What Are AP Exams and Tests

What Are AP Exams and Tests SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips AP Tests may seem like intimidating obstacles, but if you’ve done well in the corresponding AP classes, you shouldn’t have too much trouble earning a high score. Good AP Test scores can help you in the college admissions process and may evenearn you college credits. In this article, I’ll give you an overview of what AP exams are, why they matter, and how scoring works across a variety of different tests and subject areas. What Are AP Tests? What’s the Point of Taking Them? AP Tests take place at the end of AP classes, and they’re used as a means of assessing how much you learned in the class and whether your experience merits college credit. You can also prepare for AP Tests independently outside of the course if you don't feel totally comfortable with the material after going over it in class. Essentially, AP Tests are a standardized way of validating your course record.They’re a measure used to control for poorly taught AP classes where students earn As but don’t actually know the material. Although AP curriculum is supposed to be consistent at every school, teachers have a lot of freedom in how they teach the subject and grade the class.AP Tests help to ensure that students have actually learned and absorbed the information and deserve the appropriate credit. You can earn college creditsfor high AP Test scores at most schools, and your scores may also help you to place out of introductory classes.Doing well on AP tests can mean finishing college early or avoiding college classes in subjects that are repetitive for you.In the next section, I’ll get into more specifics about the grading scale for AP tests and how some of the most popular tests are structured. Ugh, I wish I could skip Coloring 101. I already know all of this stuff, and I haven't even thought about eating any of the crayons. What Does the Grading Scale and Format Look Like on Different AP Exams? There are some consistencies in scoring and format throughout all AP exams, but there are also big differences in the times and score percentages devoted to certain types of questions across different tests.I’ll give you some overall information about the grading scale and then provide details about the specific formats of tests in various subject areas. Overall Facts AP exams are scored on a scale from 1 to 5, 5 being the highest score and 1 being the lowest.This is how the College Board defines each score: 5 = extremely well qualified 4 = well qualified3 = qualified2 = possibly qualified1 = no recommendation â€Å"Qualified† indicates that you’re capable of doing the equivalent of the work required for a college-level introductory course in the AP subject.Most colleges will give credit for students scoring a 4s or 5s on AP tests, and some will even give credit for 3s. This can vary depending on the test. On an AP test that's considered more difficult, you might get credit for a 3. On a less challenging test, you might need to score a 5 to earn college credit. Every AP exam has a multiple choice section, which is scored by computer, and a free response or essay section, which is scored by college professors and AP teachers.On multiple choice, there are no point deductions for incorrect answers. (This is a recent policy change in line with the new SAT, which has also done away with point deductions.) Scores on the two sections of AP Tests are combined to form your composite score on a scale of 1 to 5. One thing you should keep in mind about AP test scores is that you don’t need to get everything right on the test to get a 5 or a â€Å"perfect† score.It’s not like the SAT, where messing up on one question can crush your dreams of an 800.Scaling is different for each exam, but in general even if you only get 70% of the questions correct, you can still end up with a 5.Read more details about how AP tests are scored here. Next, I’ll give you an idea of the specific structures of AP exams in different subjects so that you’ll know what to expect. Your pencil will be thrilled to spend more time with you on the free response sections of AP Tests. It doesn't know that its feelings may not be reciprocated. Science and Math APs AP Biology The AP Biology exam is three hours long in total.It is also divided into two sections, the first of which consists of a multiple choice portion and a very short grid-in portion.You will have to answer 63 multiple choice questions and six grid-in questions in 90 minutes.The grid-in questions are essentially short answer math and science problems; you will need to calculate the answers and enter them into a grid on your answer sheet. The second section of the test is also 90 minutes long and consists of eight open response questions (six short response and two long response).Each section on the AP Biology exam is worth 50% of your score. AP Chemistry The AP Chemistry exam is three hours and 15 minutes long.The multiple choice section has 60 questions and is 90 minutes long.The free response section has seven questions, four short response and three long response, and it is an hour and 45 minutes long. Like on AP Biology, each section is worth 50% of your score. AP Calculus BC The AP Calculus BC exam is three hours and 15 minutes long. The multiple choice section consists of 45 questions divided into calculator and no calculator sections that last an hour and 45 minutes total. The free response section consists of six questions lasting an hour and 30 minutes, also divided into calculator and no calculator sections. Your calculator won't be there to support you on every section of the AP Calculus exam. But don't worry, it always has you in its thoughts. Social Studies APs AP Psychology The AP Psychology exam is a bit shorter than most of the other AP Tests, clocking in at just two hours total.The multiple choice section consists of 100 questions answered over the course of 70 