Still regarded by some as an unqualified genius and despised by others as a hopeless misfit, the Advanced Placement Sophomore is at least no longer the side-show freak he was in 1955. That fall the first two incoming students were admitted to Sophomore Standing. The 55 A.P. Sophomores this year occupy a definite, if not always uncomplicated, position in the academic picture, and they usually find out soon enough that they are no longer extraordinary.

This is not to say that their feat is any the less imposing; now, as in 1955, Advanced Placement Sophomores must hace satisfactory completed at least three college-level courses during their senior year in secondary school. Usually, passing performances on the College Board Advanced Placement Examinations, given in 11 fields, will ensure accreditation. In four areas--Chemistry, Physics, French, and Spanish--either an honors grade or a further examination tendered by the College is needed for Advanced Placement.

15 Fields Possible

The College also gives its own tests in Music, Russian, Greek, and Far Eastern history, making a total of 15 fields in which acceleration is possible. Of course, many Freshmen pass examinations and enter advanced courses in only one or two subjects; 211 men began college this year with one or two credits already earned. Only 87 A.P. candidates, less than 25 per cent of the total, failed to receive credit in at least one area.

One of the most striking aspects of the Advanced Placement program is its rapid rate of growth.

Since 1954, when 81 high school seniors took 130 of the old School and College Study Examinations and no one received Sophomore Standing, the number of A.P. candidates has quadrupled and the total of exams presented has increased six-fold. According to director Edward T. Wilcox, the program is still growing, and "no ceiling is in sight."

Reluctance to "Push"

The 55 new Sophomores come from only ten private and ten public schools. This is a surprisingly small number of institutions, in view of the 115 secondary schools resented by A. P. applicants. Too many schools, Wilcox explains, fail to realize that a capable senior can handle three college-level courses. Some limit their seniors to one or two such classes, eliminates any possibility of Sophomore Standing. In addition, many high school teachers think advanced courses are merely intensive duplication of the usual fare, rather than presentations of new material. Wilcox expects the present reluctance to "push" promising students to disappear as the advantages of acceleration become widely known.

Wilcox's largest concern about the A. P. program has been that students might take advanced classes in high school, reject Advanced Placement, and then settle for grinding out A's in college courses they had in effect already taken. Of course, men with full Sophomore Standing can not do this: their promotion is contingent upon credits received for their advanced work in high school. A student with A.P. in one or two courses, however, is under no compulsion to avoid repetition. So far, though, virtually no one has used his accelerated training for mere grade advantage: this academic honesty is essential to the program's continued success.

Three 'Cliffies Advance

At Radcliffe, one might also say that the number of A.P. Sophomores is increasing, since three girls managed to accumulate the necessary three credits for the first time this year, and were admitted to the 'Cliffe as Sophomores. One reason why only three have taken the proffered advancement seems to be lack of publicity, although this defect is rapidly being remedied. More-over, educators are not always in a hurry to expedite young ladies' schooling. The headmistress of a Midwestern girls' school says, "Girls are not going into careers right after college, the way boys are. I don't see any reason for shortening a girl's education."

With a program so new, complications are prevalent and unavoidable. There is at this time no rapport between the College Board's concept of an advanced education in Romance Languages and the University's. Even in composition, seemingly an area definite enough to admit of clear-cut levels of attainment, the CEEB and Harvard are miles apart. This fall, students who had passed, even with honors, the composition (or "Language") portions of College Board Advanced Placement Tests in Romance Languages had absolutely no assurance of eventual Advanced Placement.

In the Literature department, the casuality rate was at least as high. This May there will be a new attempt by the CEEB to produce adequate tests in the Romance Languages. Whether the College Board will ever succeed in establishing mutual standards among high schools, colleges, and its tests remains to be seen.

Green Slip Trouble

The relation between Advanced Placement credits and requirements for concentration and degrees is still hazy; probably it is most muddled in the English Department. A new Sophomore with A.P. in, say, mathematics, American History, and English Literature would have been presented at registration with a green slip which said, "You can not take the following courses for credit: Math 1; Chemistry 1 or 2; one course in English."