<p>Tearing our hairs out, in a mild kind of way. DS's high school wants prepayment of AP tests (to the tune of 53$ a test), but he won't know which tests to take until he decides which university to attend. And they want payment by this Thursday! For the private U, he should take econ, gov, calc and possibly physics. For the public U, he should take Eng lit, eng language, econ, and calc. If they would just let us wait a few more weeks he will have made his choice - and then can choose the appropriate tests.
And deadlines all over the place with applying for scholarships, and trying to cancel housing and get refunds at several public U's, and politely turning offers of scholarship and admittance at other schools, and seeking clarification of financial aid and AP and honor college info at schools, and TIME IS RUNNING OUT!!! :eek: By this time with DD it seems like it was all over. She had her offer, had her F.A. package in hand, and didn't need to apply for outside scholarships since package met all her need with grant, decided to take only one A.P. Peace and serenity and shopping for sheets ensued. Not so here now! Still a tough decision to make. DS still finding scholarships to apply for and, at the last minute, applying for them. I'm ready for the decision to be made, all scholarship and other paperwork in, and be looking forward to fun stuff like GRADUATION and summer break!
Who else is tired of this all!</p>
<p>Anxiousmom, well you could be at our school. They asked for the AP $$$ in January. And you are required to take the AP if you are taking the course. Personally, I think one should just take them all. You never know - maybe your kid will be one of those who transfers and the credits that are good will change anyway. Maybe he'll get belated credit (as I did) in grad school.</p>
<p>He should take all the tests that can potentially benefit him. Even if his Chosen U does not award credit, it might come in handy if he ever wants to transfer, and even some grad schools, from what I heard, give credit for APs some times...</p>
<p>Lol we have to pay 83 per. I'm taking 6.</p>
<p>We don't have to pay anything for the AP exams but are required to take the exam for every AP class you take.
We had to sign a paper saying if S did not show up for the exam we would have to pay.
Unless it's a financial hardship I would say take all the exams.</p>
<p>Anxiousmom -- I agree with nngmm - he should pay for all courses he thinks he can pass. Here's what happened to my son:</p>
<p>Took 4 AP exams, got 3's & 4s. Attended an LAC with a policy that rarely awarded AP credit. Inconsistent performance at LAC: A's in most classes but a D and an incomplete in others. Had difficulty transferring after 2 years because he did not have enough credit for junior status, so had to apply as sophomore transfer. Spent 3 years working instead.</p>
<p>Finally: gets into much lower-status state U. as transfer. Goes to his old high school & is able to retrieve old AP score reports and arrange transmittal to college. (College Board has "lost" records, unfortunately). All APs count for credit, some a lot. With the AP credit added in, he catches up to where he should have been plus gains a semester -- plus exemptions from some gen ed requirements. So he will be able to graduate in 3 semesters (not 4). </p>
<p>I think at his high school we only had to pay $40/exam -- but even if it had been the full $83, in hindsight it is money well spent. Even at the kid's public u., tuition is more than $1600 a semester, plus living costs -- so a December graduation is going to mean a lot of savings to my son. </p>
<p>I know that no one wants that story repeated.... but it happens.</p>
<p>Story #2:
My daughter took AP English Language and scored a 4 at the end of junior year. Senior year she was in AP English Lit, and the school required all AP students to take all AP exams, at $83 apiece. Big conflict with English lit teacher, plus I'm strapped for money and I look up all her colleges and find that most won't grant additional English credit beyond what she already earned. Big fuss, in the end we convince school to exempt daughter from teacher's insistence on after-school practice sessions for AP exam & provide slight subsidy for test cost. By the time the test rolls around, we know that d. is attending one of those colleges which only credits 1 English AP... so I tell d. to take the exam, but don't sweat it... score doesn't matter.</p>
<p>D. gets a 4. Then it turns out I was mistaken -- even though the college only lists the possibility of AP credit for 1 exam, they actually give credit for both. So the test did count after all. (She was still very glad that she was allowed to opt out of the study sessions-- obviously not needed). </p>
<p>So I know the exam fees look like final straws when our budgets are already stretched to the max .... but you never know.</p>
<p>Wait- 1] Is he taking the AP tests in order to get AP credit/ class placement at the college/ university of his choice? At this point, with acceptances in hand, that should be the only reason for taking the exams. Unless he is looking to receive one of the AP Scholar certificates. 2] Do the colleges/ universities that he has applied to/ been accepted at also require placement tests in order to figure out what classes S will start with? Some do, regardless what students score on the AP exam.</p>
<p>Our school requires all students in the AP classes to take the exams--but the school pays for then entire cost, which is nice.</p>
<p>I think that everyone here can feel your and your S's pain. I had to register for my AP's long before knowing which college I was attending, but luckily for me, the $83/test (and yes, it does creep up every year...that's not just your imagination!!) doesn't pose a financial hardship. I know plenty of kids for whom it does pose a hardship--you can be far from poor and still have trouble coughing up an extra $100-$600 on the spur of the moment!!! </p>
<p>Of course, there is good incentive to register by the deadline...miss the first deadline, and that's a $10/test fine. Miss the second deadline, and that's $50 (!!!!) PER TEST! EEEEKKK!! </p>
<p>Is it possible to put off registering for the tests that don't have overlap between the two schools for a couple of weeks? Even if you did end up having to pay $30 or so in fines, it would save you money overall. I don't know if this jives with the particulars of AP registering at your school...just trying to throw out a possible compromise.</p>
