An AP class is just that, a class. An AP test is something that anyone can take, regardless if they took a certain class or not. In this way, they are separate things. (How many times do we hear of schools that don’t specify their classes as AP, yet many kids take coordinating AP tests.) I believe that if a school does not have a class available that is equivalent to the AP class, they should not be required to take the test. Forcing kids to take an AP test for a mostly arbitrary ranking of a HS is ridiculous, as is not letting a student challenge themselves in a class because they may not score high enough on a test.