Following the publication of this post after this years AP exam, I wanted to follow-up, now that a little more information is in the public domain.
Yesterday, as part of the latest Dog & Pony show tactics, The College Board asked teachers for their input on what students should score on the free response questions if they were ‘just’ a ‘5’ student, and if they were ‘just’ a ‘3’ student. As part of that process, teachers were given access to the first draft (what they labeled as, Version 1.0) of the official scoring standards for 2014*.
Having checked Version 1.0 of the scoring standards against my own answers, I feel confident that all of my original answers are correct, and that depending on interpretations they would full credit. Having seen the College Board answers, I stand by my original assertion that I would HATE to be grading some parts of this years exam, not least of all question 5(d) which apparently will leave the door wide open for almost ANY answer to score full credit. In a way I suppose that makes the grading of 5(d) easier (in as much as almost any answer will get credit), but for me the question is a HORRIBLE one. Here’s the CB’s Version 1.0 answer for 5(d);
Version 1.0 Scoring Standard for 5(d) 2014
*One should bear in mind that the scoring standards that we saw were not only in their first draft phase, they are also being viewed before they have been subjected to a serious once over at the AP chemistry reading, and that even after that process the official scoring standards do NOT necessarily reflect/include all the answers that would score full credit on any given question (i.e., there are very often alternative answers that score full credit in addition to the ones that appear in the official scoring standards).
I feel that these people are trying to create a test that is outrageous and not in accord with basic chemistry being taught. It seems like they are presenting questions to confuse and show their own self-guided superiority. This makes me question whether I really want to teach AP Chemistry after all. I don’t feel like I should set these students up to fail an already ridiculously convoluted test that is above their own capacity as it is.