AP Statistics

Some additional information

q The AP Statistics Exam: Scheduled for Tuesday, May 4, 2010

q College AP Score Requirements for Credit

Colleges and universities around the nation require different scores on the AP exam in order to earn credit. Typically, a score of 3 is considered passing and is worthy of college credit. Some schools, however, will require a 4 or a 5. I would highly recommend visiting the website of the college or university you plan to attend in order to determine what score will be necessary for you to earn the credit.

q Graphing Calculator Help: A helpful on-line resource for graphing calculator “how to’s.”

www.prenhall.com/divisions/esm/app/calc_v2/index_2.html

q AP Exam Calculator Policy

Students are expected to bring a graphing calculator with statistical capabilities to the exam, and to be familiar with its use. The calculator's computational capabilities should include standard statistical univariate and bivariate summaries through linear regression. Graphical capabilities should include common univariate and bivariate displays such as histograms, boxplots, and scatterplots.

Calculator memories do not have to be cleared; however, calculator memories may be used only for storing programs, not for storing notes.

Minicomputers, electronic writing pads or pen input devices (Newton, Palm), pocket organizers, models with QWERTY [i.e., typewriter keyboards (TI-92 and HP-95)], models with paper tapes, models that make noise or "talk," and models that require an electrical outlet are not allowed, but most graphing calculators that are on the market are acceptable.

Non-graphing scientific calculators are permitted only if they have the statistics computational capabilities described in the AP Statistics Course Description.

Each student may bring up to two calculators to the exam.

Use of Graphing Calculators on the Exam

On the AP Examination, the graphing calculator serves as a computational and graphical analysis tool in much the same way that statistical analysis software packages serve as tools for practicing statisticians. It is therefore not only inappropriate, but unethical, for students who are taking the AP Statistics Examination to have access to any information in their graphing calculators or elsewhere that is not directly related to upgrading the statistical functionality of older graphing calculators to make them comparable to statistical features found on newer models.

Acceptable upgrades include improving the calculator's computational functionalities and/or graphical functionalities for data that students key into the calculator while taking the examination.

Unacceptable enhancements include, but are not limited to, keying or scanning text or response templates into the calculator. Students attempting to augment the capabilities of their graphing calculators in any way other than for the purpose of upgrading features as described above will be considered to be cheating on the examination.

q AP Exam Content:

The exam is three hours long and covers a one-semester introductory non-calculus-based college course in statistics. In Section I of the exam, students are given 90 minutes to answer 40 multiple-choice questions on a wide variety of topics. In Section II, they must answer several free-response questions; each exam contains four to seven open-ended questions designed to be answered in about 10 minutes each, and a longer investigative task for which 30 minutes is allotted. The following major topics are covered: exploring data; planning a study (deciding what and how to measure); anticipating patterns (using probability and simulation); and statistical inference (confirming models).