2013 AP Psych Exam Results for Chi-Hi

Hats off to the AP Psych class of 2013, who took no prisoners on this year's AP Psychology Examination! Like all of my students, I had to patiently wait for this year's scores to be released in early July, and I am just now getting around to sharing what I can about our aggregate results.

I will admit that having to be gone during the 4th quarter for my internship had me nervously fretting about whether my students were continuing their studies with due diligence. As it turns out, they did not disappoint. In fact, this year's AP Psych pass rates are the highest of any Chi-Hi AP Psych classes for which I have data available (FYI: I began teaching AP Psych during the 2005-06 school year and have records from as far back as 2003).

This chart is based on the data that I have available from previously released score reports. Note also that this chart does not reflect the raw numbers of students who passed the test. 

Some highlights:

• 95% of this year's test takers (77 of 81) scored a 3 or higher. Scores of 3 and above are considered passing scores.
• The average score for the group was 4.086
• 34 students earned 5's, a top score on the test!
• 75% of test takers (60 students) earned 4's or 5's!
• Although, as a group, the class did better than the global average on the Multiple Choice section of the test (our group averaged 74 correct answers while the global mean was 66), where we really shined was the Free-Response Section. 58% of our students scored in the top quartile on the Free Response Section, with performance especially strong on Question 2, which concerned research methods.

While I know students sometimes claim luck in getting "good" questions--and this year's FRQs were "good" to us in the sense that they did not include terms and concepts not addressed in our text--these results reflect more than luck. They are evidence of a LOT of hard work from the AP Psych class of 2013, and that is to be commended.

These scores also set the bar high for next year's AP Psych classes, who will be picking up their textbooks in less than a month. I'm optimistic that they will rise to the challenge, and I'm anxious to join them once my internship ends in mid-September!

Congrats, AP Psych Class of 2013! Well done.