Refutes the assertion by W. Lichten (2000) that increased access to advanced placement (AP) courses in high school has led to a decline in AP quality. Suggests that increased access exposes students to college-level course material, encourages teachers to expand their knowledge domains, increases curriculum rigor, and give students new challenges.…

In this article, the Advanced Placement (AP) Program of the College Board is described. It discusses the quality and standards for AP classes and examines the success of AP students, AP Scholar Awards, and resources for information on the AP program. A list of AP subjects and examinations is provided. (Contains references.) (CR)

Students with high scores (top third) on the essay portion of an Advanced Placement Examination (AP) (College Board) and low scores (bottom third) on the multiple-choice portion of the same examination were compared with students whose performance showed the opposite pattern. Across examinations in different subject areas (history, English, and…

Students from 38 colleges with high scores on an advanced placement examination essay and low scores on the multiple-choice portion were compared with students with the opposite pattern. The pattern was not related to college grades, but was related to other test performance. (SLD)

In 2002, nearly 100,000 high school students took one of the Advanced Placement Program? (AP?)language examinations in French, German, or Spanish. One way in which the validity of these exams is ensured is through periodic college comparability studies. The purpose of such studies is to equate the AP scores with performance standards in the third…

Advanced Placement Calculus examinations were administered to nearly 7,000 students in order to determine the impact of calculator use. Both experimental examinations had two sections. Section I items were designed so that a calculator was not needed, but approximately half of the students were permitted to use calculators. Section II items…

The purpose of the study was to explore the academic careers of students who took AP Exams and to compare their careers with those who did not take AP Exams. For most AP Exams, students with AP grades of 3 or better had higher grade averages in intermediate college courses than did non-AP students who first took an introductory course. Two…

A comparison of the French language proficiency of high school students taking the Advanced Placement (AP) Examination for French against college students in their sixth semester of French study found that the college students did slightly less well than the high school students. AP grading standards were more stringent than those used by college…

The purpose of this study is to examine the content of the questions in a number of Advanced Placement Examinations and to attempt to identify content that is related to gender-based performance differences. Free-response questions for ten forms of the AP® Exams in U.S. History, European History, Biology, Microeconomics, and Macroeconomics were…

The dimensional structure of the 1987 Advanced Placement (AP) French language examination was tested in four populations using a series of confirmatory linear factor analysis models. To mitigate problems with the linear factor analysis of multiple choice items, the linear factor analysis of item parcel scores, made of small mutually exclusive…