minutes. This section makes up two thirds of your score.The free response section consists of two questions to be answered in 50 minutes. This section makes up the remaining third of your score. AP US History The AP US History exam is 3 hours and 15 minutes long in total.It is divided into two sections, the first of which consists of a multiple choice portion and a short answer portion.The multiple choice portion contains 55 questions and is 55 minutes long. This is worth 40% of your total score.The short answer portion contains four questions and is 50 minutes long. This is worth 20% of your total score. The second section of the test consists of two longer open response questions.First is the document-based question (so called because your answer will require you to consult a certain primary source document) for which you are given 55 minutes. This is worth 25% of your total score.You will also have to answer one of two long essay questions for which you are given 35 minutes. This question is worth 15% of your total score. The AP US History exam will take you on a wild ride through the meandering underground streets of this country's past. If you're a thrill seeker, oh boy, look forward to this one! Language and Literature APs AP English Literature and Composition The AP English test is three hours long. The multiple choice section has 55 questions and lasts an hour. The free response section has three questions and lasts for two hours. The multiple choice section of the test is worth 45% of your score, and the free response section is worth 55% of your score. AP Spanish Language and Culture This exam is three hours long. The multiple choice section consists of two parts and is 95 minutes long. You'll answer questions about Spanish texts on the first part and audio recordings on the second part. The free response consists of four parts and is 85 minutes long. You will be asked to write an email reply and a persuasive essay. You will also have to respond to conversational prompts in Spanish and do a mini-presentation on a cultural topic in Spanish. The multiple choice and free response sections are each worth 50% of your score. That's right, for language AP tests you'll have to actually speak the language. I was shocked as well. Art APs AP Music Theory The AP Music Theory test is two hours and 40 minutes long. The multiple choice section consists of 75 questions divided into two sections, one of which relies on auditory cues and one that is non-auditory. The whole section is 80 minutes long and makes up 45% of your score. The free response section consists of seven written exercises (70 minutes total) and two sight-singing exercises (10 minutes total). These two sections make up the other 55% of your score. AP Art History This exam is three hours long in total. The multiple choice section is an hour long and has 80 questions. The free response section takes up the remaining two hours. It has two 30-minute essay questions and four 15-minute essay questions. The multiple choice and free response sections each make up 50% of your score. I don't understand how people made incredibly complex sculptures like this, but if you take AP Art History, you might find out. Conclusion So what are AP exams, overall? AP examsassess your knowledge of AP course material and determine whether you are qualified to test out of similar introductory courses in college.A high score on an AP Test indicates that you are capable of working at the college level in the subject.The highest score you can earn on an AP Test is a 5, and the lowest is a 1; most schools will accept 4s and 5s (sometimes even 3s) as scores worthy of college credit.All AP Tests have both multiple choice and free response sections, but they are structured differently and may be different lengths depending on the subject. Keep in mind that AP Tests and classes may or may not be good choices for you based on your academic track record in high school and goals for college. You can read more about which AP classes (if any) you should take in this article.Your ideal AP courses and exams will vary depending on the type of student you are. You shouldn't force yourself to take classes that will drag down your GPA or that don't interest you just for the sake of earning more AP credit. If you know you'll be taking some AP courses, try to familiarize yourself with the format and timing of the corresponding tests before the end of the school year.Taking practice tests and doing sample questions will help you get accustomed to the way the tests work and enable you to earn college credit! What's Next? You may be wondering when the AP Tests are offered so that you can plan ahead. Here's a list of AP Test dates for 2016. Which AP Tests are more difficult? That can depend on your strengths as a student, but there are certain tests that are notorious for being especially cahllengin. Read more about the hardest AP Tests here. Does your school offer AP and IB? Are you curious about the differences between the two? Take a look at this article to learn whether AP or IB will be a better fit for your needs. Want to improve your SAT score by 240 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

Social Learning Theory Essays

