AP Exams Undergo Scoring Change

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ELLEN LI
Staff Writer
There are five minutes left on the clock for your AP Biology Exam and you have ten unanswered questions left on the multiple-choice section. You don’t know whether to guess on those questions and risk losing points or to leave any of them blank and not be awarded points.
However, beginning with the May 2011 AP testing, the way that AP Exams are scored will be changed internationally. This change applies to all exams, excluding AP Studio Art.
The College Board has decided that a quarter point will no longer be deducted from each incorrect answer on the multiple-choice sections of the AP Exams, and as before, no points will be awarded for unanswered questions. Scores on the multiple-choice section will now be based on the number of questions answered correctly.
“Students may find this [as] a bit of relief in approaching the multiple-choice portion of the test,” said AP Language and Composition teacher Nancy Padilla. “This may take some of the pressure off.  Overall, for those who go in knowing the material, it should be a better gauge of what they know and how they will perform in college.”
In order to ensure that each version of the AP Exam is the same difficulty, the College Board decided to streamline the scoring process by only scoring the correct responses.
“There used to be a specific strategy involved in guessing [on the multiple choice]. Now, since the penalty for guessing is gone, it makes it easier to guess. However, it will be harder to get a higher score because of the recalibration of scores,” said AP World History teacher David Jauregui.
Some students are not enthusiastic about the change in scoring.
“This is worse because all of the other students who are used to the old system are forced to rethink their strategies and get used to a new system. This is especially hard if you are in your final years of high school,” said senior Omar Jishi.
Nevertheless, only time can tell whether the new scoring system is going to benefit the students, hurt them or have any effect at all.