With so many students at SHS taking one or more AP classes, it’s important to know whether or not the classes are worth taking. Even though AP exams and classes can help people get college credit to score out of certain courses, in actuality AP exams don’t really do much to save money for colleges. So if you get the chance, don’t take an AP test, they’re really not worth much in the grand scheme of things.
One reason why AP tests are problematic are due to With AP tests costing eighty-nine dollars this year, paying for tests can really cost a lot for students especially when they take more than one test.. This cost can really be a problem for some communities that are primarily low-income. If Advanced Placement is supposed to help students really reach their potential, why does it block out some students because of its cost? Wouldn’t that defeat the purpose of having AP classes in the first place?
It’s hard enough that high school students have to pay for activity fees, college applications, and tests like the S.A.T. but now academic organizations such as College Board are adding extra ways to get even more money from students. Senior Chris Robotham finds all the payments to be ridiculous “You look at how much money they get from people with (things) like fifteen bucks to send AP scores to every college, ten bucks to send every S.A.T score to every single college…” he said. This just shows the extra fiscal problem that comes with taking AP tests.
Besides being a problem for students, even some colleges dislike the idea of AP classes and tests. Because AP exam scores aren’t concrete for interpretation, a score of four can get you out of an introductory class at a school like UMASS Boston, but that same score may not do anything for you at Harvard or Princeton. Since APs don’t have universal academic regulations and rules with colleges in the United States, they really cause more problems than solutions for high school seniors.
Finally, because the AP test is such a large part of the AP curriculum, some students feel that they’re not learning anything besides how to take the test. One example is senior Dan Versace who said, “It’s like the teachers are teaching the test, not the class.”
Are AP tests worth it? To some people, the answer is yes. But with all the interpretations schools have . So when you get a chance to take an AP test, they’re not the miracle way to save money like they appear to be so just focus on something like your grades instead.