Brief history of the College Board's AP Program

Since 1955, the Advanced Placement program has been a “collaborative effort among motivated students, dedicated teachers, and committed high schools, colleges, and universities.”  Over the years, the program has allowed millions of students to take college-level courses and exams, and to earn college credit or placement while still in high school.  Sixty percent of US high schools participate in the AP program.  Thirty-four AP courses are available.  Each is developed by committees of college faculty and high school AP teachers and each covers the “breadth of information, skills, and assignments found in the corresponding college course.”  AP exams are always administered in May and generally cost about $82 and take over 3 hours.  The College Board determines the dates and times these exams can be given, and test security is a strong priority.  Exams are scored on a scale of 1 to 5, with 3 or 4 generally being considered “passing.”  5 is the best score.

AP Courses: academic differences and expectations

a.  Responsibility for independent learning

b.  Standard of grading

c.  Quantity of content

d.  Level of thinking

e.  Collaborative learning

f.  Examples of assignments

g. Summer preparation (Biology, English, Government, Studio Art)

AP Exams

While they differ slightly, the AP exams generally consist of two sections.  The first is 1-2 hours of multiple choice questions.  Then students seal the booklet shut, take a break, and enter the “free response” portion.  This section is their own writing or problem solving responding to less than 5 complex questions/problems.  The second section lasts from 1-2 hours.  We give the exams in C-20. 

Test security is a major focus with AP exams.  Students may not have cell phones in the testing room, and we require book bags to be stored in the front of the room.  Students may not access them during the exam or even during the break.  Students may not discuss specific questions on the exam and may not share questions with their teachers.  We have to be careful about spacing between seats.  We must be careful to seal test booklets adequately.  Creative cheaters elsewhere in the country have made the rest of us be inconvenienced.   We have to be very careful and account for all the rules the College Board has established.

Each exam costs $82 in 2006.  This includes an $8 administrative fee that we use for teacher professional development.  If a student chooses not to take the exam once the order is complete, they must pay $13 for an unused exam fee.  The order is placed in late March, so we ask for student commitment…at least for the $13…at that time.  Students must pay for the exam before it will be administered.  We accept payment starting mid-April up until the day before the exam.

Fee reductions are always available.  The College Board will reduce the fee by $22 and the school forfeits the administrative fee, so a student may pay $52 instead.  Students who wish to utilize the fee reduction service need only talk with Ms. Elfers about it.

College credit and/or advanced placement in college

Colleges generally respect the AP program and issue either actual course credit, elective credit, or placement in more advanced courses when students achieve excellent scores.  Every college has slightly different policies about how they deal with AP exam performance, so we suggest students ask the questions and do the research if college credit and/or advanced placement are of interest.

The trend is that colleges are more and more accepting credit only for 4’s and 5’s, or accepting a maximum number of credits a student can earn through AP.

Click for AP Credit Policy Info for direct links to college web pages with credit/placement policies.

AP Courses and competitiveness in the college admission process

The trend in college admission is for more and more colleges to weigh heavily the strength of a student’s high school curriculum.  Why? 

• Nearly every college has more applicants than ever before…they have to find ways to differentiate and they want those who are the best prepared
• With changes in the SAT and ACT, the consistent measure nationwide is in transition
• Colleges (even large publics) are doing “individualized review” of applicants…reading their essays and evaluating the strength of their curriculum
• There is such a strong correlation between a challenging high school experience and college success

Taking AP courses can help…shows dedication to learning, motivation, willingness to put in the hard work….traits colleges seek.

Does a student feel he/she has to take EVERY AP course offered?  Of course not.  Mariemont HS and our college prep curriculum have a good reputation among colleges.  They recognize the quality of our programs.  But for students who are applying to highly selective colleges, they must be able to demonstrate their comfort with meeting and succeeding in academic challenges.

Cognitive benefits of AP courses

a.  Preparation for college academics

b.  Meeting challenges

c.  Self discipline

d.  Self satisfaction

e.  Working toward a goal

f.  Interacting with other motivated learners

g.  Developing thinking skills

History of MHS student AP achievement

Mariemont’s AP offerings have increased in recent years, but the scores have maintained remarkably consistency in excellence.

We typically have 90% or more of our students earn scores of 3 or better and about 50% earn scores of 4 or better.  The College Board says an overall passage rate of about 67% is a solid program (using 3 as passing).  Our passage rate was about 93% last year.

Last year 99 Mariemont students took at least one exam and a total of 167 exams were given.

In the fall after the previous May exam dates, the College Board issues “AP Scholar” awards in four levels of achievement.  Students are recognized for both the number of exams they have taken combined with their average scores on those exams.  As the number of AP courses and exams offered in recent years has increased, so has the number of AP Scholars at Mariemont.  The number of AP scholars has soared from 9 in 1999 to 29 in 2004.

AP Overview

Ohio in 2004

• 32,396 test takers (1,081,102 nationwide)

  • Up 7% from 2003  (up 8.3% nationally)

• 52,079 exams taken (1,852,700 nationally)

  • Up 8% from 2003 (up 8.7% nationally)

• 612 high schools (64.2% of high schools in Ohio) offered AP tests (14,144 nationally, 60.6%)

• 66.3% of all students scored a 3 or better (61.4% nationally)

Ohio                                                                 Nation

> 110,597 HS students                                   > 2.6 million HS students

> 16,806 HS students took an exam                  > 558,993 took an exam

> 15.2% took an AP course                             > 20.9% took an AP course

> 9.4% earned 3 or better on an exam              > 13.2% earned a 3 or better on an exam

AP test taking patterns

• In 2004, 82% of students took either one or two AP exams

  • Less than 3% of all AP takers took 5 or more exams

• While 75% of US high school student graduates are entering college, less than a fourth (23%) took an AP exam during their high school years

07/05/2006