For those of you who took the leap of faith and signed up for AP Biology this year, you must have been shocked to realize that the amount of work you put into it really isn’t reflected in your grade.
AP Biology has always been considered to be one of the harder AP’s in the school, but it’s gotten significantly more difficult this year.
In previous years, all unit tests were curved with a square root curve. The square root curve takes the square root of your percentage on a test and multiplies it by ten. Therefore, if someone were to get a 60% on a test, their grade would raise to a 77%. This year, if someone were to get a 60% on a test, the curve really doesn’t help at all.
“I changed the curve because the correlation between class grades and AP scores did not match,” said AP Biology teacher, Jeromy Gilman. “Now, test scores are equated to the five point scale on the AP test where the top 20% get a five, which is a 90%, the next 20% get a four and so on.”
Since AP Biology is one of those courses that is filled with the “overachievers” of the school, curving a test based on students’ test grades makes it more difficult for those of us who are average at Biology, while still good students, to get a good grade.
The change in the curve wouldn’t be such a problem if the tests were a little easier, but they aren’t. Basically, if you spend the entire night before a unit test studying, you may have a chance at getting a B, depending on what other students get. That is definitely not fair…
“At the beginning of the year when I came into class and I found out that there was no square root curve, I thought that by studying a lot I would still pull off a good grade,” said senior Maann Sangid. “Little did I know, I was wrong.”
For those of you planning to take AP Biology next year, beware. It’ll either take a significant toll on your GPA and/or your sleep schedule.