Social Learning Theory Essays Social Learning Theory Paper Social Learning Theory Paper Social Learning Theory: Social Learning is on the nurture side of the Nature Vs Nurture debate. The main concept of the social learning approach is that you learn by observing the behaviour of others and the outcomes of those behaviours. For example, if a child was to see someone getting positively rewarded, they would copy the behaviour to receive the reward. Whereas, if they were to see someone being punished they wouldnt copy it. (Van Wagner K, 2005) Social learning theory explains human behaviour in terms of continuous reciprocal interaction between cognitive, behavioural, and environmental influences. (Learning-Theorists, 2009) Albert Bandura stated in 1977 that Learning would be exceedingly laborious, not to mention hazardous, if people had to rely solely on the effects of their own actions to inform them what to do. Fortunately, most human behaviour is learned observationally through modelling: from observing others, one forms an idea of how new behaviours are performed, and on later occasions this coded information serves as a guide for action. Modelling is a method used where the client learns from imitation alone, without any specific verbal direction by the therapist. (Wikipedia, modelling, 2008) The conditions that must be in place for effective modelling are: * Attention A persons characteristics determine their attention level; such as sensory capacities, arousal level, perceptual set, past reinforcement. (Learning-Theorists, 2009) * Retention Retention is remembering what you paid attention too, such as mental images, sounds, symbolic coding. (Learning-Theorists, 2009) * Reproduction This is when you reproduce what it is you paid attention too, such as physical capabilities and self-observation of reproduction. (Learning-Theorists, 2009) * Motivation Motivation is having a good enough reason to imitate what you paid attention to in the beginning. Motivation can be past, promised and vicarious. (Learning-Theorists, 2009) Albert Bandura Albert Bandura was born on the 4th December 1925, and is a Canadian psychologist that created the Social Learning theory. (Wikipedia, Albert Bandura, 2008) He first started research on the Social Learning theory whilst he worked in the Department of Psychology at Stanford University. Working along side one of his students Richard Walters; they studied human motivation, thought and action which he then furthered to social learning and aggression. This all interlinks to his most famous experiment The Bobo Doll Experiment. Bobo Doll Experiment The Bobo Doll experiment was first conducted in 1961. Its main goals were to help understand behavioural learning in the form of aggression. The experiment involved 72 children aged between 3 and 6, divided equally by gender, watching a model acting in a certain manner towards the Bobo Doll. The children were then split into groups that were divided by gender, aggressive behaviour and non-aggressive behaviour. They were then split between models that were the same gender or different gender. In total, there were 8 experimental groups. (Wikipedia, Bobo Doll Experiment, 2008) The children were taken individually into a room which contained a Bobo Doll, lots of toys and a model. The child watched the model for 10 minutes whilst they played with the toys for a minute and then acted aggressively towards the Bobo Doll for the rest of the time, using physical and verbal abuse and also hitting it with a mallet from one of the other toys. (Wikipedia, Bobo Doll Experiment, 2008) The model would then leave and the child would be taken to a second room which contained the same equipment as the previous room, but this time the model would only play with the toys and completely ignore the Bobo Doll. (Wikipedia, Bobo Doll Experiment, 2008) The child would then be taken to a third room which contained many appealing toys and a Bobo Doll. The child would only be allowed to play with the toys for a short amount of time until someone would enter the room tell them that those toys were for the other children and that they werent allowed to play with them. This was to make the child angry, hoping to cause aggression. (Wikipedia, Bobo Doll Experiment, 2008) Finally, the child would be taken to a fourth room with contained toys of aggressive and non-aggressive nature, such as the Bobo Doll, a mallet, toy guns, a ball, paper and crayons, plastic farm animals and a tea set. (Wikipedia, Bobo Doll Experiment, 2008) Bandura recorded the results of the Bobo Doll experiment in 8 different measures of aggression ranging from kicking the doll, shouting insults they heard from the model and using the mallet. After studying the results Bandura found out that children do learn from watching the behaviour of others, discovering that the children that saw the aggressive model imitating the physical aggression, 38.2 from boys and 12.7 from girls. The same results were found for verbal abuse, with boys using it 17 times and girls 15.7 times. It was also proved that males tended to be more aggressive than females, after finding out that there were 270 incidents of males showing aggression, against females showing aggression 128 times. (Wikipedia, Bobo Doll Experiment, 2008) Social Learning in Health and Social Care Social Learning is present in school education from teachers and fellow students. Teachers have to help students believe they can do the work and watch others be successful and develop self-efficiency to experience success themselves. Teachers also have to show appropriate behaviour and language whilst around students; this is so they get an understanding of what is right and wrong. (Teachnet) Teachnet states that Modelling provides an alternative to shaping for teaching new behaviours. Instead of using shaping, which is operant conditioning, modelling can provide a faster, more efficient means for teaching new behaviour. To promote effective modelling a teacher must make sure that the four essential conditions exist; attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation. Social Learning in Health Education In health education, there is no approach that has been specifically said to work better than the rest. Social Learning could be used in health education to try to advise someone to reduce or stop whatever is harming their health. An example of this would be using the peer-led approach to health education, such as if an ex-smoker was to talk to a smoker about giving up, the ex-smoker could explain about all the advantages to their health and wellbeing, like no loss of breath and no lingering smell on their clothes, hands and hair.

