NationStates Jolt Archive

So I got my AP scores today. I got a 3 on the AP Chemistry exam. (AP tests are graded on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the best, and a 3 is passing), which was pretty hard for me. I got 5's on the four other AP exams I took this year, which were all relatively easy for me. The ones I took were Psychology, English Language, Latin Literature, and US History. I didn't take any sophomore year, and in freshman year I took AP Human Geography and got a 4 on the exam.

Chemistry was pretty hard for me. It was pretty much the hardest class I've ever taken, but I got A's in it in the end. I was also one of only two juniors in the class...all the other people in the class were seniors. My lab partner got a 4 on the exam, which made me happy :).
(The free response questions have been released- here. (http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/student/testing/ap/chemistry/ap07_chemistry_frq.pdf))

Psychology was really easy, partially because it's probably the shortest AP exam and partially because we had been reviewing for it both in and out of class for at least a month before the exam. It was a bit stressful because I had it on the same day as the AP Chemistry exam, but I was pretty confident about it anyway.
(Free Response Questions (http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/student/testing/ap/psych/ap07_psychology_frq.pdf))

English Language was pretty easy, because basically you just have to write essays and answer questions about passages, and we'd been practicing that since the first day of class.
(Free Response Questions (http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/ap/students/english/ap07_eng_lang_frq.pdf))

Latin Literature was pretty easy for me because I placed in the top five in at the state competition in both Advanced Vocabulary and Advanced Prose Comprehension. Some of the multiple choice passages were prose and some were poetry. The free response questions could come from any of the poems on our syllabus.
(Free Response Questions (http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/ap/students/latin/ap07_frq_LatinLiterature.pdf))

US History wasn't nearly as difficult as I had expected it to be. I had a feeling that I had done pretty well on it.
(Free Response Questions (http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/ap/students/ushistory/ap07_us_hist_frq.pdf))

So, here you can share discuss your experiences with AP tests or other similar tests. :)

your doing college level things :eek:

an interesting story is for my GSCE math calculator test I had a solar powered calculator indoors (which quickly burnt out :mad::D)

..and when I came in late for my technology pre-GSCE exam and did the wrong paper and got a grade in 2 different types of tech (the one I wasn't doing in class was a better grade:p)

Looks like you'll be saving a few grand on college expenses. Good deal. :)

APs were always pretty easy when I took them, but that was a while back.

I only took AP English, but I can tell you the atmosphere during the exam was nuts. Beforehand, we were each given 5 packs of chewing gum, 4 pencils, a snack, and a bottle of bubbles. We arrived a good 30-45 minutes early and spent the time de-stressing. A room full of 18 yr olds....blowing bubbles. Definitely odd. Everyone had some sort of idol, good luck charm, or talisman on the desk as well. I brought a small dragon pendant my boyfriend had given me -- he had a tendency to rub it for luck, so he handed it right over when I told him I had an important test. The girl next to me had a little red buddha, another had a small waving cat statue, and others had crosses or small Bibles. From what I was told, everyone got at least a 3 on the exam. It really wasn't difficult at all, in my perspective. Most of us stopped every 10 minutes to blow bubbles and just giggle.

I only took AP English, but I can tell you the atmosphere during the exam was nuts. Beforehand, we were each given 5 packs of chewing gum, 4 pencils, a snack, and a bottle of bubbles. We arrived a good 30-45 minutes early and spent the time de-stressing. A room full of 18 yr olds....blowing bubbles. Definitely odd. Everyone had some sort of idol, good luck charm, or talisman on the desk as well. I brought a small dragon pendant my boyfriend had given me -- he had a tendency to rub it for luck, so he handed it right over when I told him I had an important test. The girl next to me had a little red buddha, another had a small waving cat statue, and others had crosses or small Bibles. From what I was told, everyone got at least a 3 on the exam. It really wasn't difficult at all, in my perspective. Most of us stopped every 10 minutes to blow bubbles and just giggle.

That's funny. I don't think we were allowed to have gum or anything, but they gave us snacks for the break.

The fire alarm went off right in the middle of the AP English Literature exam (which is one that I take next year), so they had to be kept separate and silent outside the entire time (and it lasted a while) so that their tests wouldn't have to be invalidated.

Looks like you'll be saving a few grand on college expenses. Good deal. :)

APs were always pretty easy when I took them, but that was a while back.

Yeah, I hope so. The university I plan to go to has a 5-year program after which you get both a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in chemical engineering. I'm going to try to do that. These AP tests and the ones I'm taking next year will hopefully help with that. :)

Right, I've seen you mention "AP" before, what actually is AP?

Right, I've seen you mention "AP" before, what actually is AP?

Advanced Placement. They are super-enriched college level classes given in high school; the students take an exam at the end of the term for college credit.

OK, thanks. Now, what's college credit?

They get credit for uni classes, so they have to pay for (and take) fewer courses to get their degrees.

