AP Tests Loom

[Daniel Brim]

Originally Posted by Alex Pelan

AP Chem next Tuesday, and seeing how it's the only AP offered for sophomores at my school, it's all I've got. Unfortunately, our AP Chem teacher has a bad record for his students' performance on the AP...two fives in twelve years or something like that. My friend's sister took 8 AP exams during her high school career and got 5s on all of them except for chem...so I'm a little worried.

Ouch. Our school has not had a person fail AP Chem in 10 years, and something like 40% get 5s. I just finished AP calc about 15 minutes ago. I take AP US history on Friday (I still have 60 more pages to read in the REA review book), and AP Chem next Tuesday. I'm not too worried about AP Chem, but I am a bit concerned about History.

-Daniel

[Mike33]

unfortunatly, i have AP comp/sci tomorrow. version A. and to all those who know what im talking about, i just wanna kill those stupid fish. exspecially those darter fish, they are harder to catch.

[Keith Chester]

Last year I created at least 30 kinds of fish. I loved my P.I.M.P. fish, who would hunt down lady fish. Whenever they mated and had kids, the program would play a Barry White mp3.

Needless to say, I recieved tons of extra credit for that one.

[Jaine Perotti]

I have my AP US History Exam this Friday... and I am nervous.

Probably the main reason for this is that I didn't even realize that it was this week until my history teacher started talking about to our class this morning and yelling at the class because not a single person has handed in the $82 check to our guidance counselor! I personally find the $82 charge a tad bit high for a standardized test, but I suppose the end result is worth the money (that is, if [1] I score high enough to get credit and [2] go to a school that will accept the credit).

I am also feeling somewhat unprepared because my US History class isn't technically an AP class. But since it is an honors/humanities level class, we are given the option of taking the test (which most of the class, at least this year, has chosen to do). Luckily, our history department has put together a series of review sessions for the test after school as kind of a refresher course. Unfortunately, I had to miss one because of Atlanta, and I am missing today's because of a robotics meeting. Hopefully I will be able to catch the last session, which is tomorrow.

Is anyone taking both the May 7th SAT this weekend and the AP US History Exam? I am not (I take the SAT in June), but many of the students in my history class are. Talk about standardized test stress!

Good luck to all who are taking AP tests! (...I need some luck myself I think)

[IMDWalrus]

Calc AB is out of the way now, and it wasn't too terrible. I left a few blank, including parts of free response questions, but I'm hoping I did well enough to get some credit from UMich.

English Lit is Thursday morning, and I'm not worried about that one at all. Really, what can you do to prepare for that one beyond knowing the novels you've read and being prepared to write about them?

Physics C, though, could be nasty. My class hasn't gone over the electrical areas of the test AT ALL, and I'm not quite confident about the mechanical section either. Even after two years, I still have issues with tension, but that's probably due to my stupidity more than anything else.

Best of luck to everyone who's taking APs, even though you probably won't need it. Us robotics kids are smart cookies.

[Keith Chester]

My teacher is infamous for being impossibly hard and moving darned fast.

Which is why we know every little nook and cranny of that test.

If you don't know electrical by now, I wish you luck. It will be next to impossible to get a high grade without it. If I were you, I'd do nothing but study until the test.

Sorry for the bad, ominous news.

[sanddrag]

Well here's a more enlightening view. I never had Calculus in high school but now that I have it in college I think it is pretty easy for the most part. It is just limits, derivatives and antiderivatives. For limits, there are only a few rules for evaluating them. You just need to see if this goes up to infiniti, then does that go too or does it go down to zero or some other number or what? For derivatives you just multiply the coefficient by the exponent and subract one from the exponent. For antiderivatives, it is just where derivatives come from. So you add one to the exponent and divide the coefficient by the exponent. I would mention integrals but that is pretty much just more antiderivatives. So, BAM! There you have it, Calculus. Easy.

[Keith Chester]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

Well here's a more enlightening view. I never had Calculus in high school but now that I have it in college I think it is pretty easy for the most part. It is just limits, derivatives and antiderivatives. For limits, there are only a few rules for evaluating them. You just need to see if this goes up to infiniti, then does that go too or does it go down to zero or some other number or what? For derivatives you just multiply the coefficient by the exponent and subract one from the exponent. For antiderivatives, it is just where derivatives come from. So you add one to the exponent and divide the coefficient by the exponent. I would mention integrals but that is pretty much just more antiderivatives. So, BAM! There you have it, Calculus. Easy.

That's month one of the AP Calc class and test. You forgot to mention the... other 5 months?

[Michelle 236]

I'm taking AP Spanish Language tomorrow, and AP English Lit on Thursday. Whatever happens, happens, I'm just dying to be done and graduate!!

Originally Posted by Keith Chester

That's month one of the AP Calc class and test. You forgot to mention the... other 5 months?

Ah yes. To quote my teacher, "There's four topics covered in Calculus, Limits, Derivatives, Integrals and Integrals." So really Calculus can be summed up in a few words, but I do have agree there's more to it than that...and I have this insatiable urge to go type examples, but I swore myself completly off giving any specifics to the effect of math for the next 42 hours or so until I can discuss those multiple choice questions. And the AP Calculus AB exam is over. I enjoyed the class though, and color me crazy, but I really did just take calc because I thought it was a cool topic.

I took AP Bio last year (as a sophmore), 'twas intense, but I really enjoyed it and did well on the test. AP US and AP Phsyics B await me yet. I am looking forwards to see what topic the DBQ is, but I fear that I might be getting the five I want...AP US is notorious in these parts for tacking a 3 or 4 onto your grade sheet.

Next year I'm looking forwards to, hrm, AP English, AP Calc II, AP Stat, AP Econ, AP Psych (as long as I study up over the summer), AP Comparative Gov (again, studying outside of school witha friend for this one), and AP Music Theory. Oh, AP spanish might happen, depends on my time commitments, but it'd seem a waste to nix it after 5 years of study already. I can already hear my desk breaking under the weight of the books I'm going to need for those classes .

[Greg Marra]

Originally Posted by DanielBCR

Ouch. Our school has not had a person fail AP Chem in 10 years, and something like 40% get 5s.

Oh man, seriously? I was the only one to get a 5 at our school last year, and there were only two 4's... (I go to the same school as Pelan).

I took World History today, and whoo did it throw me for a loop. I think the multiple choice was so simple that the questions were all stuff that went under my radar. Still, my first two essays felt very solid, so hopefully I can still get a 4 or 5. Actually, my third essay was about 50% made up . Supposedly almost everyone gets 4's or 5's after this class, so...

Stats tomorrow, Bio Monday.