)
    AP Human Geo. - 5
    AP US Gov't - 2 (lol didn't study hurr durr)
    AP Lit - 2

    Lit/Lang were low because I suck at writing. Only studied for World and APAH overall, though I chose to not do essays for World lolol. APES was the first year it was offered and I was shocked that I did -that- well especially since one of the questions my answer was a length commentary on how the question was bad. Slept through most of APUSH during classes and my teacher was so concerned I was going to do bad.

    @Tristan; As long as your not bumb-pineapple stupid or your teacher completely sucks (in which case you just gotta know material), World History isn't too bad. Just master the DBQ and you don't even have to do -that- well on the other essays.

  9. Default Re: 2012 AP (Advance Placement) Scores Thread!


    Thanks for the enlightenment. I definitely know my teacher isnt bad... I hear he's somewhat famous in the HS history community... I heard of some teachers in like texas and other states using his materials or something like that!

    Anyone hear of Mr. O'Donnell? I have him...

  10. Default Re: 2012 AP (Advance Placement) Scores Thread!


    Local school kiddo. :P

  11. Default Re: 2012 AP (Advance Placement) Scores Thread!


    I know but I heard weird stories of other kids and teachers in other states knowing about him xD

    Just curious, I didn't think anyone would.
    Last edited by Tristan; 2012-07-17 at 10:55 AM.

  12. Orbital Bee Cannon
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    Default Re: 2012 AP (Advance Placement) Scores Thread!


    I took the AP World History exam last year, got a 5. There's a LOT of content to cover in that course due to the nature of that course (luckily, not a lot of depth in those contents). Some people have a tough time nailing down a wide range + variety of historical concepts, facts, and themes.

    On top of that, understanding how to write the DBQ + FRQs in the free response section is somewhat tough for some. However, DBQ is a breeze if you know what you're doing (if you know how to utilize the documents correctly, you'll have no problems, as documents can be a dead giveaway to what you're looking for). You'll get by FRQs if you understand what they're asking for. If you get lots of opportunities to practice your essay writing, you'll be good to go (as long as you improve steadily every single time, of course).

    As for the rating? I'd say 4/10 to 5/10 simply because APWH is one of the hardest APs out there.
    Last edited by WillDaSnail; 2012-07-17 at 01:14 AM.


  13. Default Re: 2012 AP (Advance Placement) Scores Thread!


    No it's not. The histories that actually require the depth (Art, US, Euro) are noticeably harder, especially given the fact that the World History test still has a larger focus on post-1600 history. If I had to pick out the hardest AP test, or at least AP History, I'd go with AP Art History.

  14. Orbital Bee Cannon
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    Default Re: 2012 AP (Advance Placement) Scores Thread!


    I disagree, though I see where you're coming from. Though for clarification, APWH is one of the hardest AP History exams out there, and arguably is up there in terms of difficulty.

    My reasoning:

    1. From my knowledge, a lot of high school sophomores taking AP History courses either will take APWH or AP Euro, depending on the availability in their high schools. (FYI: Schools choose either between APWH or AP Euro to offer to their students). Also, because since APWH will be the first AP that sophomore-year high school students take, the learning curve for them is quite high. They will be coming in without knowing how to write a proper college-level historical essay. Nor how to analyze historical content critically. As a result, they will have to develop and advance their writing capabilities + their analytical skills in a set amount of time before the AP exam period comes around.

    For some students, upping their writing capabilities to levels beyond their imaginations is a rough journey. And I was one of them when I had to do that for AP Euro back in sophomore year of high school.

    2. Second, I do agree that the content in APWH is broad. However, the difficulty lies in the broad time frame of the content covered. For the average person, even without the need to delve deeply into the content, they might have a difficult time grasping all of the concepts, themes, and facts down because of the broad time frame that's covered for the exam.

    3. As I said earlier, I have taken all AP History exams, and have seen the difference between each AP history exam's essay formats myself. From my own experience, I find that the essay format in AP Euro and the AP U.S. History exams is somewhat straightforward. And with enough essay practice + good grasp of the historical material necessary, it won't be hard tackling those essays. Besides a slight difference in their DBQs (APUSH requires you to use background knowledge for its DBQ), both exams have a thematic essay, and a compare and contrast essay. Both exams' thematic essay and compare and contrast essays are so similar in structure that if you know how to write a FRQs for AP Euro, you'll have no problem writing the APUSH FRQs. Or vice versa.

