AP Statistics

The Advanced Placement program has offered students the opportunity to pursue college-level courses while in high school. Along with the Educational Testing Service, the College Board administered the first AP Statistics exam in May 1997. Prior to that, the only mathematics courses offered in the AP program included AP Calculus AB and BC. Students who didn't have a strong background in college-level math, however, found the AP Calculus program inaccessible and sometimes declined to take a math course in their senior year. Since the number of students required to take statistics in college is almost as large as the number of students required to take calculus, the College Board decided to add an introductory statistics course to the AP program. Since the prerequisites for such a program doesn't require mathematical concepts beyond those typically taught in a second-year algebra course, the AP program's math offerings became accessible to a much wider audience of high school students. The AP Statistics program addressed a practical need as well since the number of students enrolling in majors that use statistics has grown. Since then, the number of students taking the exam rapidly grew to 98,033 in 2007, making it one of the 10 most popular AP exams. ==Course==

If the course is provided by their school, students normally take AP Statistics in their junior or senior year and may decide to take it concurrently with a pre-calculus course. Curriculum Emphasis is placed not on actual arithmetic computation, but rather on conceptual understanding and interpretation. The course curriculum is organized around four basic skills; the first involves selecting statistical methods and covers 15–23% of the exam. Students are expected to choose methods for analyzing data for statistical inference. The second skill involves data analysis and covers 15-23% of the exam. Students must describe patterns, associations, and relationships in data. The third theme involves probability and simulations. This theme covers 30–40% of the exam. The fourth theme, which covers 25–35% of the exam, involves statistical argumentation by explaining or justifying conclusions using evidence from data or statistical inference. There are nine units of AP Statistics. The percentage indicates the portion of the multiple-choice section of the exam focused on each content area. ==Exam==

Along with the course curriculum, the exam is developed by the AP Statistics Test Development Committee as well. With the help of other college professors, the committee creates a large pool of possible questions that is pre-tested with college students taking statistics courses. The test is then refined to an appropriate level of difficulty and clarity. The exam is offered every year in May. Students are not expected to memorize any formulas; rather, a list of common statistical formulas related to descriptive statistics, probability, and inferential statistics is provided. Moreover, tables for the normal, Student's t and chi-squared distributions are given as well. The multiple-choice portion of the exam consists of forty questions with five possible answers each. The free-response section contains six open-ended questions that are often long and divided into multiple parts. Grading The multiple-choice section is scored immediately after the exam by computer. Students' answers to the free-response section are reviewed in early June by readers that include high school and college statistics teachers gathered in a designated location. The readers use a pre-made rubric to assess the answers and normally grade only one question in a given exam. Each question is graded on a scale from 0 to 4, with a 4 representing the most complete response. Communication and clarity in the answers receive a lot of emphasis in the grading. Both sections are weighted equally when the composite score is calculated. The composite score is reported on a scale from 1 to 5, with a score of 5 being the highest possible. Grade distributions == See also ==