AP Environmental Science

Advanced Placement Environmental Science (AP Environmental Science, APES, AP Enviro, AP Environmental, AP Environment, or AP Enviro Sci) is a course offered by the American College Board as part of the Advanced Placement Program to high school students interested in the environmental and natural sciences. This course is designed to provide students with scientific principles, concepts, and methodologies necessary to comprehend the relationships abundant within the natural world, to identify and analyze environmental problems, to evaluate relative risks associated with these identified problems, and to examine alternative solutions for resolving and/or preventing similar problems facing the global environment.[1] The percentage of students scoring a grade of "5" was only 7.4% in the 2016 testing administration. It remains one of the lowest "5" scoring AP Exams to this date right under AP Art History, AP English Literature & Composition, AP English Language & Composition, and AP World History. The AP Environmental Science exam was first administered in 1998.

"APES" redirects here. For other uses, see Ape (disambiguation).
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Topics covered

Topics covered in AP Environmental Science[2] as of Fall 2019 include:

Unit Topic Percent
1 The Living World: Ecosystems 6-8%
2 The Living World: Biodiversity 6-8%
3 Populations 10–15%
4 Earth Systems and Resources 10–15%
5 Land and Water Use 10–15%
6 Energy Resources and Consumption 10-15%
7 Atmospheric Pollution 7-10%
8 Aquatic and Terrestrial Pollution 7-10%
9 Global Change 15-20%

Topics covered in AP Environmental Science prior to Fall 2019 include:

Topic Percent
Earth Systems and Resources 10–15%
The Living World 10–15%
Population 10–15%
Land and Water use 10–15%
Energy Resources and Consumption 10–15%
Pollution 25–30%
Global Change 10–15%

Exam

The AP Environmental Science exam is divided into a multiple choice and free response section.

Old exam (2019 and earlier)

The old exam was 3 hours long and contained two sections:

  • Section I: Multiple Choice (100 questions, 90 minutes).
  • Section II: Free-Response (one data-set question, one document-based question, and two synthesis and evaluation questions, 90 minutes).

Current exam (2020 and later)

As of fall 2019, multiple changes have been made to the AP Environmental Science exam. These changes include but are not limited to: allowed calculator use, changes in the number of multiple choice questions, the use of stimuli in multiple choice questions, and changes in free response questions.
According to the College Board: "The exam is 2 hours and 40 minutes long and includes 80 multiple-choice questions and 3 free-response questions. A four-function, scientific, or graphing calculator is allowed on both sections of the exam."[3] The new exam contains two sections with slight changes[4]:

  • Section I: Multiple Choice (80 questions, 90 minutes).
  • Section II: Free-Response (one investigation design question, one solution to an environmental problem proposal question, and one solution to an environmental problem proposal question with calculations, 70 minutes).

Grade distribution

The exam was first held in 1998. Grade distributions since 2009 were:

Year Score percentages
54321Mean % 3 or HigherNumber of Students
2009[5]10.4%20.7%18.9%18.5%31.5%2.6 50.0%73,575
2010[6]10.4%22.6%17.0%18.1%32.0%2.61 50.0%86,650
2011[7]8.9%24.8%15.6%24.9%25.8%2.66 49.3%98,959
2012[8]8.9%24.9%16.6%24.3%25.3%2.68 50.4%108,839
2013[9]8.0%23.4%16.8%25.4%26.5%2.61 48.2%118,288
2014[10]8.3%23.6%15.3%25.5%27.2%2.6 47.2%130,321
2015[11]7.5%24.1%15.2%25.5%27.7%2.59 46.8%138,703
2016[12]7.6%23.2%14.8%25.8%28.6%2.55 45.6%149,096
2017[13]9.5%24.5%15.4%24.5%26.2%2.67 49.4%159,578
2018[14]8.8%23.9%15.0%25.8%26.5%2.63 47.7%166,433
2019[15]9.5%25.9%14.2%25.5%24.9% 49.6%

References
  1. Barlaz, Dora; Freudenrich, Craig; Gardner, Jane (2011). AP Environmental Science 2011. New York, New York: Kaplan Publishing.
  2. https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/pdf/ap-environmental-science-course-and-exam-description-0.pdf?course=ap-environmental-science
  3. https://apcentral.collegeboard.org/pdf/ap-environmental-science-course-and-exam-description-0.pdf?course=ap-environmental-science
  4. "AP Environmental Science: The Course | AP Central – the College Board". 2006-07-10.
  5. http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/public/repository/ap09_EnvSci_GradeDistributions.pdf 2009 Grade Distribution
  6. http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/public/repository/2010_EnvSci_Score_Dist.pdf 2010 Grade Distribution
  7. http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/public/repository/2011_Env_Sci_Score_Dist.pdf 2011 Grade Distribution
  8. The College Board. "AP Environmental Science Student Score Distributions" (PDF). Retrieved 7 May 2013.
  9. http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/ap/apcentral/ap13_enviro_sci_ScoringDist.pdf 2013 Grade Distribution
  10. http://media.collegeboard.com/digitalServices/pdf/research/2014/STUDENT-SCORE-DISTRIBUTIONS-2014.pdf 2014 Student Score Distributions
  11. https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/digitalServices/pdf/research/2015/Program-Summary-Report-2015.pdf
  12. "Student Score Distributions AP Exams - May 2016" (PDF). Archived from the original on 2017-11-13. Retrieved 2018-05-10.
  13. "AP Student Score Distributions – The College Board". apscore.collegeboard.org.
  14. https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/digitalServices/pdf/research/2018/Student-Score-Distributions-2018.pdf 2018 AP Score Distributions
  15. "The 2019 AP Environmental Science Scores – Trevor Packer". twitter.com.
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