Near Perfection on AP Pre-Calc Test

Last year, Mrs. Chloe Park’s first time teaching AP Pre-Calculus, her classes had a 99% pass rate on the AP exam, meaning a score of 3 or higher out of 5. According to the AP Classroom Score Distributions for 2025, the average pass rate nationally was 80.8%.

“Since that was my first year, I didn’t have any reference or standard or anything, I just tried my best to provide anything that I could. And it was a lot of work. If there;s a mistake, then we have to correct it together,” said Park.

According to Park, one major factor which helped her and her students achieve this goal was the trust in her classroom. This trust, she said, “came from the previous year. I was teaching two sections of Algebra 2 Honors, and quite many of the students came back to my classroom to be AP Pre-Calculus students.”

Park has been teaching at Culver City High School for 12 years, her very first teaching job. Park feels she “grew with [her] students every single year here” and explains she has a special connection to the school and the city, after moving here from Korea and learning English at West LA Community College.

Parks’ studying advice, beyond putting in the hard work, is for students to take care of themselves, and use manifestation. She explains how they would close their eyes and manifest high scores at the beginning of classes. Additionally, she encourages students, on test days especially, to have a healthy breakfast and come well rested to be more mentally engaged.

Regarding stressful test scenarios, Park said “I tried so many different things, but only one thing works. It is to know yourself very well.” If one starts doubting themselves, she said “In order to get rid of that little piece in your mind, you have to just do practice, and study as much as you feel content.”

She also recommends “whenever you get really stressed out or have anxiety during test preparation, instead of just sitting down and struggling with problem solving, dance, exercise and walk.”

In addition to the sense of accomplishment about the test scores themselves, last year’s group of kids gifted Park many memories. Her favorite occurred when she left her camera recording on accident. She was gathering film as part of an application for a Certificate of Teaching from the National Board, and reviewed the footage later.

“I would not have known if I didn’t watch that video, but there were these two boys. They were solving a really complicated example, so hard that most of the students just gave up, not really caring, expecting me to just explain further the next day. But these boys sat there and competed with each other. ‘How far did you go? And then what did you get in this step?’ Even after the bell, it was going on!” Park said.

These student’s interaction inspired Park, and every year with new students she is excited to foster a special connection with everyone there. She hopes to make her class an enjoyable and memorable learning experience, along with continuing these outstanding scores.