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AP Exams 2016 Check-in


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Is it correct that the Calc BC is changing for next year?  Is that going to be a bad year to take it?

 

Yes, I think both calculus exams are changing for next year. Although they are supposed to be "minor" changes. Our current plan is that younger ds will take Calc AB next year. I'm not thrilled that they are changing the exam, but I don't think we'll change our plans because of it.

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She was feeling a little better this morning.  She used a neti pot for the first time yesterday (she also has a sinus infection) and it helped alot.  She used it again this morning.  Two doses of antibiotic hasn't hurt either.  I hope she'll be ok enough to think through it all.  Thanks for the well wishes.

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That's good to hear, Attolia.

 

I dropped ds off at 7:15 this morning. It was a little complicated because dh had a dentist appointment at 7 and we only have one car. So we all left the house together at 6:45, dropped dh off at the dentist, then took ds to the test, then went back to the dentist for dh, dropped him off at work, then did the grocery shopping and came home. Ds is going to take the transit bus home. He said he might stop at Dunkin Donuts first. ;) He seemed relaxed and not too tired (he's NOT a morning person), so we'll see how it went.

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re: AP Chem, dd tells me there was a bit of an online kerfuffle about an FRQ involving a Lewis dot structure with resonant bonds.  Apparently there is an active discussion about the exam on Reddit, including the MCs, which she tells me aren't supposed to be discussed, ever.  

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re: AP Chem, dd tells me there was a bit of an online kerfuffle about an FRQ involving a Lewis dot structure with resonant bonds. Apparently there is an active discussion about the exam on Reddit, including the MCs, which she tells me aren't supposed to be discussed, ever.

Seriously uncool

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re: AP Chem, dd tells me there was a bit of an online kerfuffle about an FRQ involving a Lewis dot structure with resonant bonds.  Apparently there is an active discussion about the exam on Reddit, including the MCs, which she tells me aren't supposed to be discussed, ever.  

 

I have found myself wondering about some of the online discussions of test items lately.  A couple years ago there was some heavy discussion on College Confidential, to the point of people linking to a Google Doc where they were crowd sourcing a copy of the test.  (CC kept taking down links and even banned a few users).

 

I wonder how much of these discussions are actual high schoolers who are just curious and dying to talk about the test and how much is coming from the test prep industry, especially for overseas markets.  There is a lot of money in the test prep industry and they stand to gain a lot from having actual test items revealed.  Even if it is too late for this year's test, it helps them build a bank of actual test questions, some of which may be recycled or have only minor tweaks.

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Ds said AB seemed easier than his practice tests. He finished the whole thing, which is amazing. He was happy to run into several kids he knows from theater.

 

My kids are testing at a private school where DS2 does a lot of his Model UN conferences.  There was a MUN friend in the exam and a couple he ran into before the test.  Evidently word got around that he was on campus and there was a pod waiting after the test to say hi to him.  I can't say how sweet I thought that was.

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DS is home from his final AP exam! YAY!!!

 

He is now finished with high school...and thus, our homeschool. I am so, so thankful I had the opportunity to teach this kid for all these years. What a blessing...I'm at a loss for words.

m

 

:party: and :grouphug:

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DS is home from his final AP exam! YAY!!! 

 

He is now finished with high school...and thus, our homeschool. I am so, so thankful I had the opportunity to teach this kid for all these years. What a blessing...I'm at a loss for words. 

 

 

And you, my dear friend,  have done a FABULOUS job with this young man!!  So, proud of BOTH of you, Jetta!!

 

(((HUGS))),

 

Brenda :hurray:

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DS is home from his final AP exam! YAY!!!

 

He is now finished with high school...and thus, our homeschool. I am so, so thankful I had the opportunity to teach this kid for all these years. What a blessing...I'm at a loss for words.

Congratulations to you both and well done !!!!!!!!!!

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Dd was surprised and relieved when she came out of the Calc AB exam :)

 

She heard muttered curses during the m/c sections. Multiple people napped during the FRQs :eek:

 

DS said one person just sat back about halfway through the FRQs and didn't write anything else, just let the time run out!

 

 

DS is home from his final AP exam! YAY!!! 

 

He is now finished with high school...and thus, our homeschool. I am so, so thankful I had the opportunity to teach this kid for all these years. What a blessing...I'm at a loss for words. 

 

 

Yay!!  Such a bittersweet feeling!

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DD said she had more than enough time this morning to work the Calc AB FRQs and check them and check them again and still sit there staring at the wall. The MC were more of a problem for her because she kept forgetting she could use her calculator on part of it. We did calculator stuff, but she is more inclined to attack problems by sketching curves and things first.

 

She finished, though and was mentally exhausted, so it's all good.

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Dd was surprised and relieved when she came out of the Calc AB exam :)

 

She heard muttered curses during the m/c sections. Multiple people napped during the FRQs :eek:

 

I am so glad to hear that she is relieved and feels good about it since this was the one she was worried about, right?

