Hey guys, just a bit stressed out here because I'm taking three AP classes this year. Could someone explain how exactly AP exams are scored? I get that there's a composite score, but how do percentages translate to that 1-5 scale? Is there a difference in scoring between subjects like Calculus BC and Biology?
Absolutely, it's very understandable to feel overwhelmed by AP exams, so let me walk you through the scoring process to hopefully reduce some of that stress. AP exams are graded on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the lowest score and 5 being the highest; a 5 is equivalent to an 'A' in the corresponding college course.
Each AP exam has a unique grading rubric, but typically they combine multiple-choice questions with free-response sections, such as essays or problem-solving questions. The College Board uses a statistical process called 'equating' to translate raw scores (the number of questions you got right) into a standardized 1-5 scale. This accounts for slight variations in difficulty across different test administrations. As a result, the percentage of correct answers needed to achieve a certain score can vary from year to year and between subjects.
The cutoff percentages for scoring a 5 or any other score on the scale can differ significantly between subjects like Calculus BC and Biology due to differences in the exams and how students perform on them overall. For example, a relatively higher percentage of students may score a 5 on Calculus BC than on Biology in a given year. The College Board periodically releases score distributions that can give you a sense of the percentage of students who earn each score in each subject.
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