THE DISCUSSION of Advance Placement tests has become more prominent as even President Bush found time in his State of the Union address to herald the increasing number of students enrolled in AP programs. However, at the same time, recent studies cast doubt on their overall effectiveness particularly as a system of college preparation. Nonetheless, the AP program provides students with a unique and indispensable opportunity, even if its statistical success is less than expected.
The aforementioned study was performed by Education Prof. Robert Tai and Harvard Prof. Philip Sadler and concluded that AP programs in biology, physics and chemistry. The study used data from over 8,000 students from 128 introductory science courses in universities nationwide; specifically, they compared the grades students received to their relevant AP scores. As Tai pointed out, the general expectation is that "if a student gets a five on an AP test
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