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This week our high School students have been sitting the Advanced Placement (AP) exams. SAIS is a Colleg Board certified school which allows it to offer AP exams as well as SATs. The AP exams cover college level material and for many Universities in the United States as well as in some other countries, a good grade in the AP exam is accepted as credit for that particular course of study. This not only accelerates the student’s progress at University but is also a source of satisfaction for parents as they do not have to pay out for that module during their student’s time at University!
We have been spending some time speaking to some of our high School students about their exam experience this week.
Simon from Grade 10 commented, ‘ It was definitely quite difficult but having the College Board website available in school helped us in our studies and practise exams. I sat Human Geography and Environmental Science and not only has it been a good academic experience it has also helped me notice the world around me in ways I had not appreciated before. They were just very interesting subjects.’ As a second language speaker King said ‘The technical vocabulary was very challenging. Even native English speakers had to learn the differences in meaning to words that on the surface seem very similar but within subject they had very different meanings. There seemed to be so many to learn!’
Henry felt that Human Geography ‘helped me understand so much more about different cultures. How the environment affects how people live and work, what they eat and how they dress. I really enjoyed this study.’
When asked for advice the students would offer to others wanting to take the exams Henry said ‘Manage your time in the test. Practising past papers is always a good idea but do it in real time so you not only learn about how to answer the questions but do it so you are not rushing or panicking at the end.’
Cherry commented: ‘My advice is to really get to know your facts but then be able to put them into a well-constructed answer. It is about studying hard’.
And Misa felt that ‘having the experience of taking AP exams was useful even if I do not do as well as I would like.
Principal Abbott said, ‘We are so very proud of our high School students. For the past few weeks they have been going the extra mile by coming to school early each morning to study for their exams and give themselves the best preparation possible. Our school is about the individual and in these students we see remarkable progress being made. It is wonderful to see students from the US, from South Korea, from Japan as well as from China all helping and encouraging each other to do well. In one small way our school is helping the world be a more understanding place through these wonderful student examples.’
AP results are graded from 1 – 5 with some Universities accepting a 3 as course credit but most will look for 4 or 5 depending on the subject. Grading of AP exams is quite complex. The exams themselves have a multiple-choice div which is graded by computer, and a free response div which is graded by the AP Teachers and university professors invited to mark. Grading is done in a summer camp and results are based on the past 3 years scores, the scores of students who have taken the subject at University and the level of achievement by students overall.
We are excited for our students who have taken the exams this week.
