Valley students have made it through the two-week gauntlet of Advanced Placement tests. These are standardized tests that measure student mastery of AP courses, usually including both a multiple choice and free response section, assisting colleges in determining whether or not to award incoming students college credit. Every year, AP exam season stirs up criticisms of these exams, with students questioning how fair they really are in measuring student content understanding.
“Some students don’t do well on standardized tests, and it’s not because they didn’t study or just aren’t smart,” sophomore Alma Poole said. “Sometimes it’s just the pressure of the test that gets to people. So I don’t feel that a two-and-a-half-hour-ish test one day out of the year shows what someone knows about the whole course.”
Freshman Paige Khan is one of the students Poole is referring to that struggle to perform well on standardized tests.
“When I was younger, I had perfect grades, but I would barely pass any SOLs or AP tests because I just can’t understand,” Khan said. “The format of it is just really overwhelming, and it scares people. So people’s performances tend to go down.”
As a freshman, Khan took her first AP test this year: AP World History.
“It was just very nerve-wracking, chaotic,” Khan said. “It’s not very structured. They’re just like ‘sit down, do it, you can’t leave.’ You can’t drink water during the exam. You can’t eat. So it’s just very overwhelming for someone like me who has anxiety.”
Although Poole and Khan criticize the format and concept of AP exams, other students praise the exams for helping prepare students for college and providing avenues to earn college credit.
“They’re standardized across practically every high school in the U.S. to match introductory college-level classes, giving students a taste of both college workload and a chance to gain credit to save money,” senior Tai Dinh said.
Dinh also values AP exams for their accurate and standardized measure of student achievement.
“Grade inflation is real,” Dinh said. “A high grade in an AP course does not equivocate to a high score on an exam.”
Dinh has experienced the discrepancy between course grades and exam scores in his AP exam experience.
“I’ve taken 7 APs and gotten 4’s and 5’s on all but one, that being AP Calc BC, which I got a 2 on,” Dinh said. “Despite having a failing exam grade, I still passed the class with a B+ average, further demonstrating how grades do not equal course understanding.”
Senior Ella McCrory also finds AP exams to be a fair way for students to earn college credit.
“I think it’s fair because the student chose to take that class understanding what’s needed of them,” McCrory said. “Everybody is aware of the AP test and how it’s set up, so you can’t really say it’s unfair when you chose to do it.”
For senior Alex Abell, the exams are fair because of the multiple avenues they provide that allow students to earn points to improve their score.
“My experience with AP exams has always been positive, and I feel pretty confident in both sections,” Abell said. “They include both multiple choice and free response questions, which gives students a chance to make up if they don’t do good on one subject.”
Abell has also taken advantage of one of the more unorthodox AP exam formats.
“For classes like AP 2D Art where you use a portfolio, they’re relatively easy to use and demonstrate a strong understanding of the course,” Abell said.
Still, in spite of some student support for AP exams, others suggest different paths to determine who gets college credit.
“If they’re a good student, if they do their work, their behavior, that’s the biggest thing for me,” Khan said. “And their grades in the class. If their grades are like Bs and As, I would say you’re good.”
Poole shared a similar opinion about alternative pathways to credit.
“I think it should be off a grade,” Poole said. “Like a B or above average gets college credit. Also, maybe like a big project at the end instead of the test. One that you get weeks on and shows your understanding of the course, and then you can get credit if you do well.”
