AP Exams

The Advanced Placement examinations (AP exams) are an annual occurrence at many high schools in the US, including Gunn High School. The AP exams are an important component of Gunn culture^{[citation needed]} to demonstrate one's proficiency to colleges and possibly gain college credit, which can be used to reduce tuition fees.

Structure

The structure of AP exams vary significantly depending on the subject of the exam. Most exams have multiple choice and free response sections, usually taking 2–3 hours.

Due to school closures during the Covid-19 pandemic, the AP exam format was temporarily changed to allow the test to be taken virtually. However, because the new temporary tests were significantly shorter, the ability of these exams to accurately reflect the student's understanding of a course has been contested.^{[citation needed]}

Registration

At Gunn, registration is only accepted from PAUSD students due to space constraints, especially with COVID.

Payment for the exams is done through Total Registration. However, students who are taking the corresponding AP course must also enroll on AP Classroom. Teachers may use AP Classroom to provide resources to students as practice in-class or out of class.

Grading

Multiple choice questions are graded on a binary scale, solely on the number of correct answers.

Free response questions have strict scoring criteria to prevent grader bias. Each part of a question is generally 2-5 points, with 1 point awarded per feature in the response. These features can range from having a very specific thing written down to implying a certain general idea.

According to Mr. Paley, every free response test is graded by 2 people, who independently grade the test, and if the score for any question differs by more than a point, they discuss the difference.

External Links

• AP Classroom
• Total Registration