by Jatzia Gilzean-Colon
The College Board has made some new changes to the Advanced Placement tests this year, many of which will be taken at Woodbridge High School. Classes subject to these changes will be faced with a more rigorous test this April, with new kinds of questions and objectives.
The new test is 15 minutes longer, favoring writing and document-based questions over factual content. According to AP Macroeconomics teacher Mr. Sacco, “[The test] focuses on a list of critical thinking skills with topics such as patterns of continuity and change over time, contextualization, and the appropriate use of relevant historical evidence.”
Sacco, who has taught Macroeconomics for seven years, said this is the first time the test has changed during his time instructing the course. “They are [aligning the test to] the Common Core, which is based on what they are doing in college and has become the new national standard,” he said.
To prepare his class for the changes, Mr. Sacco will expose the students to the few sample questions he has received from the College Board, and when the tests come back in July, Sacco hopes to build upon his study material for his future AP Macroeconomic classes. However, AP Microeconomics is not the only class to experience changes.
Ms. Tolentino, who teaches AP Chemistry, described the new test as more “conceptually based,” rather than knowing the mechanics. “[The College Board has] found that students would get high scores by just being good at math and memorizing the algorithms without fully understanding the concepts,” Tolentino said.
The test centers around a few new major ideas: deeper conceptual understanding, real life application, and the push to get students to think and work like scientists. “Instead of following procedural experiments, students are now expected to design their own experiments when investigating a given problem. Students are also expected to critique each other’s work through peer reviews, much like real world science communities,” Tolentino said.
Because this is the second year of the new testing, Mrs. Tolentino was able to receive at least the open ended questions for last year’s test. With this information and the few sample questions that the College Board has released, Mrs. Tolentino plans to prepare her students for the demanding and challenging questions this new test has to offer, beginning with a revamped syllabus and emphasis on research projects, individual experiments, and added reliance on technology to get data for analysis.
As the College Board tweaks the AP tests to meet national standards, students should expect positive changes that will help prepare them for the world outside of Woodbridge High, whether that be a career or enrollment in college.
The Barron Perspective would like to wish the best of luck to all students taking the AP tests this spring.
