Dear WHAP students and parents:

During the class the last two days, World History AP students took a diagnostic exam made available to me by the College Board©. These questions were as close to the actual exam questions - in terms of difficulty, topic and type - as available. The reason that matters to you is that it is our best predictor of how a particular student would score on the exam if it were administered today.

This information is available to you in the on-line grade book.  AP scores are distributed on a bell curve and I have applied that statistical analysis to this score distribution. You may convert the raw score found in the grade book using the following chart. With 56 days available in which to prepare, a focused student, committing the appropriate time, could easily expect to see improvement to the next highest score. Please join me in that effort. My experience has taught me that these are the critical weeks with regard to test performance. I’ve seen miracles! Success in AP classes is the most accurate predictor of college success.

Score range

AP score equivalent*

Comments

17 - 32

1

Unacceptable.

33 - 40

2

Not passing.

40 - 57

3

Passing; but unlikely to earn credit from most colleges. Roughly 68% of all testers earn this score each year.

58 - 68  4

Strong score; credit likely except for the most competitive programs; a significant addition to any college application.

69 + 5

Outstanding; credit very likely; extremely impressive on a university application, increasingly admissions officers regard such performance over class rank, GPA, and other factors.

You may purchase a prep  book such as Princeton Review; but I don’t think you need one. I have asked students to dedicate a new folder to this review process. We are in essence creating our own, more targeted prep book. This is a proven system and I’m asking all students to enthusiastically participate.

*Keep in mind a couple of problems with this analysis. 1.) This was scaled based on the small sample at HSPVA. One might assume that our students would outperform the nation as a whole, but I would not recommend making that assumption. 2.) While the objective (multiple choice) portion is highly predictive of overall outcomes, a strong or weak performance on the essays could move a score by at least a point.

High score: 83 Low score: 17 Range: 66 points (very high)   Mean: 52, scores were unusually clustered around the mean.

Please contact me if you have any questions. Much is available on the class web site.