Grading in AP Physics was one of my biggest initial challenges when I began teaching the course. I got ideas from a lot of AP teachers, but I tried to come up with my own system based on their feedback.
I try to give my students only AP style quizzes and tests. They between using released questions, old AP Physics B questions, and questions I wrote. I get asked a lot how to grade these. Basically, my rationale is that a student’s test average should be indicative of their performance on the AP national exam.
Here is the data I know: when grading AP Physics 1 and 2, the 2015 and 2016 IPE have composite score ranges. However this is from the released exams only, and I feel these score ranges are fairly low compared to the operational exam.
AP Physics 1:
| Score | 2015 Range | 2016 Range |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | 51-80 | 57-80 |
| 4 | 39-50 | 43-56 |
| 3 | 29-38 | 31-42 |
| 2 | 20-28 | 20-30 |
| 1 | 0-19 | 0-19 |
AP Physics 2:
| Score | 2015 Range | 2016 Range |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | 59-80 | 54-80 |
| 4 | 49-58 | 44-53 |
| 3 | 34-48 | 30-43 |
| 2 | 19-33 | 18-29 |
| 1 | 0-18 | 0-17 |
As you see, this does vary from year to year and exam to exam. I err on the high side. I extrapolate their grades from a graph, correlating an A to a 5, B to a 4, and so on. However, note that this is for their summative assessments only – students can still earn a higher grade from things like homework, labs, etc.
When looking online, I found several websites with their own score calculator. Albert.io is one resource that has this. It’s hard to know the accuracy of these resources, but it is good to get a general idea. However, I love Albert.io’s practice questions – check out my review of them here.
When it comes to actually grading tests, I try my best to score similar to the AP exam – no “just because you wrote something” points and MC/FRQ equally weighted on tests. I feel that this gives students realistic expectations.
