While I was losing sleep over the impending release of the AP test scores, I devised an evil plot to shift the curves in my favor. It's a complicated scheme that requires time and genius and money and fraud. Unfortunately, I can handle only three of those things, and so I'm not going to perform it. But for the sake of indulgence, I laid out the blueprints. Doing that required only time and genius.
The College Board's AP tests are graded on a curve, in which a range of scores is assigned each grade, ranging from 5 to 1 (comparable to the A-to-F system). Whereas 83 percent would normally be considered a B, or a 4, with the AP curve, which varies for every test and changes every year, depending on how well students do, it could be a 5, 4, 3, etc. Grading on a curve ensures that the scores are evenly distributed; it's impossible for everyone to get the same grade. This system benefits some and hurts others. But with the implementation of my evil plot, it would benefit everyone.
The plot is the result of a devilish overlap of two apprehensions, one over AP scores, the other over college acceptance. Because of the College Board's fees for sending scores to schools, I realized that colleges don't have to know that I took these tests at all. The Board would probably make more money, I thought, if students had to instead pay for them to *not* send the scores.
I then thought about failing, then pricey tutors, then how much money many parents are willing to spend to buy their children's scholastic success. And then, suddenly and magically, it happened. At the crossroads of the adjustable curve, the optional scores, and the prodigal parents, the evil plot unveiled itself.
Here's the idea: If a large group of the said parents were to pay many students who are not enrolled in a specific AP class, whom we'll call "dummies," to take and fail that test -- to get five percent correct, for example -- the curve would adjust to favor everyone else, by assigning them a higher score than they earned. This way everyone who cares about the test -- i.e., everyone but the dummies -- will do well, or at least better than they otherwise would. The dummies, of course, wouldn't send in their scores, leaving them with no harm and some money.
The scheme would have to be large-scale to be effective. And to be large-scale, it would require a huge sum of start-up capital. And whoever provides that initial cash would have the ability to make a ton of money, in the way a pimp or venture capitalist does. (Make your own joke here!)
The plot is, in an unconventional and undeniable way, cheating. And while it could be incredibly lucrative, it may also be incredibly illegal -- though I don't really know; I haven't learned laws yet.
The ideal candidate to execute my scheme would be a rich student who's a poor student, one with a skewed moral compass and demanding parents, someone who could be described as a Machiavillain. If you're out there, I wish you luck. I also wish you to take the same APs as me.
Go to class with the verb "learn" and not just the verb "do" as your focus every day. Be curious--every day. And study to do YOUR personal best. Do as well as you can on your exams and earn your scores for demonstrating mastery and college readiness. Waste no more time (of your own or of ours as readers) dreaming about how you can get statistical pity points as some kind of grade welfare from some manipulation scam of cheating. Our country is full up on its quota of cheaters, scammers, and liars. We need thinkers and problem solvers who have integrity and honor--who believe in owing a day's work for a day's pay--who believe in doing the right thing because it's the right thing to do.
Not the article to include in your college apps--at least not if I were the recruiter.
Although I went to a large high school, in the 1960s we had only a few AP courses. One of my teachers was an AP consultant and trainer for AP teachers. Anyway I made 5s on everything (I test high), and perfect scores on a couple. My "long" essays for US History and Englist Lit were examples given to teachers for years and years.
AP Exams are not, and never have been scored on a curve. Instead, AP Exams are “criterion-referenced,” which means that any and all students who meet the criteria for earning an AP score receive that score. This can be easily observed by looking at the AP scores for a variety of subjects. In AP Chinese, for example, where most students are native speakers, most students earn the points necessary for a 5, and hence, 85% of students received a score of 5 . . . hardly the even distribution you see when exam scores are forced into a curve.
Deborah Davis
Director, College Readiness Communications
The College Board
Thanks for the clarification =)
As an AP teacher, I'm curious if there's a handy chart that details the "average" national scores of private vs public schools, or by state. I've been able to find, for my subject area, general national score averages--e.g., the AP English Language exam has a 54-ish percent pass rate, but I'm curious about how that rate breaks down by state (Texas for me) or, say, by College Board region, and by public vs private school.
Thanks for any insight you have about this,
Sarah Urban
Looking at the APES scoring sheet (http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/public/repository/env-sci-2008-scoring-worksheet.pdf), for example, it appears to be a curve, at least to the public's (and my) inclined eyes.