I took Chemistry and Calculus A/B Ap in junior year, and Biology and Stat AP senior year. I got 4's in all of them except for Stat, which I got a 3. The atmosphere during the exam was quite intense. Especially for Bio, I saw some students on the verge of a breakdown, and they were hugging each other before the test. I didn't find any of those tests to be too difficult. I got college credit for the AP classes, but since I'm trying to get into pharmacy school, I have to take all of those classes again...

I only took AP English, but I can tell you the atmosphere during the exam was nuts. Beforehand, we were each given 5 packs of chewing gum, 4 pencils, a snack, and a bottle of bubbles. We arrived a good 30-45 minutes early and spent the time de-stressing. A room full of 18 yr olds....blowing bubbles. Definitely odd. Everyone had some sort of idol, good luck charm, or talisman on the desk as well. I brought a small dragon pendant my boyfriend had given me -- he had a tendency to rub it for luck, so he handed it right over when I told him I had an important test. The girl next to me had a little red buddha, another had a small waving cat statue, and others had crosses or small Bibles. From what I was told, everyone got at least a 3 on the exam. It really wasn't difficult at all, in my perspective. Most of us stopped every 10 minutes to blow bubbles and just giggle.

That is pretty funny. So these are the journalists and intellectuals of tomorrow? Oh brave new world ... :p

Yeah, I hope so. The university I plan to go to has a 5-year program after which you get both a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in chemical engineering. I'm going to try to do that. These AP tests and the ones I'm taking next year will hopefully help with that. :)

Neat! I started on a similar track before the math got too intense and I had to admit defeat. But it was a worthwhile experience, and chemistry still fascinates me, even if I wound up with an arts degree. :p You're in for some fun, I'd say.

Yeah, I did alright on my AP tests. Chemistry is very hard. I remember taking that exam, I was the 2nd highest score from my school and I got a 3. I was also the only one from my school taking the exam who never took the class! :D My college didn't accept the score but yeah, it is definitely a very hard exam. Psychology is one of the easiest exams though. Depending on where you go, more AP exam scores will tend to mean less hours that you have to take which is all the more incentive to take more exams! :D Some colleges do cap the number of applicable hours though.

Yeah, I did alright on my AP tests. Chemistry is very hard. I remember taking that exam, I was the 2nd highest score from my school and I got a 3. I was also the only one from my school taking the exam who never took the class! :D My college didn't accept the score but yeah, it is definitely a very hard exam. Psychology is one of the easiest exams though. Depending on where you go, more AP exam scores will tend to mean less hours that you have to take which is all the more incentive to take more exams! :D Some colleges do cap the number of applicable hours though.

The college I want to go to limits it to 45 hours, and I've checked with what credits they give you for each score.

Neat! I started on a similar track before the math got too intense and I had to admit defeat. But it was a worthwhile experience, and chemistry still fascinates me, even if I wound up with an arts degree. You're in for some fun, I'd say.

I've been really good at all the math classes I've taken so far, so hopefully I'll be fine. I'm taking AP Stats and AP Calculus AB next year for math (as well as a bunch of other AP classes...)

The last test I took was a practical OSCE exam for medicine. They have 28 different testing stations and you get 4 minutes at each one to perform a physical examination, get information from x-rays, take patient histories, etc. At the end of each four minutes they had a bell that rang to tell you to move on. Unfortunately one of the stations was a diabetic foot examination and you have to use a tuning fork to test the ability to feel vibration. Whenever I hit the fork against the table though everyone thought it was the bell and moved onto the next station. They had to reset the whole thing thanks to me :D

I just finished my first year at university and my results do count towards the final. I got a 2:1 overall and am pleased with that. Other than that, my best mark in the whole year on one paper was quite a surprise :)

The American education marking systems confuse and infuriate us!

There's really no 'experience' to share in the latest exams I did a month ago. I sat down in a big hall and I did the exam, nothing of any interest happened. :p The marks were... acceptable, I suppose.

Chemistry is the hardest subject I've ever read, maybe not hardest but most boring I'd rather say. We had a three hour test and I walked out after just one hour leaving three out of seven pages unanswered. Luckily I got the second highest grade anyway.

The American education marking systems confuse and infuriate us!

There's really no 'experience' to share in the latest exams I did a month ago. I sat down in a big hall and I did the exam, nothing of any interest happened. :p The marks were... acceptable, I suppose.

This test has a different grading system than class grades do.

The AP grading system is as follows.

5: Extremely well-qualified
4: Well-qualified
3: Qualified
2: Possibly qualified
1: No recommendation

What you have to get on the test to get these scores varies from test to test and from year to year...

Haven't got my score yet, but I'm sure I got a 5 on AP Gov (which is the only one I took). I got a 5 on AP Envi Sci and AP US History last year. I wanted to take a few others, but they didn't fit into my class schedule for the year.