    Also, I found that the "what is the essay looking for?" factor has a slightly lower difficulty level. Not to mention, the time period covered for AP Euro and APUSH are much narrower (AP Euro covers ~600 years worth of history, and APUSH covers ~400 years, respectively, though with more depth).

    Now lets look at the APWH essays. The DBQ essay is similar to the AP Euro DBQ format. Here's the huge kicker (and this is the core reasons why APWH is the hardest of all AP history courses) : The continuity/change-over-time and the comparative essay is completely different from the thematic and the compare and contrast essay found in AP Euro and APUSH. Not only do you have to apply your broad historical knowledge to writing both of those essasys effectively, but also structure your essay in a way that the essay is looking for in the first place. From what I found, the combination of both factors makes it somewhat tricky to get the hang of those essays at first. Arguably, it scrambles many peoples' minds.

    A) Continuity/CoT (Change Over Time) essay requires one to demonstrate a historical idea/theme changing over time and analyze the historical implications as a result. Pointing out the change-over-time is easy, but hitting the bigger picture (historical implications) is an entirely different realm.

    B) For the comparative essay, it requires one to explore interactions between societies or historical themes and events and relate to the historical implications due to the interactions. This essay may look like a typical "compare and contrast" essay, but one has to understand the interactions as well as its implications in order to answer the essay fully. In other words, its a bit more broad and involves a bit more outside-the-box/critical thinking than usual.

    And from my own personal experience, one of the toughest things I had to do while self-studying for the APWH exam was understanding the structure of the essays I would be writing and understanding what those essays were asking for. Understanding the content/theme/ideas down was no problem for me. TBHO, even from someone who has done very well in AP history exams, APWH had a curve ball - the essay portion - I had to carefully navigate through. I had to study sample essays and its structures carefully, making sure that I would write what the essays were looking for on test day.

    4. Here are the statistics (2011 exams):

    - AP World History: 48.4% with 3 or above (9.9% with a 5)
    - AP U.S. History: 52.1% with 3 or above (11.1% with a 5)
    - AP European History: 64.6% with 3 or above (10.6% with a 5)

    However, those statistics only tells part of the story why APWH is one of the hardest AP history exams out there. Understanding + comparing the structure and the content of each exam goes the rest of the way. In the end, the unique essay structures found in the APWH exam, the sheer amount of content covered from a broad time frame, and those who take the exam - significant number of them being sophomore-year high school students - is the reason why this exam is one of the toughest AP history exams out there.
    Last edited by WillDaSnail; 2012-07-22 at 05:58 AM.

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    Default Re: 2012 AP (Advance Placement) Scores Thread!


    You consider AP Art History harder than AP Physics C?

  16. Default Re: 2012 AP (Advance Placement) Scores Thread!


    APUSH - 5
    APES - 4
    AP Bio - 4
    AP Lang & Comp - 4

  17. Default Re: 2012 AP (Advance Placement) Scores Thread!


    I daresay many of the physicsy folks I knew in high school would have bombed AP Art History, studying or no. Difficulty is immensely subjective. A possibly objective measure of difficulty would be arbitrariness -- a test with a more arbitrary grading system would be more difficult to reliably score well on, regardless of personal skill or effort -- but I don't think that's what's being discussed?

  18. Default Re: 2012 AP (Advance Placement) Scores Thread!


    All I took was stats and chem
    5 on both.
    Stats was easy enough but I was feeling a bit unsure about my chem results.

  19. Default Re: 2012 AP (Advance Placement) Scores Thread!


    It's definitely the hardest in my opinion since it requires a knowledge of art and then it has the time frame of World History with the depth of Euro/US. And then once you get to the 1900s, you make new friends: the isms. All of them.

    AP Physics C has around a 31%-rate of getting a 5 with a mean of 3.55. APAH has around 12%, has around double the test takers, and has a mean score of 2.85. Statiscally, APAH is harder.

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