Math test, and math retest

NPR's All Things Considered had a fantastic report about AP Calculus today.

The report discusses how many universities are adjusting how much credit is awarded for good AP scores. Universities are finally realizing that a multiple-choice test is not the best way to evaluate someone's mathematical proficiency, and in some cases they end up re-testing students when they get to college.

Another very important point raised was that most middle and high school classes don't discuss the art of proof at all. Most pre-university math is computational, whereas I can tell you that all high-level college math courses are primarily about proving assertions. Of course, the high school curriculum is largely determined by the tests that students will take (e.g. the AP Calculus test, state-level evaluations for No Child Left Behind), and you can't test proof-writing on multiple-choice tests. Thus proofs are rarely covered.

As someone who got a 5 on the Calculus BC AP test, and passed out of two semesters of college calculus, this doesn't affect me anymore, but I hope that these universities' actions will lead to better math skills for the next generation of university students.