AP is the abbreviation of Advanced Placement, and Chinese is generally translated into American college preparatory course and American college preparatory course. Refers to university courses provided by university committees and taught in high schools. American high school students can take these courses, take AP exams after completing the courses, and get college credits after obtaining certain results. Generally, it costs thousands of dollars to attend college courses, and only 82 yuan to take AP exams. Therefore, taking AP course can not only show students' ability, but also save money.
There are 37 subjects in 22 categories in American high school AP courses, which have been widely offered in more than 5000 high schools in the United States/KLOC-0. High school students can be exposed to college courses in advance, avoiding the repetition of courses in high school and junior college.
AP test scores are scored on a 5-point scale, and candidates can get 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 points. Generally, credits can be exchanged for grades above three points in universities, but there are many special cases. Some famous universities accept the standard of more than four points or five points, while others do not accept AP scores.
At present, nearly 3,600 universities in more than 40 countries have recognized AP credits as their admission reference standards and the university credits added by exams for candidates, including Harvard, Yale, Oxford, Cambridge and other world-renowned universities.
The AP exam is held in May every year and has been offered in 80 countries around the world.
AP scores have become an important basis for admission to American universities. According to a nationwide survey conducted by the American College Admissions Advisory Committee, because American universities have generally regarded students' performance in the AP test as the basis for measuring their competence in university study, AP test scores have become one of the most important considerations for admission to many universities.
AP courses that pass the exam can be counted into college credits, reduce college courses, help students shorten college hours and skip grades, and save high college tuition. More importantly, according to statistics, high school students with excellent AP test scores will have better performance and development in their future university studies. American universities have regarded AP scores as an important indicator to measure students' learning and research ability and their ability to cope with difficult courses in universities. Students who take AP exams with many subjects and high scores are particularly valued by famous American schools. Britain, Canada, Australia and other countries also regard this as one of the main conditions for granting scholarships.
2 the origin of AP
The AP project was started by Ford Foundation in 195 1 year. 1955, the American College Board took over the management, and the AP exam was held for the first time the following year. At that time, the examination course was only 1 1. 1958 American university boards invested a lot of human and financial resources to train teachers, and then vigorously trained teachers during the summer vacation of 10. In the 1960s and 1970s, the American College Board devoted itself to extending this expensive course to students from low-income families, attending classes in a school in Virginia that trained African-American veterans of World War II, and showing AP course teaching films on new york Public Television. In the next two or three decades, AP courses were continuously supplemented until the current 34 examination courses were formed.
3 AP exam status quo
According to the annual report of the American College Board, 1999, 493,263 students took the AP exam of 76788 1, and in 2003, the number of students took the AP exam exceeded 1 10,000,65438 * *.
In the past six years, the number of people taking the exam has increased by more than 10% annually, and the number of people taking the exam has increased by more than 12% annually. In May, 2003, 65,438+04.3% of the candidates who took AP exams in the United States, that is, 65,438+045,600 students, won different honorary titles and certificates because they passed more than three AP exams. Among them, 33,435 people took five exams, with an average score of over 3.5, and won the AP Outstanding Scholar Award.
The most incredible thing is that in May 2003, 265,438+057 students took more than 8 AP exams, with an average score of over 4! They were awarded the highest honor of AP National Scholar Award. Middle school students have to take AP exams more than 8 times a year, and their academic burden far exceeds that of most top university students.
The annual report of American College Board)2002 listed the top 200 universities with the highest AP scores in the United States, and the University of Texas in Austin topped the list. * * * 8,603 candidates submitted 27,488 test scores to the university, with an average of 3.2 points per person. The top schools are UCLA (6,605 students/24,569 schools), UC Berkeley (5,538 students/22,920 schools), University of Florida (654 1 student /22 145 schools) and UC San Diego (4,980 students//)
As for the top universities, each student submits more exams. 1 150 students submit 569 1 grades to Yale university, with an average of 4.95 courses per student; Other schools are: Swarthmore College 4.738, Columbia University 4.692, Dartmouth College 4.688, Williams College 4.64, Princeton University 4.63, University of Pennsylvania 4.605, Pomona College 4.438 and California Institute of Technology 4.4.
Among these 200 universities, the vast majority are very good universities, but some of them are listed as three categories by American News and World Report. In these three types of universities, each student also submitted nearly two AP scores on average.
With the increase of AP candidates, AP training institutions are gradually increasing. Among them, Beijing New Oriental English School is one of the earliest institutions to carry out AP training in China. It has the most advanced and perfect teaching and research system, the fastest and most direct test center research, and accurately grasps the test direction. All elite teachers above doctoral level adhere to the college-style English education environment. All textbooks use the original authoritative official guide. You can easily get high AP scores, increase admission chips, save tuition fees in American universities, and advance the future time. Select five AP courses that are easy for China students to pass, teach them intensively, and make a collective breakthrough.
4 the difficulty of AP exam
AP courses and exams are subject exams rather than TOEFL language exams. Biology, calculus, chemistry, economics, psychology, history, etc. AP exam is a freshman course, but foreign language course is not. According to the AP course and examination manual published by the American University Council, courses such as French, Spanish, Spanish literature, German and French literature require students to complete "courses equivalent to three years and six semesters of university". From this, we can imagine the difficulty of these courses.
