<p>Students who qualify for free/reduced lunch, or whose parents make minimum wage ( or double minimum wage for one working parent), can take AP tests for $5.
Everyone else pays $83 per test.
Older D, didn’t take any AP classes, younger D, did take an AP class last year, but as she has processing disabilties, and we weren’t interested in using the class for college credit, she didn’t have to take it. ( Older D also only applied to 5 colleges- because it was $45 apiece- now I am having to pay out almost the same cost as applying to two colleges & for what? Inquiring minds want to know!)</p>
<p>This year, she is also taking an AP class, but it is required to take the test.
This is irritating. I am not looking forward to the stress, she doesn’t test well- even though she qualifies for accomodations( you don’t want to know what her PSAT scores were)- she does fine in class,but I really don’t like paying * before tax dollars* well over double our hourly income for a test that I know little about.</p>
<p>So- tell me the benefits * that means you xiggi* ;)</p>
<p>Why is taking the test a good idea- especially considering the expense?
and if you really want to dig into it, why are the choices in curriculum, either an AP class ( with test) or a class that moves too slow to really be considering high school ( possibly because the classroom behavior of a couple students isn’t really * inside* behavior? )</p>
<p>D had six of them senior year, and the school made it mandatory to take them. I remember feeling like I was being beat up with fees that spring - between the AP test fees, college application fees, Profile fees, graduation fees, housing deposits, fees for senior class events, it seemed like every time I turned around I was shelling out money for just “stuff”.</p>
<p>As to what you get, some colleges give credit for 4’s and 5’s, some even for 3’s in certain subjects I think, so, if your daughter gets college credit for even one class, that $83 can pay off in whatever is the cost of that college class…also, AP scholar awards can equate to more merit money etc. This combined with dual enrollment classes let mine walk into freshman year with something like 18 credit hours already “done”.</p>
<p>I’m not so sure the educational benefit works out though - D discovered quickly that AP class in high school are nothing like the corresponding actual college class, so, in hindsight, in her opinion, it’s not such a deal after all.</p>
<p>Our school requires every student who takes an AP class to take the exam (or lose a letter grade) but the school system pays for everybody to take them. They made this a requirement to keep scores of kids from taking the classes only to get the extra quality points to boost their gpa and look good on college apps. The school system pays because they want every student who wants to take an AP to be able to regardless of income level. </p>
<p>I can’t really see how this works though since the student is not paying, many don’t care if they pass the exam or not. Many are truly just in it for the gpa boost and the “challenging” transcript. </p>
<p>S1 took 7 AP’s passed them all and went into college with 20 usuable credits and a few he couldn’t use.</p>
<p>^ Same with the HS my kids attend. If they take an AP course they have to take the exam. No getting around it. Cost is included in tuition (apparently).</p>
<p>First of all, schools have different policies as to payment. My son only had to pay half the cost at his public high school – the other half was subsidized for all students. My daughter’s high school required the students to pay the full cost, and I was extremely reluctant to pay for all the AP tests required of my daughter – but she found out that there were some funds available from the PTA to offset costs for students taking more than 3 AP exams – so we did get some sort of reduction simply by making a big enough fuss. I’m mentioning this because there may be funds available at your school that are not well-publicized.</p>
<p>As to the benefit: it turned out that the test I was so fixated against paying for was worth 3 units to my daughter at her college. I had mistakenly believed that she would not qualify for credit from the AP English lit exam because she already had a sufficiently high score on the AP language exam – but it turns out that my daughter’s college allows credit for both. So daughter started college with 12 units plus the ability to bypass introductory psych and take an advanced course her first semester. </p>
<p>The other thing is that my daughter scored 4s & 5s on all AP exams, even though she did seem to test up to her expected ability level on the SAT or ACT. I think AP multiple choice questions are more straightforward, and the essays provide an opportunity for students who have difficulty with standardized tests. So it probably depends on the type of LD & accommodations as to whether the format might favor a kid who struggles with other tests. Its a nice self-esteem booster to discover a test that you can do well at… and also a way to demonstrate proficiency in a subject. </p>
<p>My son’s first college did not give him AP credit, but he messed up on some courses (an incomplete and a D), and so when he was transferring after 2 years in college, he didn’t have enough units to give him junior standing. However, after he transferred, the new college was very generous about AP credit. giving him credit even for exams he only had a 3 on – and so he gained more than a semester’s worth of credit. So he started off as a sophomore, and one semester later he was a senior – he now possibly will be able to graduate a semester early – since he is paying his own way, I’d say in hindsight he got his money’s worth … thought it was a rather convoluted path. </p>
<p>I don’t think students should be forced to take an exam they don’t want – but if there is a reasonable chance of passing the exam then there may be a value to having those credits down the line… ESPECIALLY for a kid who might be prone to messing up or falling behind in college. Even for a kid who doesn’t want to rush through college, extra units can be a good safety net if the kid wants to take a lighter-than-typical courseload or has to repeat a class. It just provides a nice cushion along the way to accumulating the requisite number of units required for graduation.</p>
<p>Yeah, it really adds up. Some college last year were courting us with free application fees if S applied early. Actually, the high fees did result in him applying to less colleges.</p>
<p>thanks for the feedback- it isn’t a math test at least- ( in our state less than 50% of her class have passed the required test for graduation)</p>
<p>I am going to make sure that she has a seperate room and other accomodations to hopefully take some of the pressure off. It would be fantastic if she was able to do well on the test- I just worry because she has classes where she is getting As in class work and homework and Fs on tests- I am not sure what she is getting in her APUSH class. not Fs so much, but probably Cs.</p>
<p>I also have heard that the teacher that she has is not the one that really prepares the students for the test- but we’ll see.
