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A Lincoln High teacher gets all his students to pass the AP Calculus exam

latimes.com

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Re: A Lincoln High teacher gets all his students to pass the AP Calculus exam

#31

Post by userbinator »

ejcx wrote: post #4

This article is strange. Unless something has changed recently, AP exams do not have a concept of pass or fail. You get a score and colleges can choose to give you college credit based on the score. I got a 1 on the AP Calculus exam but colleges wanted a 3 or a 4 or a 5 depending on their requirements to give me credit for college calc. So I have no idea what it means to have everybody 'pass'. I have no doubt he's pr…

So I have no idea what it means to have everybody 'pass'.

That reminds me of this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grading_systems_by_country

It's interesting to see where the 'pass' bar is in different countries. I've always found the 50% mark, which seems quite popular, to be rather unusual since it implies that someone who 'passed' essentially was correct on only half the material tested (which is then a fraction of the material actually taught), and in any other setting a 50% failure rate would be completely unacceptable.

Re: A Lincoln High teacher gets all his students to pass the AP Calculus exam

#32

Post by kristopolous »

josinalvo wrote: post #29

I am not sure if such clean-looking, new-looking classes are standard in the US, but it gives me a tad of skepticism... Is this school in an affluent neighborhood?

Lincoln heights? Not really. Average household income is $30,579 and 5.5% have college degrees. I guess that's better than some

Re: A Lincoln High teacher gets all his students to pass the AP Calculus exam

#33

Post by CarolineW »

samstave wrote: post #26

There was a movie about this in the 80s

Referenced in the actual article:

    Yom loved the movie "Stand and Deliver,"
    about legendary Garfield High calculus
    teacher Jaime Escalante's success with
    so-called unteachable students.

Re: A Lincoln High teacher gets all his students to pass the AP Calculus exam

#37

Post by quaz3l »

ejcx wrote: post #4

This article is strange. Unless something has changed recently, AP exams do not have a concept of pass or fail. You get a score and colleges can choose to give you college credit based on the score. I got a 1 on the AP Calculus exam but colleges wanted a 3 or a 4 or a 5 depending on their requirements to give me credit for college calc. So I have no idea what it means to have everybody 'pass'. I have no doubt he's pr…

A 3 is widely regarded as passing on AP exams.

source: I took AP exams last year.

Re: A Lincoln High teacher gets all his students to pass the AP Calculus exam

#38

Post by kepano »

josinalvo wrote: post #29

I am not sure if such clean-looking, new-looking classes are standard in the US, but it gives me a tad of skepticism... Is this school in an affluent neighborhood?

I used to live in the neighborhood (Lincoln Heights). It's a lower income, primarily latino neighborhood of Los Angeles. I've never visited Lincoln High School but it's a public school.

http://maps.latimes.com/neighborhoods/neighborhood/lincoln-h...

Re: A Lincoln High teacher gets all his students to pass the AP Calculus exam

#39

Post by userbinator »

srtjstjsj wrote: post #6

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2016/02/1... > Nearly 2.5 million students took a total of almost 4.5 million AP tests overall last year. Of the test-takers, just 322 obtained every point possible on an AP test, and perfect scores were logged on 21 of the 36 AP exams. Here’s the breakdown of those perfect scores: 67 in Computer Science A 55 in Spanish Language and Culture 54 in Microeconomics 36 in…

Surprisingly low numbers, considering how many hundreds of students ace their calculus tests in college.

It's not surprising if you realise that AP tests can't be gamed as easily as tests designed (and possibly graded) by those who taught the students taking the tests.

Re: A Lincoln High teacher gets all his students to pass the AP Calculus exam

#40

Post by schoen »

jasonjei wrote: post #18
srtjstjsj wrote: post #6

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2016/02/1... > Nearly 2.5 million students took a total of almost 4.5 million AP tests overall last year. Of the test-takers, just 322 obtained every point possible on an AP test, and perfect scores were logged on 21 of the 36 AP exams. Here’s the breakdown of those perfect scores: 67 in Computer Science A 55 in Spanish Language and Culture 54 in Microeconomics 36 in…

I took AP Latin: Vergil in high school. That was one of the hardest classes I've ever had to take because the grammar is so complex (I'm also not surprised Japanese has few perfect scores). I know I didn't get a passing score. I'm surprised however that Chinese has no perfect scores. I remember some students that had moved from Taiwan or China would take AP Chinese to get free college credits. The grammar of Chinese…

> That was one of the hardest classes I've ever had to take because the grammar is so complex

Did you study Latin for several years before? I think that class is typically intended for people who have already studied Latin at the high school level for three years (most likely reading Caesar or other authors first). That would give a lot more opportunity to become familiar with Latin grammar rules.

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