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Unit 6 - Day 17

Writing an AP Calc Assessment 
  • Include calculator and non-calculator items

  • Include multiple choice and free response items

  • Write questions that reflect learning targets and success criteria

  • Determine scoring rubric for FRQs before administering the assessment (see below)

Questions to Include
  • Items which require students to demonstrate a geometric interpretation of integration 

  • Items which require students to demonstrate an understanding of basic antiderivatives

  • Items which require students to demonstrate an understanding of u-substitution

  • Items which require students to demonstrate an ability to simplify the integrand

  • Opportunities for using tabular or graphical information when integrating

  • Items which require correct and precise integral notation

Grading Tips

This quiz was administered as a non-calculator assessment with a focus on student communication and notation:  four multiple-choice questions contributed fewer than 33% of the total points!  Demonstrating an appropriate and efficient choice for solving an integral was the primary focus and our scoring rubric represented that emphasis.

Although students were given freedom to choose their solving technique, our quiz included integrals best solved by one of four major strategies: geometry, basic integration rules, simplifying the integrand, and u-substitution. 
 
Students who neglected the “+C” term on their indefinite integrals lost only one point; they were “inoculated” from losing a point every time they forgot. 

Reflections

Students did well with geometric interpretations of integration and identifying the best choices for u-substitution.  When evaluating definite integrals, approximately half of our students chose to work with an integrand and limits of integration written in terms of u; the other half chose to use the original integrand and values of integration. This assessment did not include an extended FRQ-style question. Instead, a wide variety of integrals were used to assessed students’ solving techniques and communication abilities.

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