I am steaming mad right now.
This afternoon 23 of my Advanced Placement European History students took their examinations to see whether they could receive a qualifying score for their academic year’s work. The scores on this examination run from 0 to 5. To qualify, students must receive a score of 3 or higher.
This afternoon 23 of my Advanced Placement European History students took their examinations to see whether they could receive a qualifying score for their academic year’s work. The scores on this examination run from 0 to 5. To qualify, students must receive a score of 3 or higher.
All these young people worked hard. They studied the textbooks and worksbooks, took numerous practice tests, and wrote several dozen essays in the last nine months. Many of them also attended extra study sessions.
The same holds true for my students in AP Literature and Composition, AP English Language and Composition, and AP Latin.
So today my AP European History students arrived at the testing site by 11:30 a.m. Filling out the AP forms required about 45 minutes. They took a five-minute break and then began their examinations, at which point I as their teacher left the testing room to the care of two proctors, who did fine work.
The students ended their test at about 4:20.
This means that they were involved in an examination lasting close to five hours.
Now their tests will be mailed to the College Board AP folks and “evaluated.”
Many of them will be ranked as qualified in this subject.
But here’s the kicker: That qualification of a score of 3 or higher doesn’t matter diddly-squat to many universities.
Oh, it does help high-school junior gain admittance to a university if he or she has qualified on an Advanced Placement test. Colleges like to see candidates for admission who have done well on AP examinations.
But many universities won’t give any credit for a qualifying score of 3.
Really? Why?
These young people have spent more time studying for their AP courses than the average college freshman for a similar course. They write far more papers than the average college freshman. If you doubt this, and if you have a child in college right now, or are a recent graduate yourself, ask yourself whether your college or your child’s college required ten to fifteen papers per semester. Ask yourself, if you took Latin, whether in your first year of classes you were reading poets like Martial and Virgil, or prose writers like Pliny and Caesar. Ask yourself whether for an English literature course you read the bulk of a 1400 page textbook of English literature plus eight to ten novels.
Yet many colleges have the gall to raise barriers against students receiving a qualifying score of 3. In other words, if you score a 3 on the AP European exam, you may wish to attend a college whose history department will only grant credit for a score of 5. Fail to make the highest qualifying score, and you receive no credit. The school may let you skip a required course, but usually you will still need to take an additional course in that department.
Why is this so?
I think it’s because college departments want a student’s money. They want a body in the classroom. In the last thirty years, he liberal arts, for example, have suffered tremendous losses of students to business and the sciences. Instead of rethinking what they teach, liberal arts professors need students to fill their quotas, to ensure that the professors keep their jobs. By raising the bar on the AP tests, they ensure that those students will be sitting in their classrooms.
This system stinks. If you qualify on the exam, then a university should give you credit. If you don’t qualify, then okay. You need to take the course again in college.
Instead, departments in various universities are operating a racket. As I said earlier, their own students often do less work and don’t have to take a final examination lasting almost five hours, yet they receive an A for the work they do. In the meantime, these departments penalize high school students who make the qualifying mark on the AP examination.
I know this is how the system works. I have taught Advanced Placement courses for over ten years. So why am I angry?
Today I arrived at the testing site approximately half an hour before my students finished their examinations. I could see these young people through the windows of the door to the testing room as they finished their exams. They were exhausted, their faces blunted by fatigue. They had given their all for an entire afternoon to a test.
How many college students do that these days?
Well, to hell with the College Board and the policies of the university departments.
To all my Advanced Placement students: I want you to know how proud I am of each one of you this year. We fought the battles, we were in the trenches together, and I am proud of the work you produced, your growth as writers and scholars, and the efforts you made to absorb history.
Others may look at the future and despair. I look at the future and see you.
You are the best.
The same holds true for my students in AP Literature and Composition, AP English Language and Composition, and AP Latin.
So today my AP European History students arrived at the testing site by 11:30 a.m. Filling out the AP forms required about 45 minutes. They took a five-minute break and then began their examinations, at which point I as their teacher left the testing room to the care of two proctors, who did fine work.
The students ended their test at about 4:20.
This means that they were involved in an examination lasting close to five hours.
Now their tests will be mailed to the College Board AP folks and “evaluated.”
Many of them will be ranked as qualified in this subject.
But here’s the kicker: That qualification of a score of 3 or higher doesn’t matter diddly-squat to many universities.
Oh, it does help high-school junior gain admittance to a university if he or she has qualified on an Advanced Placement test. Colleges like to see candidates for admission who have done well on AP examinations.
But many universities won’t give any credit for a qualifying score of 3.
Really? Why?
These young people have spent more time studying for their AP courses than the average college freshman for a similar course. They write far more papers than the average college freshman. If you doubt this, and if you have a child in college right now, or are a recent graduate yourself, ask yourself whether your college or your child’s college required ten to fifteen papers per semester. Ask yourself, if you took Latin, whether in your first year of classes you were reading poets like Martial and Virgil, or prose writers like Pliny and Caesar. Ask yourself whether for an English literature course you read the bulk of a 1400 page textbook of English literature plus eight to ten novels.
Yet many colleges have the gall to raise barriers against students receiving a qualifying score of 3. In other words, if you score a 3 on the AP European exam, you may wish to attend a college whose history department will only grant credit for a score of 5. Fail to make the highest qualifying score, and you receive no credit. The school may let you skip a required course, but usually you will still need to take an additional course in that department.
Why is this so?
I think it’s because college departments want a student’s money. They want a body in the classroom. In the last thirty years, he liberal arts, for example, have suffered tremendous losses of students to business and the sciences. Instead of rethinking what they teach, liberal arts professors need students to fill their quotas, to ensure that the professors keep their jobs. By raising the bar on the AP tests, they ensure that those students will be sitting in their classrooms.
This system stinks. If you qualify on the exam, then a university should give you credit. If you don’t qualify, then okay. You need to take the course again in college.
Instead, departments in various universities are operating a racket. As I said earlier, their own students often do less work and don’t have to take a final examination lasting almost five hours, yet they receive an A for the work they do. In the meantime, these departments penalize high school students who make the qualifying mark on the AP examination.
I know this is how the system works. I have taught Advanced Placement courses for over ten years. So why am I angry?
Today I arrived at the testing site approximately half an hour before my students finished their examinations. I could see these young people through the windows of the door to the testing room as they finished their exams. They were exhausted, their faces blunted by fatigue. They had given their all for an entire afternoon to a test.
How many college students do that these days?
Well, to hell with the College Board and the policies of the university departments.
To all my Advanced Placement students: I want you to know how proud I am of each one of you this year. We fought the battles, we were in the trenches together, and I am proud of the work you produced, your growth as writers and scholars, and the efforts you made to absorb history.
Others may look at the future and despair. I look at the future and see you.
You are the best.