6 ❯ STEP 1. Set Up Your Study Program
How Is the Multiple-Choice Section Scored?
The scan sheet with your answers is run through a computer that counts the number of
correct answers. Questions left blank and questions answered incorrectly are treated the
same and get no points. There is no longer a “guessing penalty,” which formerly involved
the deduction of a fraction of a point for answering a question but getting it wrong.How Is My Essay Section Scored?
Each of your essays is read by a different, trained AP reader called a “faculty consultant.”
The AP/College Board people have developed a highly successful training program for its
readers, together with many opportunities for checks and double checks of essays to ensure
a fair and equitable reading of each essay.
The scoring guides are carefully developed by the chief faculty con sultant, question
leader, table leaders, and content experts. All faculty consultants are then trained to read
and score just one essay question on the exam. They become experts in that one essay
question. No one knows the identity of any writer. The identification numbers and names
are covered, and the exam booklets are randomly distributed to the readers in packets of
25 randomly chosen essays. Table leaders and the question leader review samples of each
reader’s scores to ensure quality standards are constant.
Each essay is scored as 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, or 1, plus 0, with 9 the highest possible score.
Once your essay is rated from 9 to 1, the next set of calculations is completed. Here, if there
are 27 possible points divided into 55% of the total possible score, each point awarded is
given a value of 3.055. The formula would look something like this:
(pts. × 3.055) + (pts. × 3.055) + (pts. × 3.055) = essay raw score
Essay 1 Essay 2 Essay 3How Do They Calculate My Composite Score?
You need to do a little math here: 150 is the total composite score for the AP English
Language and Composition test. Fifty-five percent of this score is the essay section; that
equals 82.5 points. Forty-five percent of the composite score is the multiple-choice section,
which equals 67.5 points. Each of your three essays is scored on a 9-point scale; therefore,
each point is worth 3.055. You would divide the number of multiple-choice questions by
67.5. For example, if there were 55 questions, each point of the raw score would be multi-
plied by 1.227. If you add together the raw scores of each of the two sections, you will have
a composite score. We provide a little practice with this process in the two practice exams
in this book.How Is My Composite Score Turned into the Grade Reported to
My College?
Remember that the total composite scores needed to earn a 5, 4, 3, 2, or 1 differ each year.
This is determined by a committee of AP/College Board/ETS directors, experts, and stat-
isticians. The score is based on such items as:- AP distribution over the past three years
- Comparability studies
- Observations of the chief faculty consultant
- Frequency distributions of scores on each section and the essays
- Average scores on each exam section and essays