Remember AP tests?

For my first blog post, I wasn't really sure what I wanted to write about. I ended up googling "education," and I'm sure you know the wormhole that can lead you into. Eventually, I stumbled upon this article on AP testing. The article from the Education section of the NY Times is called "Rethinking Advanced Placement," by Christopher Drew, and discusses some upcoming changes in the way AP classes will operate.

I'm pretty familiar with the current process that is an AP class. I took seven of them in high school. I felt like the way they worked was perfect. A teacher submits a syllabus to have it approved as an AP level course, teaches that course, and at the end of the year, students are subjected to an extremely rigorous test in that subject. It is my opinion that the test should not be one that any student can pass, but it should be one that truly tests mastery of the subject.
The changes that the College Board are proposing aim to help teachers guide students to mastery of the subject, but I'm not so sure I agree that they reach that goal. Instead of having teachers responsible for creating a course framework for AP classes, the College Board is spelling out exactly what needs to be taught and, more or less, how. The article talked more specifically about AP Bio, which I know was a daunting course for many students. Drew discusses how AP Bio teachers usually end up teaching to the test, but fall short because of the massive amount of information that needs to be processed. I hope that the tools the College Board comes out with to assist teachers helps them avoid teaching to the test, but I don't see that as a likely outcome. It will be interesting to see what these revisions mean for AP Bio students, as well as future revisions to other tests.

Do you guys have good memories of AP tests? How did your classes work? Did you participate in the IB program instead? Let me know what you think!