What Is an AP Test Perfect Score Do You Need One

What Is an AP Test Perfect Score Do You Need One SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips If you read your local newspaper, you may have seen an article about someone from your area getting a â€Å"perfect score† on an AP exam. But what is an AP test perfect score, and how is it different from a 5? Keep reading to find out what an AP exam perfect score is, what it means, how many students get one, and if it’s a goal you should be aiming for. What Is a Perfect AP Score and What Does It Signify? If you receive a perfect score on an AP exam, that means that you received every point possible on the exam.So you answered every multiple-choice question correctly and scored the maximum amount of points on every free response question. Pretty impressive! How does this relate to the score you get from 1-5? Well, if you get a perfect score you will definitely get a 5 on the exam. But your 5 won’t be worth more than anyone else’s 5. Additionally, you don’t need to get anything close to a perfect score to get a 5 on the exam. In other words, the fact that you got a perfect score doesn’t really increase the value of your standard score on the 5-point scale. In fact, your perfect score is not even reported on your score report- just the 5. When a student achievesa perfect score, the College Board usually informs the school directly in the fall. The school then informs the student. This often seems to lead to a level of minor local celebrity, with perfect scorers frequently being interviewed by local newspapers and having articles written up about them on school websites. As mentioned above, the perfect score doesn’t appear on your score report, but it’s certainly something worth reporting to colleges if it does happen because it is impressive and unusual. A perfect score would make you the slightly different yellow locker in this row of orange lockers. How Many Students Geta Perfect Score on an AP Exam? Just how unusual is it to get a perfect score on an AP exam? It depends on the exam, but no matter the test, it’s a rare feat. The College Board released a document of 2013 AP test perfect score stats, but it doesn’t appear they’ve created a similar document for 2014 or 2015. However, a series of tweets by the College Board’s head of AP, Trevor Packer, reveals all the info about how many students got perfect scores in 2015. I’ve assembled the info into a chart that shows how many perfect scores there were by number and by percentage of test-takers in 2015, as well asthe percentage of test takers who received a 5 in each exam. 2015 Perfect Scores as Compared to Fives Exam # Perfect Scores # Test-Takers % Perfect Scores % 5s Calculus AB 3 302,532 .00099% 24.6% Calculus BC 1 118,707 .00084% 48.4% AP Chemistry 3 152,745 .00196% 10.1% Computer Science A 66 48,994 .1347% 21.3% French Language 1 22,084 .0045% 18.4% US Gov and Politics 3 282,571 .00106% 11.9% Latin 1 6,571 .0152% 13.2% Macroeconomics 18 126,267 .01426% 16.1% Microeconomics 49 78,408 .0625% 15.9% Physics C: EM 1 22,789 .0044% 33.5% Physics C: Mechanics 6 52,678 .0114% 32.4% Psychology 4 276,971 .0014% 18.7% Spanish Language 7 144,561 .0048% 24.6% Statistics 2 195,526 .001% 14.3% As you can see, while at least ten percent of test takers scored a 5 on each exam,the perfect scoresare teeny, teeny, teeny percentages. Microeconomics and Computer Science A had the highest percentage of perfect scorers by a fairly large margin, but even those have minusculecounts of .0625% and .1347%, respectively. There were a small number of perfect scores for the AP Art portfolios, but since those aren’t graded via an exam, I left them off the chart. Otherwise, if a test isn’t in this chart, there were no perfect scores. AP Exams with no perfects in 2015 were: Art History, Biology, Chinese, English Language, English Literature, Environmental Science, European History, German, Comparative Government and Politics, Human Geography, Italian, Japanese, Physics 1, Physics 2, Spanish Literature, US History, World History. In sum: perfect scores on AP exams are a super-rare occurrence. Super-rare like emerald jewels. Is Getting a Perfect Score a Realistic Goal? Given how few students get them, it’s not a very attainable or realistic goal to actively try for a perfect score on an AP exam, even for a test where perfect scores are marginally more common like Microeconomics or Computer Science A. Even if you have total mastery of a subject, just one tiny mistake on test day will prevent you from getting a perfect score. Additionally,you will never know how close you were if you don’t get a perfect score- raw point totals aren’t reported to students.You could get 179/180 points and never know anything except that you got a 5. That makes a perfect score a frustrating goal in addition to a difficult one! The marginal benefit is also not that high- a small level of brief local celebrity and an impressive factoid for your college applications. If you really want to stand out to colleges, there arebetter ways to develop your applicationthat are more within your control and where your work will pay off more directly. In terms of test scores, it makes much more sense to work on getting top marks on your standardized college entrance exams like the SAT, the ACT, and SAT Subject Tests.Any solid preparation work you put in there will pay off in your reported scores, unlike on an AP exam, where you either get a perfect or you never find out your raw score. The truth is, based on local news profiles, most AP test perfect scorers are surprised to have gotten a perfect score and weren’t specifically aiming for one. So, while it’s not impossible to get a perfect score on an AP exam, particularly in a subject you are very gifted in, it’s not really worth your time to specifically aim for a perfect. Aim for a 5, do your best, and it could happen, but don’t stress overit. Reach for the stars! And by stars, I mean a 5. Key Takeaways While it won’t give you any more college credit or show up on your score report, a perfect score on an AP exam- full credit for all exam portions- is an impressive accomplishment. Only a small number of students get perfect scores each year. However, I don’t recommend making a perfect score your goal, simply because the benefits as opposed to getting a 5 are only marginal. You’d be much better served working for perfect marks on the SAT, ACT, and SAT Subject tests. What's Next? Studying for your AP exams? Learn when you need to start preparing for your AP tests to get that coveted 5. If you're taking a variety of tests, figure out whether AP exams or Subject Tests are more important for you. Wondering what the revised SAT format means for you?Or maybe you're taking the ACT and looking for all of our ACT study guide resources! Want to improve your SAT score by 160 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:

The Definition of Suburban Sprawl

The Definition of Suburban Sprawl Suburban sprawl, also called urban sprawl, is the spread of urbanized areas into the rural landscape. It can be recognized by low-density single-family homes and new road networks spreading into the wild lands and agricultural fields outside of cities. As the popularity of single-family houses rose during the 20th century, and as mass ownership of cars allowed people to get to homes located far outside of city centers, new streets spread outwards to serve large housing subdivisions. Subdivisions built in the 1940s and 1950s consisted of relatively small homes built on small lots. Over the next few decades, the average house size increased, and so did the lot they were built on. Single-family homes in the United States are now on average twice the size of those inhabited in 1950. One or two-acre lots are now common and many subdivisions now offer homes each built on 5 or 10 acres - some housing developments in the western US even boast lots 25 acres in size. This trend leads to a hungry demand for land, accelerating road construction, and further spilling into fields, grasslands, forests, and other wild lands. Smart Growth America ranked US cities along criteria of compactness and connectivity and found that the most sprawling large cities were Atlanta (GA), Prescott (AZ), Nashville (TN), Baton Rouge (LA), and Riverside-San Bernardino (CA). On the flip side, the least sprawling large cities were New York, San Francisco, and Miami which all have densely populated neighborhoods served by well-connected street systems allowing residents close access to living, working, and shopping areas.   Environmental Consequences of Sprawl In the context of land use, suburban sprawl takes agricultural production off from fertile lands forever. Natural habitats like forests get fragmented, which has negative consequences for wildlife populations including loss of habitat and increased road mortality. Some animal species benefit from the fragmented landscapes: raccoons, skunks, and other small scavengers and predators thrive, driving down local bird populations. Deer become more abundant, facilitating the spread of deer tick and along with them, Lyme disease. Exotic plants are used in landscaping, but then become invasive. Extensive lawns require pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers that contribute to nutrient pollution in nearby streams. The housing subdivisions making up most of the sprawl are generally built well away from industry, business, and other employment opportunities. As a result, people need to commute to their workplace, and since these suburbs are generally not well served by public transportation, commuting is most often done by car. When using fossil fuels, transportation is a major source of greenhouse gases, and because of its reliance on commuting by car, sprawl contributes to global climate change. There Are Social and Economic Consequences of Sprawl Many municipal authorities are finding out that low density, large-lot suburban areas are a bum deal for them economically. The tax revenue from a relatively small number of residents may not be enough to support the construction and maintenance of the miles and miles of roads, sidewalks, sewer lines, and water pipes needed to service the scattered homes. Residents living in the denser, older neighborhoods elsewhere in town often need to essentially subsidize the infrastructure on the outskirts. Negative health outcomes have also been attributed to living in suburban sprawl. Residents of outlying suburban areas are more likely to feel isolated from their community and be overweight, in part because of their reliance on cars for transportation. For the same reasons, fatal car accidents are most common for those who have longer commutes by car. Solutions to Combat Sprawl Sprawl is not necessarily one of those environmental issues against which we can identify a few simple steps. However, awareness of some of the potential solutions can be enough to make you a supporter of important change initiatives: Be a supporter of smart growth programs at the county and municipal levels. This includes programs that revitalize development in already built-up areas. Reinvesting in neglected city centers is part of the solution, as is taking care of an abandoned property. For example, an abandoned shopping mall can be turned into a medium-density housing development without the need for new water pipes, road access, or sewage lines.Support mixed-used development. People like to live in close proximity to where they can shop, recreate, and send their kids to school. Building these types of neighborhoods around public transportation hubs can create very desirable communities.Support your local land use planning efforts. Consider volunteering for the town’s planning board and advocate for smart growth. Attend fund-raising activities for your regional land trust, as they work hard to protect prime farmland, working waterfronts, exceptional wetlands, or intact forests.Support sensible transpor tation policies that complement smart growth. This includes affordable and dependable public transportation options, investments in maintaining the existing road network instead of expanding it, building bike paths, and developing programs to make business districts pleasant places to walk. Make a personal decision to live in a less environmentally impactful way. Choosing higher density housing can mean lower energy needs, a more active lifestyle, and proximity to work, interesting businesses, art venues, and a vibrant community. You will be able to fulfill most of your transportation needs by walking, bicycling, or public transit. In fact, in a comparison of the environmental virtues of city vs. rural living,  urban dwellers have the edge.In a paradoxical but very understandable way, many people choose to move to low density, outlying suburban areas to be closer to nature. They feel that these large lots close to agricultural lands or forests would put them in close proximity to wildlife, with more birds visiting their feeders and ample opportunity for gardening. Perhaps this appreciation of nature makes them predisposed to finding other ways to reduce their carbon footprint.