Midterms and Tuesday's HW

Midterm scores are in! There was an error in the initial scoring of the exams; all scores have been corrected and are in the grade book. Your score may have changed from last night, so check again! 

Tuesday night's homework is at the bottom of this post; do it this weekend! It might be a bigger homework for just Tuesday night!

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Back to the midterm...here's how I arrived at your grades. First, I graded each person's exam and found the raw score--that is, I found the % of multiple choice you answered correctly and the % (of 20) possible free response points you earned. I then found the average of these two scores to get your overall "raw score." This data is shown below...

Next, I had to convert the raw scores to a projected/predicted AP exam score. For instance, on the AP exam, if you answer 50% of the exam correctly, you will definitely earn a 3. Each year these "cut score" fluctuate, depending on the difficulty of the exam. I used past cut scores, as well as the distribution of scores on last year's exam, to arrive at these cut scores for our test:

Next, I took all of the raw scores and listed them in order. I used the cut scores to establish who would have an A/5, a B/4, etc. Then, within each letter grade (A,B,C..) I converted the raw score to a midterm exam score. So, if you earned a B on the exam, that's projected to be a 4 on an AP exam...if you scored a D, that's a projected 2, and so on... (You can use this list to go backwards from your exam score (online) to see what your actual raw score was). 

Ultimately, we did ok. Some of us did well, others could have done better. I took away these things from this exam:

1. Many of us underachieved. I believe this is due to a lack of preparation (studying). For instance, many A students in period D earned C's (3's) on the midterm. Or, in period E, too many students earned 1's and 2's. This underachievement is 100% based on preparation. To succeed on the AP exam it's all about how you study.
2. We're in a good spot. Although I feel many of us could have done better, we're in a pretty good spot. We did ok on this.
3. There is still a lot of work to be done. Just because you earned an A on the midterm, that does not guarantee you a 5 on the AP exam--we still have a lot to learn, and the test in May will have more/different questions. Similarly, if you earned a D (2), that doesn't mean you will do so in May. Maybe you'll really like and be really good at the new stuff we learn, and you will improve your score in May.
4. We have the potential to have the highest % of students passing the AP Stat exam in the history of EHHS. This can occur IF we continue to work hard and IF we put a significant amount of time and effort into preparing for the AP exam (outside of class).

(And when I say "we," that includes me as well. I also have to work hard, to prepare more outside of class, and to continue to grow and learn to help us all dominate this AP exam in May.)

Here's the overall data for the projected AP scores, both by class and overall:

New unit on Tuesday! Be ready...it's a new quarter, a fresh start, new seats...come with a positive attitude and be ready to work! Enjoy your long weekend!

If you don't want to have any homework Tuesday night, do it this weekend! Your homework is to use your textbook to answer each of the following: