“Time management, critical thinking, scholarly writing — AP courses and exams help you hone the skills you’ll need in college and career.” This is how College Board describes its AP, or Advanced Placement, courses and exams. At the end of the 2022–2023 academic year, Judah students proved they possess these college- and career-advancing skills, through their excellent AP English Literature and AP English Language exam scores.
Last year, 32 Judah students chose to take AP English classes. And these junior and senior English classes are no “easy A.” In fact, College Board requires the AP classes at Judah to be beyond “academically excellent”; they must be taught at the college level.
The grade 10 through 12 English teacher, Mr. Himick, certainly does that. Secondary principal Mr. Moxley said, “Mr. Himick has turned things around. He’s taught while displaying the very traits he is trying to develop in the students: excellently preparing the students for the exam, improving not only their writing but their time management and critical thinking skills as well.”
But what are AP exams? College Board, the developer and administrator of AP courses and the SAT test, explains them as such: “AP exams are standardized exams designed to measure how well you’ve mastered the content and skills of a specific AP course.” These exams are graded on a 5-point scale. A score of 2 means that the student might do well in an introductory college course. A score of 3 means that the student is qualified for an introductory college course. A score of 4 means that the student is well qualified. And a score of 5 means that the student is extremely well qualified. It’s important to remember that because this test shows how well a student would do in college, a high score is very impressive for a high school student.
In last year’s AP English 11 class, 87.5% of the students scored a 3 or higher on the exam. This is an impressive feat, especially in comparison to other schools. The global percentage of students scoring a 3 or higher was only 77.2%. Even better, 50% of Judah’s students scored a 4 or a 5. Globally, only 43% of students accomplished this.
AP English 11 wasn’t the only class with impressive scores. In AP English 12, 72.7% of the students scored a 3 or higher. The global percentage was only 56.1%. Even better, 36% of our students scored a 4 or a 5. Globally, the percentage was just 30%.
These high scores in AP English 11 and AP English 12 are important not just because they build students’ confidence and college credentials. The high scores are important because students who do well on these AP exams can receive significant college credit for Judah English courses.
For example, students earning a 4 or 5 on their AP English Literature exam who go on to Parkland College will receive six college credits from Parkland when they enroll. These six credits are split, three credits for English 101 and three credits for Literature 127. Both of these courses fulfill general education requirements for Parkland students.
Students earning a 4 or 5 on their AP English Literature exam who go on to the University of Illinois will receive four college credits for Rhetoric 105, a general education requirement for all U of I freshmen. Students earning a 4 or 5 on their AP English Language exam as well will receive three more college credits, for a total of seven credits at the University of Illinois. That’s half a semester’s worth of college credits, banked up at the U of I.
The AP English students at Judah Christian School have done extraordinarily well. Not only did they score tremendously high on the AP English Literature and AP English Language tests, they also scored much higher than the global average. They worked hard to prove to the world that Judah students are ready for what’s next. But Judah isn’t stopping there. Students in the current AP English classes have set their sights just as high. Mr. Moxley encouraged those students, saying, “Let’s keep it going! You can come out of Judah Christian School with college credit already under your belt.”
—Braden Laird, class of ’25