Maryland AP Students Lead Nation by Example

By Catherine Jou ’15

The College Board issued its tenth annual AP Report to the Nation on February 11, and for the eighth consecutive year Maryland had the highest percent of high school seniors in the nation pass at least one AP test in 2013.

Much of Maryland’s success is credited to MCPS, which had an increase in the number of graduates taking AP exams in at least eight schools, with the largest increase at Clarksburg with 5.9 percent. Sherwood had an increase of 2.1 percent from 2012 to 2013.

The average percentage for U.S. public high school graduates in 2013 who scored a 3 or higher on an AP Exam is 20.1 percent. Seventeen states exceeded the national average, including Maryland with 29.6 percent and Virginia with 28.3 percent.

Of Sherwood graduates from the Class of 2013, 70.1 percent took at least one AP exam during high school and 55.6 percent of graduates earned one or more AP scores of 3 or higher. This compares to 50.9 percent of 2013 graduates from Quince Orchard, a school that is considered to have a similar demographic profile to Sherwood.

The most popular AP exams taken by the Class of 2013 in Maryland were English Language and Composition, followed by Psychology and English Literature and Composition. The five most popular tests taken among students at Sherwood last year were Psychology, U.S. Government and Politics, World History, English Language and Composition and English Literature and Composition.

According to the MCPS report “AP Participation and Performance,” along with being Sherwood’s second most popular exam, U.S. Government and Politics had the highest percent passing rate of all exams with 89.8 percent and with a mean average score of 3.8. Psychology had a 63.3 percent passing rate and an average score of 2.9. The best mean average score was 3.9 in U.S. History. The exam scores with the lowest averages at Sherwood were Physics C: Mechanics, Environmental Science and Calculus AB.

With the highest scores and participation rates in humanities classes and the lowest scores in science and math classes, there seems to be a correlation between popularity of a class and scores.