 

Sleeping through the FRQs?  Ds saw it in one of his AP English exams and I remember one very irked teacher in the AP communities that had witnessed the same thing.  They are not ready and/or don't care, so why not sleep?

 

Edited by swimmermom3
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I had to laugh because my ds hasn't given me or his father a particularly detailed answer on how his AP exams went beyond fine but last night he apparently was a bit more detailed with a family friend a told her he thinks he thinks they went well. :) He did tell me that Calculus BC might be available to him next year because one of the girls at the school is planning to take the exam, if she requests it as a student at the school he can take it also. I had taken the willingness to take the exam again essentially as a sign he had done well.

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Good luck to APUSH, Euro, and German testers today! You've got this :)

 

Thanks!  APUSH is Sailor Dude's first test for this year's round.  It's good to get it over first as he is much more confident about the other three.

 

I know this is late, coming from the west coast, but good luck to everyone.  I am very curious to see the FRQs on this one since the test is a mild revision of the revision.

 

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Thanks! APUSH is Sailor Dude's first test for this year's round. It's good to get it over first as he is much more confident about the other three.

 

I know this is late, coming from the west coast, but good luck to everyone. I am very curious to see the FRQs on this one since the test is a mild revision of the revision.

 

I read that as "a mild revulsion of the revulsion" :lol:

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APUSH is done and ds looks relieved.

 

He said there wasn't anything he hadn't seen before, nothing that stumped him.

 

We've felt fine about the content, it will probably be a matter of if he followed the required formats and had enough good examples.

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APUSH is done and ds looks relieved.

 

He said there wasn't anything he hadn't seen before, nothing that stumped him.

 

We've felt fine about the content, it will probably be a matter of if he followed the required formats and had enough good examples.

 

I think one of my kids will have the same issue.  Did he write his long essay in the specific formula that APUSH wants?  Did he make specific enough examples for contextualization and synthesis?

 

This, BTW, is one of my frustrations with APUSH right now.  Even on the teacher community, there is debate about how a student demonstrates context and how one demonstrates synthesis.  NONE of the sample essays on the AP archive show a point for synthesis because of the recent change in the scoring rubric.  

 

I'm so glad that I get a little break from newly revised courses.

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Mine's are still next week, but she may have an ear infection. We put her on antihistamines and Sudafed, but I told her we'll go to the doctor on Saturday if she's no better.

I hope she feels much better tomorrow!

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APUSH is done and ds looks relieved.

 

He said there wasn't anything he hadn't seen before, nothing that stumped him.

 

We've felt fine about the content, it will probably be a matter of if he followed the required formats and had enough good examples.

Ds is relieved as well, but isn't super confident about his score because of the formatting. Thankfully, we haven't seen any schools that require a 5, and Ds's top choice gives credit for a 3. 

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...  Calc BC has been on his own (which sounds completely nuts to me), but he feels very confident about it. 

 

May I ask what your DS used for AP Calc BC on his own?  Did he find them clear?  Thanks!!  (My DS likes doing math on his own, and I'm looking for materials.)

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Dd took the APUSH yesterday and now we are about to leave for the SAT. She did not have time to answer part C. on one of the short response questions. She felt confident that Dr. Brian at WTMA prepared her really well for the essays. They have spent so much time on synthesis that part was comfortable for her. I just hope the person scoring her exam can read her writing. 

 

Que sera sera...

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May I ask what your DS used for AP Calc BC on his own?  Did he find them clear?  Thanks!!  (My DS likes doing math on his own, and I'm looking for materials.)

 

We have a good friend who teaches AP Calc in the public high school, and he highly recommended "Calculus: Graphical, Numerical, Algebraic", by Finney, Demana, Waits, and Kennedy.   Kennedy is one of the writers of the Calc. AP tests.

DS followed a schedule from the College Board which uses this text to prepare for Calculus BC in one year (as opposed to spending one year on AB first).  He really enjoyed this book, and needed very little else.  There were a few times when he looked at Khan academy for something he didn't quite understand.   For exam review he used Barron's and College Board released old exams.  He felt great about how the exam went and finished with time to spare. 

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I just returned home from picking up dd's from SAT subjects tests.  Both were in different classrooms, and there was 40 minutes between when the first room was dismissed and the last.  dd1's room was in a mad rush to bubble in their info as the instructor speedily read the instructions.  dd2's instructor went at a snail's pace and wouldn't dismiss any student until she had scrutinized their ticket to make sure they weren't signed up for a second test.  dd1 was dismissed with a simple, "If you are only taking 1 test, you may leave."  She also accidentally called time 7 minutes early, before students reminded her.  It seems that proctors don't use timers and are happy to time using the clock on the wall.  Both students had issues with another proctor entering the classroom during the test period and chattily whispering with the proctor in charge.  Can't something like that wait?  

