1. Scoring AP Essays and AP Reading
May 2008

2. Contributing Readers Cynthia Tong Jim Petersen Amy Perruso Carrie Sato
AP World History: teacher, Reader
Jim Petersen
AP European History: teacher, AP Administrator
Amy Perruso
AP U.S. History, AP Government: teacher, Reader
Carrie Sato
AP European History: teacher, Reader
Kim Clissold
Ane Lindveldt:
AP World History: teacher, Table Leader

3. Writing Rules MUST be in ink, preferably black or dark blue
MUST be in English
MUST be in essay format – no outlines, webs, bullets, lists
MUST be on white pages of pink response booklet

4. Writing Tips Memorize the scoring rubric Understand the question
Thesis MUST answer the question
Quality is far more important than quantity
DON’T skip lines, underline the thesis, or draw pictures

5. General Scoring Guidelines
World History essays are scored on “Core Scoring” for all essays
European History has “Core Scoring” ONLY for the DBQ
U.S. History and Government and Politics essays do not have “Core Scoring”
Readers always look for ways to give points
Readers do NOT deduct points for bad spelling, grammar, or handwriting

6. General Scoring Guidelines
The order in which you write the essays doesn’t matter to Readers
Readers generally ignore “wacky” history. If you write something brilliant in one sentence but the next sentence is really awful, Readers try to give points for the first sentence and ignore the next sentence.

7. What You Should Know…
Scoring rubric is based on a sampling from actual essays completed
Readers are trained, standardized, and re-standardized.
Every essay has the potential to be scored by five different readers
Reader, Peer Reader, Table Leader, Question Leader, Chief Reader

8. What You Should Know…
Multiple efforts will be made to read tiny or bad handwriting
Readers are 50% college professors and 50% high school teachers of the course at almost every table
Table Leaders “back-read” essays to check for standardization

9. Go to the Reading!

10. AP Reading – Why Do It?
BEST professional development on the essays for teachers
Collegiality with…
professors who wrote the texts
teachers who teach the course worldwide
question leaders who write the questions
Student scores improve

11. AP Reading Last week of May through mid-June
Eight (8) continuous days, 8 hours a day with breaks and lunch
Several locations with one to three subjects scored in a single location
College Board pays airfare, transportation, room and board.
Readers receive a stipend.

12. AP Reading Readers grouped by tables
Two tables to an area with two Table Leaders

13. AP Reading Essays shipped in cartons to Reading site
Paid helpers sort and stack essays and input essay scores
Essays rotate around site to different groups of Readers

14. Eligibility Actively teaching the course
Have taught the course for three years or more
Complete the Reader Application on the College Board site