The Creative Innovation and Vast Influence of Merce Cunningham Essay

The Creative Innovation and Vast Influence of Merce Cunningham - Essay Example If I was one who did not know his background, I would just see him as an old, shriveled, slow-speaking senior citizen dispensing wisdom on dance and life from his wheelchair and regaling his glory days when he had his share of the limelight as the star of the show. Yet, upon listening to his words, one can be enamored by his passion for the arts, notwithstanding his age and disability. In his advanced age, when most of his contemporaries are long dead or shoved in nursing homes rendering them useless to society, Cunningham remained vigilant in his post as guard of the dance, issuing instructions for his company of dancers as he envisions the dance in his still brilliant mind. He may sit immobile in his wheelchair, but his spirit and ideas joined the nubile movements of his dancers on the floor. That vision alone encapsulates how innovative and influential he was in the world of dance. This paper will explore how he came to be such. Travelling back in time to his origins as a young da ncer, Merce Cunningham started training in all-round theatrical dance at the tender age of twelve under the supervision of Mrs. J.W. Barrett. He went on to further his studies at the Cornish School in Seattle, Washington and became a mentee of the eminent dance diva, Martha Graham. This grand dame had a great influence on the young Cunningham, as she prodded him to pursue professional dancing and choreography as a career. In 1944, he first collaborated with long-time art and life partner, John Cage in a dance concert where he choreographed his dances as the dance soloist to the original music composed and performed by John Cage. The resulting performance was something new for everyone to see and it elicited a gamut of reactions from all sectors. The resounding critique was made by Edwin Denby who noted that he had ‘never seen a first recital that combined such taste, such technical finish, such originality of dance material, and so sure a manner of presentation’ (Gresko vic, 1999, p. 72). Indeed, Cunningham has lived up to that compliment all throughout his dance career. In 1953, Cunningham had his own company of 5 dancers, including himself. He preferred to maintain a small group that even in 1994, there were only 17 including the choreographer. His fortunate dancer-trainees eventually went on to develop their own careers as dancer-choreographers and made names for themselves. Some of these were Paul Taylor, Remy Charlip, Viola Farber, Margaret Jenkins, Douglas Dunn, Gus Solomons, Jr., Karole Armitage and Ulysses Dove (Greskovic, 1999). The prominence these mentees of Cunningham gained was a reflection of his great influence in their dance philosophies. Cunningham’s dance innovations never ceased to amaze the audience. Asked if he was out to shock people with his dances, he claimed he was not, but was out to bring poetry in their lives. He brought a twist to ballet, which was so much part of the modern dance innovations but somehow put an e dge to the classic dance. He combined what he learned from ballet such as the pronounced use of the legs, with the strong emphasis on the upper body in modern dance methods. Greskovic (1999) identifies one of Cunningham’s technical advancement in relation to ballet’s five positions of the feet that he referred to as the Five Positions of the Back – upright, curve, arch, twist and tilt. A meticulous artist, Cunningham did not stop at designing details of his choreography but also dabbled with the music that accompanied the dance. The unconventional sound elements used may be disturbing to the audience simply because it is unfamiliar and therefore, uncomfortable.