 

Otherwise, we're happy with the comfortably heated classrooms, quietly respectful students, and the flexibility of getting our results relatively quickly before deciding whether to retake in June.  

 

 

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AP Music Theory for dd tomorrow morning.  This is her first go at an AP exam and I think she feels prepared - but still nervous. :)  I was panicking last week - the local high school had mentioned that they would hire the same proctor they are using for their other AP exams but then realized two weeks ago that senior admin wouldn't agree to that (since dd isn't a student at the school).  I lined up a proctor on my own - and he forgot that he would be out of town but didn't let me know until a week ago. :ohmy:  It's all good now.  We've got a proctor set up, she has training in all the sound equipment she'll need to use during the Music Theory exam, and I think they've figured out how to use the DAS portal to upload dd's sight-singing recording.

 

I really have to say - I love, love, love the AP Co-ordinator at our local high school. :)  She's a good friend of mine and is one of the vice-principals.  I get the sense that much of the more senior admin at the school and at the board office is against homeschooling but she's got my (and dd's) back as much as she can.  We're in a rural area and the public high school is the only game in town.  They only offer 2 AP courses to their own students but the Co-ordinator has said that she'll order in any AP exam for dd that we ask for and take care of all the paperwork details, too.  Can't ask for much better than that. :)  The AP Music Theory exam is one of the ones with a lot of extra administrative "stuff" - audio recordings that need to be played during certain segments of the MC section and the FRQ section, a different CD to be played during sight singing and a way to record the sight singing, making sure the sight singing recording is uploadable, etc.  She's been wonderful through it all.  I did assure her, though, that dd's AP exams for next year would be the more standard kind - AP Chem and AP Stats - and wouldn't have any extra "stuff" involved.  She appreciated that. ;) :D

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AP Music Theory for dd tomorrow morning.  

 

I really have to say - I love, love, love the AP Co-ordinator at our local high school. :)  She's a good friend of mine and is one of the vice-principals. 

 

Wow, AP Music does sound above and beyond the usual AP exam.  Good luck to her!  

 

I also feel lucky to have a nearby high school that opens its doors to local homeschoolers, about 10 of us this year taking various exams.  It seems like someone else has paved the way for me, because it all seemed like standard operating procedure, so here's a big thank you to whichever homeschooling parent paved the way and to all the students who behaved well enough that we continue to have a good reputation among people in regular schools!  

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Wow, AP Music does sound above and beyond the usual AP exam.  Good luck to her!  

 

I also feel lucky to have a nearby high school that opens its doors to local homeschoolers, about 10 of us this year taking various exams.  It seems like someone else has paved the way for me, because it all seemed like standard operating procedure, so here's a big thank you to whichever homeschooling parent paved the way and to all the students who behaved well enough that we continue to have a good reputation among people in regular schools!  

 

I think the AP language exams are similar to the Music Theory one in that there are audio components - both listening and recording.  I promised the co-ordinator that dd wouldn't be doing any language exams in future. ;)

 

I'm the first homeschooler in the district to be asking for these kinds of things so I'm hoping that I'll be making it easier for others in future. :)  As long as my friend is there, I think any homeschoolers will have a friend.  After she retires...  Hard to say. :(

 

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The public schools here are also great about letting homeschoolers take AP exams. DS2 had his first exam - AP European history - on Friday. He was nervous, but he thought it went ok.

 

I'm a little worried because DS1 is taking AP physics C - only electricity and magnetism this afternoon. I told him to double check at the school on Friday where and when he is supposed to take it, but he forgot. So I called the school Friday afternoon, but didn't reach a human - left a message. Most of the APs are off-site at a church, so I want to be sure that he knows where to go. And I want to know for sure what time they are expecting him, since the E & M is kind of half of a test. He's supposed to be at work at 5 pm today too, which should be fine as long as everything runs on time!

 

 

Edited to add: I did reach the school this morning and confirmed the time and place! DS is fairly confident about the multiple choice, but a little worried about the free response. I guess we'll know in July.

Edited by JeanM
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Well, AP Music Theory is over but haven't heard from dd yet. She said yesterday that she predicts either get a 5 or a 0 :crying: Her teacher one of the band directors at the high school and he is retiring after this year. In hindsight she probably should have waited until next year to take it when the young, fun orchestra instructor will teach the class. She was getting all of the questions right on Friday when they took a mock and her teacher was confident she would do well. Now she can focus on AP Human Geography on Friday. She has really loved the class but the test seems like a huge amount of memorization for the test. I told her not to sweat it and as long as she felt the class was worthwhile (which she does) it doesn't matter what she gets on the test.

 

 

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DS just finished his final AP exam EVER....AP Biology  :hurray:.  He thinks he did well.  He took AP Lit and AP Calc BC last week, and thought he did well on those, too!  I can't believe he is finished!!!  This year has absolutely FLOWN by.  DD has her first AP exam (Human Geography) this Friday.  Good luck to all the kiddos with exams this week!

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