I
Ronald 0. Ragsdale, Franklin L. McKean, and Michael M. Christiansen University of Utah Salt Lake City, 8 4 1 1 2
AP Chemistry Students-What,
will counsel themselves and take what thev think they should. In order to alleviate some of the conceris of our colleagues, 300 AP chemwe have studied the results of aporoximately -. istry students, who received 3,4, or 5 on thenational examination. The distribution in percent of the AP chemistry students from 1964-1974 who started in A (advanced chemistry classes either organic 331 or analytical 270), B (hasic chemistry 121 or 221). or N (took no chemistry a t the University) is shown in able 2. Some of the fluctuations in the percentages can be attributed to new chemistry counselors (they change every year) who adopted different counselling approaches for the AP students. At Utah 20% of the AP students become chemistry or chemical engineering majors, 40% become science or engineering- majors, and the remaining 40% distribute them&es elsewhere in the Universitv. - How have the AP students i d chemistry compared with other students taking chemistry classes? Did AP students who started with the advanced chemistry courses do as well as those who started in the basic courses? The results for every chemistry class taken by AP students who received 3,4, or 5 (those who were granted college credit) from 1964-1974 are given in Table 3. It is not surprising that the AP students have outperformed the average student in chemistry class since it has been documented that AP students are definitely better than the average student.2.3 But how can we account for the fact that the grade point average of the AP students wha started in advanced chemistry was higher than those who started in the basic classes? In Table 4 a correlation between
The Advanced Placement Program, Al', is a cooperative educational endeavor of the Colleee Entrance Examination Board, CEEB. The AP Program is based on the fact that many young people can complete college-level studies in their secondary schools, and i t represents a desire of schools and colleees to foster such exoeriences. Advanced Placement serves three groups: students who wish u,p m u e college-level studies while in hiah school, schools that desire LO offer these students this oppo&unity, and colleges that wish to encourage and recognize such achievement. A description of a college-level course' is provided to interest schools. Every May interested students take a national AP examination and these results are provided to colleges of the student's choice. About 2000 colleges,' in turn, grant credit and appropriate placement, or one of these, to students who have done well on the examinations. Presently, 16%of the high schools -~~ in the US offer AP examinations. whereas 42'hof the ..--..-high schools in Utah have AP programs; and as a result the University of Utah is a recipient of a large number of AP students. The number of students who take the AP Chemistry Examination has increased greatly the past two years. The growth of this program is shown in the figure. In Table 1are listed the 15 universities and colleges who have received the l a r ~ e snumber t of AP chemistry students. The number rece&ed by these institutions is shown for 1976 and 1974. A question arises as to what a chemistry department or university should do with these students. At Utah it is a simple solution, if the students do not take any chemistry, as the registrar automatically records 12 quarter hours of college credit for scores 3,4, and 5 on the AP examination. But what do we do if a student wants to take more chemistrv? Some of our colleagues feel that the AP students shouid take the honors freshman seauence and othen will consider enrollment in the sophomore oiganic course if the student scored either a 4 or 5 on the national examination. A few of the AP students ~~~~
~~~~~~
~
~
~
Presented in part at the l73rd American Chemical Society National Meeting, New Orleans, March 21-25, 1977. 1 ''Advanced Placement Course Description: Chemistry," College Entrance Examination Board, Princeton, New Jersey, 1978. 2 Burbacher, P. W., "A Study of the Effects of the College Entranet Examination Bawd AP Program Upon Student Academic Experiences," PhD Thesis, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan University Microfilms, No. 67-17.737.1967. 3 Fry, D. E., "A Comparison of the College Performance in Calcu. lus-Level Mathematia Courses Between Regular-Progress Studentr and AP Students," PhD Thesis, Temple University, Ann Arbor Michigan: University Microfilms, No. 73-23,333,1973.
~
Table 1. AP Chmmlstry Students Enrotllng at the Flneen Schools wNh the Largest Numkrs In 1974 and 1976. 1976
1974
131 127 105 102 97 97 66 76
117 83 66 77 78 72 55 64
Mll
lliinols Cwnell Harvard Nwthwestern RPI
Michlgn Princeton
1976
1974
63 59 57 50 49 46 43
45 41 32 30 36 40 35
Where,
Yale Utah
Pennsylvania Calitornia (Berkeley) Dartmouth Colorado
Table 3. Chemistry Grade Point Averages-1964-1974 All Chemistry Classes (1969-1976) AP Students:A (stanlng In advanced classes) AP Students: B (starting in basic classes)
Duke
2.5 3.46 3.22
Table 2. Percent Dlstrlbutlon of Enterlng AP Chemldry Students
A. Bb
NC
64
65
88
67
66
89
70
71
72
73
74
Ave.
NO. Of Students
59 12 29
5 80 15
-
13 63 24
35 57 6
19 48 33
24 59 17
32 55 13
22 39 39
24 48 26
9 68 23
25 52 23
66 145 64
89 11
= Advencsd Chemlsvy. Organic 331. or Analytical 270.
" @ & o C h e m i S ~ . C h B m 1 6 ~121.M221. r = No chemlsny comes taken at me University.
Volume 55, Number 4, April 1978 1 253
Table 4. AP Chemistry Examlnatlon Averages AP Students: A (starting in advanced classes) AP Students: B (starting In bask classes) AP Students: N (took no chemisby)
3.7 3.3 3.5
Table 5. Overall Grade Polnt Averages ol Chemiatq Majors and Unlverslty Students-1970-1974 Non-AP Chemistw MaJors AP Chemisby Majors University: Freshman Sophomores Juniors Seniors
Numbsrof W n t a who have taken he Natiaral AP Chemisby Examination h m 1963-1976. the AP chemistry examination averages is given. From this table it can be seen that on the whole the better prepared students elected to start in the advanced courses. How have the AP students who majored in chemistry compared with non-AP chemistry majors? The G.P.A. for all classes taken by these students isgiven in Table 5along with the University averages for the years 1970-1974. For those who haye followed the performances of AP studenh i t is not surprising that on the average they make the best chemistry majors. Perhaps one weakness of the AP chemistry progzam in the high school is the laboratory experience that many of the &dents receive. This many timesis a consequence of the time limitation of one-hour lahoratory and the lack of instrumen-
254 1 Journal of Chemical Education
3.19 3.56 2.51 2.78 2.88
3.04
tation. T o help strengthen this aspect and to facilitate the recruiting of AP students, we have instigated a cooperative University-High School AP lab program. Students in this program come to the University for 12 four-how labs. The instruction is carried out iointlv bv both high school and university personnel. 0ne7hundredand ten students have participated in this program in the past two years. This effort has been funded again for this next year. The conclusions that we reach from our experiences with AP students are the following Enthwiaatidy encoumge AP students who score 4 or 5 on the AP to start in an advanced course. For students who score 3, give them the option of starting in either an advanced course or the hasic course. Let the student make the final decision, but encourage the student to start in the advanced course and make the final decision after a week or so. This advice is given for two reasons: many good students tend to overestimate the sophisticationof college studies, and it is much easier to drop back then to jump ahead in such C9888.
(3) we~kantAP students at the University of Utah, so we want
them to know that they will be treated fairly.
