Ambitious college-bound U.S. high school students continue to have a deep aversion to math and science, according to my reading of the latest Advanced Placement (AP) test data released by the College Board on February 11, 2014. In this table I compiled of the top 10 subjects, only Calculus AB (the easier of the two math tests) makes it into the top five. Physics and computer science aren’t in the running.
10 Most Popular AP Exams for the Class of 2013
AP Subject |
Total Number of Exams Taken by the Class of 2013 During High School |
3+ (“qualified” in subject) |
5 (top score) |
|
1 |
English Language and Composition |
390,754 |
57.6% |
9.8% |
2 |
United States History |
366,641 |
52.1% |
10.5% |
3 |
English Literature and Composition |
325,108 |
55% |
6.8% |
4 |
Calculus AB |
223,444 |
57.7% |
22.6% |
5 |
United States Government and Politics |
216,944 |
50.5% |
11.1% |
6 |
Psychology |
199,222 |
66% |
20.3% |
7 |
World History |
175,065 |
47.2% |
8.3% |
8 |
Biology |
162,381 |
55.6% |
12.7% |
9 |
Statistics |
141,335 |
56.9% |
12% |
10 |
Chemistry |
107,431 |
54.5% |
15.7% |
It’s relatively hard to get a 5 in these popular subjects, except for calculus and psychology, in which more than a fifth of the test takers do. I wonder if that’s because these English and history exams are harder? Or is it that a broader range of students is attempting these “softer” subjects?
For the fun of it, I made a table of the least popular AP subjects and, not surprisingly, foreign languages dominate. I was surprised that only one science class (Physics) was among them. What really pops out, however, are the crazy high scores for Chinese. More than 70% of the test takers are getting 5’s. Wowza! Generally, the scores are higher for these less popular exams.
10 Least Popular AP Exams for the Class of 2013
AP Subject |
Total Number of Exams Taken by the Class of 2013 During High School |
3+ (“qualified” in subject) |
5 (top score) |
|
1 |
Japanese Language and Culture |
1,477 |
71.9% |
38.2% |
2 |
Italian Language and Culture |
1,495 |
68% |
13.6% |
3 |
Studio Art: 3-D Design |
3,261 |
65.7% |
10.1% |
4 |
Latin |
3,545 |
58.5% |
12.9% |
5 |
German Language and Culture |
4,152 |
74.1% |
18.9% |
6 |
Chinese Language and Culture |
5,684 |
94.6% |
70.1% |
7 |
Studio Art: Drawing |
13,098 |
77.5% |
14.8% |
8 |
Physics C: Electricity and Magnetism |
14,045 |
67.4% |
27.9% |
9 |
French Language and Culture |
14,121 |
73.3% |
14.2% |
10 |
Spanish Literature and Culture |
15,249 |
68% |
8.9% |
I drilled a bit deeper into the College Board’s report on the Chinese language subject test and learned that 90.8% of the test takers are “Asian, Asian-American or Pacific Islander.” Presumably, many of these students speak some Mandarin at home. For students who end up going to colleges that grant credits for high AP scores, that’s a clever way to reduce college costs. The College Board has a searchable database on what every college and university’s AP credit policy is. I was surprised to see that even Harvard will let you save tuition if you get a 5 on at least four AP tests. (Check the fine print. Harvard docks some AP tests by half.)
Overall, the College Board is very successful in getting more students to take AP exams. Despite criticism of the curriculum, there seems to be no slow down to the proliferation of AP courses. Total AP exams taken have more than doubled in the past decade to 3.2 million by the high school class of 2013. The high school class of 2003 took a total of 1.3 million exams. Even in the past year, the number of exams has increased 10 percent from 2.9 million exams taken by the high school class of 2012.
