5 Steps to a 5 AP Psychology, 2010-2011 Edition - Laura Lincoln Maitland [5]
What Is Going to Appear on the Exam?
ETS and the College Board periodically survey colleges/universities throughout the United States and around the world to find out what is being taught in introductory psychology courses in order to ensure that what is being taught in the AP course is comparable. The exam presumes the equivalent of at least one term/semester of college-level work.
Based on the latest information, the AP Psychology Development Committee has updated the course description and point distribution outline for the AP Psychology exams in May 2010 and May 2011.
Content review chapters in this test preparation book conform to their outline. The percentage range in front of each topic represents the number of questions about it that will be asked on the exam. For example, 2, 3, or 4 questions will deal specifically with history and approaches; and 8, 9, or 10 will deal with research methods.
2–4%
history and approaches
8–10%
research methods
8–10%
biological bases of behavior
6–8%
sensation and perception
2–4%
states of consciousness
7–9%
learning
8–10%
cognition
6–8%
motivation and emotion
7–9%
developmental psychology
5–7%
personality
5–7%
testing and individual differences
7–9%
abnormal behavior
5–7%
treatment of abnormal behavior
8–10%
social psychology
Typically free-response questions require you to make connections among concepts from multiple topics, or to apply concepts from different theoretical frameworks to design, analyze, or critique an experiment or other type of research study.
Who Grades My AP Psychology Exam?
The multiple-choice questions are scored by computer, but this is not possible for essay questions. These free-response questions are scored by a select group of experienced college professors of introductory psychology and AP Psychology teachers who gather at the AP Reading for several days in June to assess the papers. Each of these faculty consultants spends a day or so getting trained on one question and one question only. Because each Reader becomes an expert on a single question, and because each essay booklet is anonymous, this process provides a very consistent (reliable) and unbiased scoring of that question. During a typical day of grading, a random sample of each consultant’s scored papers is selected and cross-checked by other experienced “Table Leaders” to ensure that consistency is maintained across all scorers throughout the Reading. Each Reader’s scores on a given question are also statistically analyzed to make sure that he/she is not giving scores that are significantly higher or lower than the mean scores given by other Readers of that question. All measures are taken to maintain consistency and fairness for your benefit. Your answers to the two questions will be scored by at least two different consultants.
AP Psychology exams are administered to college psychology students at the end of their introductory psychology course, so that their performance on the AP Exam can be compared to their performance in the college course (as measured by their test and course grades). This information is used to guide the assignment of the AP exam grades 1–5 to raw scores.
Will My Exam Remain Anonymous?
Absolutely. Even if your high school teacher were to randomly rate one of your free-response questions at the Reading, there is virtually no way he/she would recognize that the paper belongs to you. To a faculty consultant, each student is a number and to the computer, each student is a bar code.
What About That Permission Box on the Back?
The College Board uses some exams to help train high school teachers so that they can help the next generation of psychology students to avoid common mistakes. If you check this box, you simply give permission to use your exam in this way. Even if you give permission, your anonymity is still