@QuantMech - That’s an interesting question. In our case we never questioned the assumption that the kids would take the test for every AP class they took, even though 1) we’re comfortable but still very frugal, 2) by the time senior year tests came it was clear that AP credits would be of minimal value at their chosen colleges, and 3) our HS didn’t require that students take the tests.
To us, taking the AP exam was just was a natural step at the end of the course. DS had taken a ridiculous number of AP classes, including 7 in both his junior and senior years, so it wasn’t particularly surprising when he was awarded our state’s State AP Scholar Award as the most prolific, high scoring male AP junkie in the state. DD was a relative slacker, with I believe 2 less AP classes and tests. And unlike her brother, she wasn’t valedictorian, as another girl in her class had similar grades but two more AP’s.
Knowing this, we thought there’d been a mistake when a few months later she was notified that she had earned the State AP Scholar Award. Each state has only two award winners, one boy and one girl, and there was no way our daughter could have outperformed the valedictorian, or so we surmised.
It was only then that we realized that some students strategically skip some or all AP tests, especially senior year, after college plans and AP utilization potentials were settled.
It’s hard to understand. I’m the type of person who buys groceries at three different stores in order to save money, but I never regretted paying for 35 or so AP exams between the two kids.
And I also never regretted that they didn’t attend our state flagship and utilize all those AP credits to enter as third year students. But if I were to add up the money we would have saved…
Holy crap, it would have been a lot.