If she * does * attend a school that gives credit, that would be a plus I guess, but while she has had at least one class in high school that I think was equivalent to a “real” college course- it wasn’t even an AP class. It was Marine Biology, that the dept offers instead of AP. ( which she did well in- perhaps I just worry too much)</p>
<p>Good luck to your daughter, Emeraldkitty. Some colleges do accept 3’s and it would be a wonderful surprise for your daughter to possibly earn credits for college. We pay the whole $83 but in general it worked out well for us.</p>
<p>If she can get the accommodations for the AP test that she has on other school tests, she’s likely to do better than she did on her PSATs. Most AP tests have a fair number of free response/essay type questions. But mostly I’d encourage her not to stress the test. The results don’t come back till late July or early August so it will have no effect on her school grade (unless you have one of those schools that change grades retroactively.) As long as she’s enjoying and learning from the class that’s the main thing. The test is just gravy - if she has good results she may gain several thousand dollars worth of credits or access to more interesting courses in college sooner. If her results are disappointing she really hasn’t lost anything - not even a Saturday morning!</p>
<p>I don’t think they should require it unless they’re going to pay for it. Ours are paid for, so they require it. But that’s completely different. This will just discourage people who might not qualify for the subsidy but are still worrying about paying from taking the class. I know that they’re probably worried about everyone taking the class and not the test, but realistically, $83 is a lot to ask for one test IMO. </p>
<p>I know that it’s not a requirement to take an AP class and therefore people are essentially choosing to pay. But that’s kind of sad. It’s not really a choice if you don’t have the money. We pay for all English and History texts in IB, whereas in non IB classes it’s paid for - reason: taking an IB class is “elective.” Well that’s nice but then they wonder why everyone in it in a economically diverse school is well off. Hmm. Actually the History department makes an effort to accommodate people and get books subsidized, but English doesn’t really. Sometimes you may be able to get one from the library but obviously all 80 people can’t. Some of them can be passed down but this year they totally changed the IB English 12 books. Some of the books needed for Internal Assessments are out of print and can be expensive to obtain. I’m not complaining because my family can’t afford it - we can. I just feel bad that not everone can and a lot of people are so caught up in thinking $83 for an AP class is totally worth it (I think it absolutely is - if you can afford it), that we forget people can hesistate to make these educational choices if they can’t afford the cost easily.</p>
<p>My son took 6 AP exams. Because of that, he can graduate from college in three years instead of four. WELL worth it. (I didn’t think so at the time, but now I don’t mind at all paying the AP fees for son 2).</p>
<p>I am an A.P. teacher. One thing I always point out to my kids/parents is that they need to consider the cost of paying for the class at a college.
I don’t know exactly what it is but the cost is considerably higher than $83.00. Even if your daughter were to get a 2, isn’t it worth risking $83.00 to potentially earn you something of substantially greater value?</p>
<p>BTW what we do at our school is give our students a final. It is a 3-hour final given at the same time as the exam. The final counts for a grade. Students who take the exam are exempted from the final.</p>
<p>our son took 8 APs and we paid for all the exams. 4s and 5s got him lots of credits at his current college. He could graduate in 3 years (although that’s unlikely). It’s nice though, to be able to skip a bunch of intro classes. And it’s also nice to already have enough (or almost enough) science, history and english credits to meet his general education requirement. So, he gets to take what he wants outside of his major. He likes that flexibility.
Lastly, I agree that a AP High School Course is not equal to College Course. But I think the level of difficulty varies. AP Physics II for instance was very hard since my son’s not a science guy! It gave him some discipline and study habits that are paying off at college. Ditto for his senior year AP English class with a VERY demanding teacher. So overall, even without the exams, it helps to make the transition a bit easier for some students. But it’s worth paying for the exams in most cases.</p>
<p>No-brainer here. Many of the schools Jr has applied to accept AP tests for actual units completed. Engineering students frequently take more than four years to graduate, and if he can get a one-semester jump on his college units, I’m all in favor. Anything to avoid that fifth year of tuition and other expenses. If he does as well this year as he did last, he is almost going to be a sophomore when he starts college.</p>