SAS sees record number of students pass AP exams in 2009

By Nihal Krishan

It is no surprise that SAS students take the most number of AP exams internationally with a resounding 1200 exams last year. Not only did students take a record number of AP’s last year, but they also had record results in the exams.

While students have generally proven successful in AP exams scores, with approximately 90 percent of all exams receiving a three or higher for the last decade, 2009 was still a remarkable year for AP students. In 2008, 91.6 percent of AP students received a passing grade – a grade between 3 and 5. This percentage rose to a record 95 percent in 2009. A 3.4 percent jump may not seem remarkable at first, but since 90 percent of students consistently place in the passing range between 3 and 5, even a small difference in scores is considered a significant achievement. AP Statistics, AP Psychology and AP European History were a few of last year’s AP’s which helped boost SAS’s average scores.

During the first AP European History class of this year, social studies teacher Rick Bisset drew three triangles filled with the digits ‘3, 4, 5’ on the whiteboard of his classroom. He then asked his students to guess what the triangles meant. Eventually he told them the numbers signified all the scores that last year’s AP European History students received on the AP exam. In 2008 only 80 percent of European History students received a score of 3 or higher. Last year 100 percent of all students received a 3 or higher. Sophomore Augusta Soeryadjaya, who is taking AP European History this year, credited the high scores to the extra preparation and work that Bisset made his students do last school year in the class.

“He prepares us a lot for the essay proportion of the exam, which makes up 50 percent of the AP score, by making us write a lot,” Soeryadjaya said. “He also makes his tests, essays and homework much harder than the real exam, so that when we get to the real thing, we find it a lot easier”

Out of the 90 students who took AP Statistics last year, 99 percent of them received a passing grade of three or higher, in comparison to 2008 when 92 percent of students received a passing score.

Senior Alvi Hasan, who took the class last year with Dr. James Kett, credited the success to the experience of the statistics teachers.

“Our teachers have been doing it for a long time, so they’re very experienced with the topics, and they gave us a lot of review material for the exam” Hasan said. “We each were given our own AP review books and I’ve never been given a review book in any of my other AP classes at SAS.”

Hasan has taken a total of 11 AP’s in high school.

AP Psychology students averaged exam score of 4.27 last year which was the highest ever in SAS history. AP Psychology teachers have been experimenting with new ways of preparing for the AP exams.

“For AP Psychology, we made a song to learn the material, and used lots of other non-textbook related material to help memorize the info. Our teacher (Kent Knipmeyer) gave us lots of quizzes to test our memory as well, because so much of the exam is based on memorization,” said senior Will Bradley, who scored a 5 on the exam last year.

With a mean score of 4.12 for all AP exams taken by students last year, the mean score was highest its been in the past ten years.

“The high scores are a combination of good students and good teaching. It’s as simple as that,” said AP exam co-coordinator, Mark Devine.

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