According to the infographic created by Teach.com, 18% of high school students who take this test score a 3 or higher, with Washington D.C. having the lowest average (6.6%) and Maryland having the highest (27.9%). The data also indicates that the majority of test takers are women (66%). It may be surprising to learn that these exams aren’t only in typical high school subjects such as chemistry and U.S. government. AP courses include what many consider to be electives–computer science, calculus, music theory, microeconomics, macroeconomics, statistics, and psychology, just to name a few. In addition to more students taking and “passing” these exams, the subjects offered for AP exams are becoming more plentiful, with Chinese, Japanese, studio art 2-D design portfolio, studio art 3-D design portfolio, and world history having been added in the past decade.

Not all students who are recommended to take an AP class actually take it. Possible explanations are concerns that the class may be too difficult, not enough time to dedicate to studying, or a lack of confidence that they can pass a college-level test. After all, students as young as fifteen and sixteen can begin taking AP classes. That’s a lot of work for a high school sophomore, but students may be surprised to learn some of the advantages to taking these tests.

What could taking an AP course in high school do for you? Well besides bragging rights, having a class count for college credit is very useful! It often means you don’t have to use your tuition money on a general course that everyone else has to take. It might mean that you have met a prerequisite that allows you to take a course you have more interest in! If you have taken many AP courses in high school and had them all count as college credit, you could actually start your second semester as a freshman as a first semester sophomore, which is a big deal when sophomores get to pick their classes first! Taking AP classes in high school will also better prepare you for your college career. When your fellow freshmen are struggling with their studies, you will have already learned the ropes. You’ll know how to handle your workload and how to take a college level exam before you even take your first steps on your college campus. Talk about a jump start to your degree!

The Rise of the AP:

(Infographic via Teach.com and USC Rossier Online)

Remember, doing well on your AP exams can help save you time and money in college by allowing you to pass out of certain prerequisites.

Here’s the schedule for next week:

And here’s something for a little fun that you can share:

Good luck to you all!

What has your experience with AP exams been like? Share in the comment field below!

Fortunately, we’ve got some answers for you.   Mark Montgomery of Montgomery Educational Consulting answers questions about weighted and unweighted GPAs in a blog post saying:

Most colleges will consider both your weighted and unweighted GPA, and most high schools will report both to the colleges to which you are applying.

Colleges want the weighted GPA to reflect your class rank, as well as the relative rigor of your high school course load. But they will not use this weighted GPA in comparing you with other applicants.

Montgomery goes on to explain that to colleges, “an A is an A.”  Rationalizing the fact that you got a B in an honors class doesn’t mean that you actually got an A if you were in a regular class.  It might have been a hard class, but your teacher still saw your work as B work.  Even though your weighted GPA shows the difficulty of your coursework, your unweighted GPA is a reflection of your performance in those classes.

So, what’s the point then of taking more challenging classes?  Montgomery does give the plus-side to taking AP classes, though.  He says that colleges will look at both your weighted and unweighted GPA:

Colleges want the weighted GPA to reflect your class rank, as well as the relative rigor of your high school course load. But they will not use this weighted GPA in comparing you with other applicants.

In short, college admissions officers do like to see that students challenge themselves by taking heavier course loads.  At the same time, your weighted grade might not actually weigh much more than your unweighted grades.

Still, there are plenty of reasons to take AP classes besides just impressing an admissions officer.  Allen Grove of About.com, writes that students who take AP classes can develop college-level skills, save money, choose a major sooner, take more elective classes in college and more.

]]> http://www.cappex.com/blog/college-admissions/how-do-college-admissions-look-at-weighted-gpa-unweighted-gpa-and-class-rank/feed/ 0 http://www.cappex.com/blog/college-search/rethinking-advanced-placement-classes-for-college/ http://www.cappex.com/blog/college-search/rethinking-advanced-placement-classes-for-college/#comments Thu, 24 Feb 2011 18:10:22 +0000 editor http://cappex.com/blog/?p=1241 There’s a huge rush for college-bound students to sign up for AP classes in high school so they can accumulate early college credit after taking the college board AP exams.  To students, taking AP classes means they can take the AP test and pass out of intro classes in college to save time and save money in college.  But, the recent New York Time’s article points out, students aren’t necessarily getting the most out of these challenging college classes.   Often times high school teachers wind up teaching just for the AP test and pass over the importance of abstract and analytical thinking that is needed to succeed in college.

This teaching for the test trend, however, is about to change.   College Board will embark on a new direction for Advanced Placement that is anchored in a curriculum that focuses on what students need to be able to do with their knowledge, not just how to take a test:

As A.P. has proliferated, spreading to more than 30 subjects with 1.8 million students taking 3.2 million tests, the program has won praise for giving students an early chance at more challenging work. But many of the courses, particularly in the sciences and history, have also been criticized for overwhelming students with facts to memorize and then rushing through important topics. Students and educators alike say that biology, with 172,000 test takers this year, is one of the worst offenders.

A.P. teachers have long complained that lingering for an extra 10 or 15 minutes on a topic can be a zero-sum game, squeezing out something else that needs to be covered for the exam. PowerPoint lectures are the rule. The homework wears down many students. And studies show that most schools do the same canned laboratory exercises, providing little sense of the thrill of scientific discovery….

….Next month, the board, the nonprofit organization that owns the A.P. exams as well as the SAT, will release a wholesale revamping of A.P. biology as well as United States history — with 387,000 test takers the most popular A.P. subject. A preview of the changes shows that the board will slash the amount of material students need to know for the tests and provide, for the first time, a curriculum framework for what courses should look like. The goal is to clear students’ minds to focus on bigger concepts and stimulate more analytic thinking. In biology, a host of more creative, hands-on experiments are intended to help students think more like scientists.

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A new report written about in The New York Times higher education blog The Choice illustrates that more minority high school students are making the grade on AP exams, but still remained underrepresented overall in the nation’s AP classroom.

More than 853,000 public high school seniors in last May’s graduating class, or 28 percent of the class, took at least one A.P. exam. Some 59 percent of those who took the tests earned a grade of 3, 4 or 5, which are required for college credit.

Trevor Packer, vice president of the Advanced Placement program, said that while the report shows that more students across the country enroll each year in classes to prepare them for the exams, there are some signs that improvement is not consistent among some groups and in some subject areas.Over the past decade, the number of minority students graduating with a successful A.P. experience has more than doubled, according to the report.

“A focus on access and equity is resulting in greater percentages of students going into college with A.P. scores that qualify and result in higher college performance,’’ he said.”

But the gap between how those students performed, compared to nonminority students, is still great in most states in the country.

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