Take the Spanish AP exam as an example. The exam consists of four parts: listening, speaking, reading and writing. The examination time is 3 hours. Among them, listening accounts for 20%, reading accounts for 30%, writing accounts for 30%, and speaking accounts for 20%. Listening is divided into three parts: the first part answers three questions after listening to six dialogues; The second part, after listening to a speech of about 120 words, answer three multiple-choice questions; The third part is the most difficult. Candidates should listen to two 5-minute speeches before answering questions. Even candidates with good listening skills generally can't remember such a long speech.
Reading part: ① Read two short passages and solve problems. Grammar correction.
Writing: ① 10 choose 1 fill in the words, which has two paragraphs. Write a composition of more than 200 words.
Oral English is also divided into two parts: the first part is to read a set of six comic books, with only 2 minutes to prepare ideas. Then, the examinee must tell the whole story in Spanish within 2 minutes. In addition to the main content of each picture, it also requires reasonable structure, accurate words, smooth narration and standard pronunciation. The oral test is completed with a tape recorder, and the examinee's narrative is recorded on the tape. The second part is to answer questions, recorded on tape in advance and played twice without interruption. When answering questions, candidates are required to think thoroughly, express clearly and fluently, use appropriate words and pronounce accurately. It is also required to maximize the use of tape space (20 seconds).
The requirements of the Spanish literature examination are even higher. Examination time 190 minutes, divided into reading analysis questions (accounting for 40%, 80 minutes) and free answering questions (accounting for 60%, 1 10 minutes). The examination covers a wide range and may involve hundreds of literary works. In the second part, you will write three papers for the free answer. First, analyze a poem; Second, analyze a literary work or compare two writers; Third, the analysis of excerpts, critical analysis of excerpts. All compositions are required to be written in Spanish. According to the official reference manual published by the American University Council, the reference number of this exam is about 100 writers. So it can be said that the scope of preparation is very large. Perhaps there is no scope at all, and students rely entirely on the long-term accumulation of "foundation".
5 AP preparation materials
Through years of teaching experience, the North American Project Department of Beijing New Oriental School recommends the following preparation materials:
1. exam description ("AP- Calculus-Course-Description 2010-201"). Exam Instructions is listed as a required reading for candidates, because there is everything that candidates want to know, not only the exam outline, but also sample questions and grading demonstrations. Therefore, before preparing for the exam and before the exam, we should focus on the exam instructions. When we choose any counseling book, the first criterion is whether the book is written according to the requirements of the outline and whether it contains most of the test sites. You need to review the outline before the exam to ensure that you don't miss it;
2. All the sample questions of AP official website's free Q&A, and several hot questions of AP online bookstore. For example: 10' s 2008 AP Calculus BC exam package and 2008 AP Calculus AB and AP Calculus BC release exams;
3. Choose a counseling book that suits you. Recommended textbooks published by Princeton, Barron and Peterson. It should be noted that Peterson's textbook contains the content of how to use a calculator.
Advantages of 6 AP courses
AP course AP course fully conforms to the enrollment concept and material selection thinking mode of first-class universities in the United States, which is manifested in:
First, improve the GPA score. The average score of each AP course can improve GPA by 0. 1. And GPA is precisely the first consideration when enrolling students in the top universities in the United States. GPA is the embodiment of the comprehensive learning ability of senior high school students.
Second, the best proof of students' learning ability and future development potential. In the United States, students who choose to take AP courses first pass honor courses, while students who want to enter honor courses must pass ordinary courses first. Therefore, students who can participate in AP courses are already the embodiment of excellent students, and they have sufficient learning ability. Because students must consider the major direction of future universities in the process of choosing 37 AP courses with university difficulty, first-class universities can fully judge and affirm whether students are fully prepared and successfully grasp the future major development direction from the courses selected by students.
Third, believing that students dare to challenge academic difficulties and make clear the direction of academic development is the most important indicator of top universities in the United States. Because AP course is the content of American freshmen, it is more difficult than middle school. Therefore, it is easy for first-class universities to judge students' confidence and ability to challenge difficulties from whether they take AP or not and how many courses they have taken during middle school.
Fourth, you can change your college credits for graduating from college early or learning more other majors and courses that you are interested in. More than 90% colleges and universities in the United States and Canada accept AP exams and grant university credits. If you complete a certain number of AP course credits in middle school, it means that you can graduate one or two years in advance. In the United States, it costs about $65,438+0,000 to get university credits from famous schools, while an AP course can reach about three to six university credits. Therefore, any AP course that China students take may be converted into three to six credits, or 3000 to 6000 dollars.
There are 2 million high school graduates in the United States every year, and they all take the SAT and AP courses in the American college entrance examination. Primary education in the United States is free, while higher education is charged. American high school students will complete the SAT in grade 1 1, and in grade 12, the last year of high school, they will do two major things. First, apply for universities and scholarships according to SAT scores; Second, attend and prepare for AP courses and exams. The purpose of the exam is to use the free education time in the last year of high school to complete some credit courses and exams in American universities in advance. Otherwise, you will have to pay high tuition fees to complete the same courses and credits at the university level. In other words, AP courses and exams can reduce college credits, reduce the cost of college education and shorten the time of college education for high school students. In addition, for China students who study this course, they can not only get American university credits, save time and money, but also solve the problem that American freshman course is difficult to adapt in China in advance.