Thursday, March 4, 2021 - 8:42 am
Participation in Advanced Placement exams remained incredibly high at MHS in 2020.
More than 850 juniors and seniors took a total of 1,242 AP exams in 2020 at MHS, said Jessica Ripp, the administrative assistant at MHS in charge of data and assessment. In 2012, there were 471 students who took 766 exams.
Wisconsin's public and private school graduates took nearly 69,000 AP exams in 2020.
MHS offers 30 Advanced Placement courses. The most popular AP exams at MHS in 2020 were psychology (324 exams), English language and composition (205 exams), and Calculus AB (193 exams), Ripp said. The most popular AP exams among all Wisconsin students were psychology (8,921), English language and composition (7,781), and U.S. history (5,937).
The College Board’s national report showed 26 percent of Wisconsin’s Class of 2020 scored a three or higher on a five-point scale on AP exams during high school. The report ranks Wisconsin 11th among all states in that category, with 24.4 percent being the national average. While Wisconsin Class of 2020 data indicated a slight decrease from the previous year of students scoring a three or higher on AP exams (26.2 percent), it represents a growth of 8.1 percentage points from the Class of 2010 (17.9 percent).
Wisconsin public and private high school students earned 51,793 AP qualifying scores of 3, 4, or 5 in 2020. These scores translate into 155,379 potential college credits, a potential tuition and fee savings of $47,235,216.
Approximately 79 percent of MHS students who took AP exams scored a 3 or higher on the tests. Of the 1,242 AP exams taken at MHS in 2020, 747 had a score of 3 or higher.
Advanced Placement is a high school academic program with exams offered in 38 subject areas that culminate in college-level assessments. Exams are graded on a scale of 1 to 5. According to the College Board, earning a score of three or higher on an AP exam is a good predictor of a student’s ability to succeed in college academic studies and graduate.
A score of 3-5 also typically qualifies students for credit or advanced standing at most colleges and universities.