<p>The College Board refunds the lion's share of the test fee back to the school if the student does not actually take the test. (That's because most of the cost of the test goes to paying the AP Readers and supervisors, as well as the associated paperwork and handling of recording and reporting scores.)</p>
<p>So if he doesn't wind up taking all the tests, perhaps you could arrange for some of the refund to be refunded back to you?</p>
<p>(However, $53 sounds like a bargain, since the College Board's standard fee was well over $80, the last I checked. Your state and/or district must be subsidizing the costs for students in your area.)</p>
<p>The CB ordering schedule dictates when money needs to be paid. Our school met the CB deadline just last week, ordering one or two extra tests in a couple of subject areas just in case a student changes their mind at the last minute and decides to take the exam (99% of our kids do take the tests). I strenuously urge my students to take the exams as they need to keep their options open - never close a door, so to speak. I have tons of former students with the same transfer credit story as Calmom.</p>
<p>I would keep options open, too, and have d. take all the tests she could because I know of too many situations where those scores have come in handy further down the road. If my d. had previously taken AP exams and not scored above a 2, I wouldn't bother. For a student who has a fair chance at 3 or higher, it can end up saving you money in the long run. Even if she's taking 4 or 5, what is that cost compared to the application and testing fees you've already put out (and I am a penny pincher)? </p>
<p>And you are lucky you're not paying the full $83 per test. I would also double check with your school's policy - some schools that weight grades (for GPA) remove the weighting or even the credit if the student doesn't take the AP.</p>
<p>Our kids pay the full $83 and payment is due in October! All AP students are expected to take the tests and grades are not weighted.</p>
<p>Although kids in other school systems may have it even worse, anxiousmom has a point.</p>
<p>My daughter was accepted to college Early Decision, and she chose which AP tests to take and which not to take based on the credit and placement policies of the university she will be attending. </p>
<p>Everyone should have the same opportunity that she did.</p>
<p>Marian - my D wasn't going to take the AP Stats test (she already had AP Calc credits) as her ED school would not award credits nor placement. I urged her to take it since she would not know what may happen down the road. Lo and behold, during her frosh year, her LAC's math dept. changed their AP credit policy allowing the stats credit if the student passes the next course in the sequence. You never know - for every student there is a different circumstance, which is why I tell my students to take them all. It's a win-win situation, nothing happens to you if you don't pass except you're out $83, and many of our kids have the tests subsidized by school or PTA scholarships. My D recently wrote me an email saying thanks for paying the $400+ for her to take tests every day (as it seemed to her at the time) because she could save $30,000 if she graduates 2 trimesters early.</p>
<p>If you sign up for the AP class, my opinion, you need to take the test. The fees don't slip up on you.......scheduling happens in the previous school year so one knows well in advance, theare are AP test fees in the future.</p>
<p>We too are in a district where you are required to take the tests if you take the course. At $83 a test (this has moved up slowly since my eldest took 6 in 2003), this has been an expensive proposition over the years. Some of the tests have provided credit, but others were just a waste of a morning in May. And since our kids are only allowed a max of 2 (most only 1) junior year, it's a waste of time and money senior year if credit is not available. I think if I add it up my kids have taken 15 APs over the last 6 years at a cost to us in excess of $1,000.</p>
<p>Maize&blue, I should have mentioned that my daughter's situation is atypical.</p>
<p>She is in an IB diploma program. IB students often take AP tests in their IB subjects (in addition to the IB test) because college credit and placement policies favor AP over IB. For example, my daughter is taking the standard level IB Environmental Systems course, which is very similar to AP Environmental Science. Her prospective college does not give credit for this IB test, but it does give credit for high scores on the similar AP test. So she will take the AP test in addition to the IB test in order to try to get credit. On the other hand, it would be a waste of time for her to take the AP Music Theory test on top of the IB higher level Music test because the college does not give credit for it. If she were planning to attend a different college with a different placement policy, taking that test might have been worthwhile. </p>
<p>Our high school actually discourages IB students from taking AP tests unnecessarily because it adds to the huge time and stress and financial burden that they're already facing due to the IB program alone. However, the school does not (and probably cannot) actually prevent IB students from taking AP tests. My daughter will take four IB tests and four AP tests this May. There are three more AP tests she could have chosen to take on the basis of her IB courses if she wanted to. But enough is enough.</p>
<p>For the one AP course that she is taking outside the IB program, of course she plans to take the test (two tests actually, since it's Economics). There was never any question about that (and her prospective college does give credit for both Macroeconomics and Microeconomics if you get a 4 or 5).</p>
<p>According to some information I got - College Board has been pushing for more kids to actually take the AP test because of the USNWR top 100 high school rankings. It seems that there are some schools who push kids into AP classes since that's the sole measurement used by USNWR- not if kids take the AP tests but what percentage of the schools population takes AP classes.<br>
Last year I signed a paper agreeing to pay for AP tests in all the subject areas that D is taking. I figure that even at $83 a test - if she scores high enough we're ahead of the game. The school does have a financial hardship policy for those kids whose families really can't afford the $$.</p>