AP tests are stupid. Here's why.
They are supposed to be the equivalent of a college course? Apparently the AP testers don't have a clue how college is. I have never taken a class in college where they teacher teaches you as much as he can possibly fit into your brain hoping beyond hope that some of it will be on the test. This makes the teacher and the student responsible for a near infinite amount of knowledge to cover the very finite and very secret tested knowledge. Gosh forbid you know what you're supposed to know.
What other educational system is so similar to playing pin the tail on the donkey? I learned more in my U.S. History class than I have ever studied in any other class since or before it. Did I pass? Yes barely. I should have gotten 16 credits for the amount of knowledge I stuffed in there. And I still got only a 3 out of a 5! That's only a 60%! What a load of pucky. Puck that!
The one plus side to AP tests: they made real college courses seem like pie. And cake. Wait the teacher teaches you the material that will be on the test?! Are you sure that isn't cheating? Wait there is not just one huge 3 hour test that proves you didn't waste an entire years worth of your time? Intriguing. What a novel approach to learning.
The apes who write these tests should be stripped of their academic credentials. Better yet they should have the tests administered to them for their jobs. I would like to see them recall random dates and names from the oceans of facts in U.S. history.
Oh and don't get me started on DBQs. Document based questions? Yeah that's real objective. How about I throw a random document at you and then watch you squirm as you try to BS on something you have no context for nor background nor research. But what do you expect from a bunch of chimps in mortar boards.
Yeah, hopefully you'll never want to go to grad school because the GRE is the biggest waste of time: learning lots and lots of math and memorizing tons and tons of words, hoping those math problems and those vocab words on are the actual test.
ReplyDeleteYeah that's why I never wanted to take the SATs. They're stupid too. When are they gonna do away with these things?
ReplyDeleteI think the US history test is one of the worst. It was the least objective of the several I took (besides maybe English), and the one I did the worst on.
ReplyDeleteHey hey! Easy on the "Puck that!" commentary. Didn't that kind of behavior get you banned from Wikipedia once?
ReplyDeletemy history teacher is actually good. and although it's really hard, she made it fun. maybe you just had horrible teachers.
ReplyDeleteArnold, yes I did get banned from Wiki for that. Puck them.
ReplyDeleteKristina, you missed the point. I love my class and the teacher. But the test and the AP system is still poorly run. When I was in high school I also took college classes at the local junior college. Those classes were easier and transferred easier than AP credits.