<p>Today in my AP Lang class it was announced that we will soon have to pay for the AP tests at the end of the year, because they are trying to get them in early. It was also revealed that the cost for these tests is absolutely ridiculous. Why does the college board need 87 dollars per test? Surely it can't cost anywhere near that much to manufacture and send out one test. How do they expect people taking 4+, or even 2+ to afford all this? It's not like college where there's loans and scholarships and debt. With the combination of all the classes my sister and I are taking, we're gonna have to pay 500+ dollars. My family can't afford that. I looked at the qualifications for reducing the price, and my family makes too much money to qualify. But that doesn't mean we can afford over 500 dollars to take some tests. There's no reason it should cost that much money, I could understand 30 dollars or even 40, but 87 is an extremely excessive amount.</p>
<p>AP tests, and all of these other tests, are ridiculous. However, $87 now is better than paying money in college. To take one class at my local community college is $576. At a four-year private, it’ll be a lot more. It’s better to just spend the money now and save later. I’m sorry your school sprang that on you and I hope it works out. However, I’m sure you (and other students) are that much more motivated to earn 5s! :)</p>
<p>Yeah we’re forced to take our AP tests and are offered no financial assistance to pay for them, leaving many of us to dole out several hundred dollars a year. </p>
<p>If it makes you feel good about where your money’s going: the CollegeBoard recently came under fire for doling out hundreds of thousands in bonuses to their executives despite numerous shortcomings going on in education.</p>
<p>IB tests are $100 each :D. So for the IB Diploma, you can be sure you have to pay $600. I’m glad that my school at least pays for the registration. </p>
<p>And then add the costs of whatever AP tests you want to take.</p>
<p>I had the same problem don’t worry go to your counselor and say you can’t afford it. My mom provided proof to the school that money was tight and the fee was waived.</p>
<p>But there are costs involved in grading the test.</p>
<p>As far as reducing your cost, you can check the colleges you are interested in to see which tests are actually worth something. Then you can drop taking those which give no useful credit at any of the colleges you are interested in. As mentioned above, $87 is not much compared to the cost of a college course that you might otherwise have to take.</p>
<p>English and Calculus are typically the most useful of the AP tests, but several others are much less likely to give useful subject credit in college.</p>
<p>i mean $87 isn’t a lot to pay for assuming you get a reasonable passing score and receive credit for it in college. i’ll have to pay 17 X 87 = like A LOT… for my AP exams in high school but that’s still not the cost of books and units</p>
<p>Remember that each AP essay you write and/or each free-response question you take is graded by at least one AP grader (though it might be two; at the very least, the scores are checked against discrepancies). The CollegeBoard needs to process the multiple choice, scan the essays/sort them correctly, pay for the readers to read the essays, assembly/norm the scores, etc. CollegeBoard is also a for-profit company.</p>
<p>Also, look at the AP exams you’re planning on taking. Most schools won’t give credit to some of the less popular ones (Human Geo pops into mind), and some schools won’t take ones in your major, etc. Look at the schools you’re planning on applying to and their AP policies. And if the schools you’re looking at will take your AP credits, the cost is more than worth it because of the hours you will save. And if you can rack up enough to cover, say, a semester, that’s also a semester less of room/board/misc. student fees you’ll save, in addition to the actual credit hours of the course.</p>
<p>I disagree with this post. I suspect that the actual truth is that the actual costs of producing the test and giving the test all around the country exceeds the fees taken in. Not all of these tests are simply multiple choice tests. Some involve essays. Someone must read all those thousands of essays. And someone reasonably capable. That person doesn’t work for free. The tests must be transported to the test location. The test locations must be heated or air conditioned. And cleaned up after the test. Proctors must proctor the test. Etc. Etc. Etc. There are probably a zillion other costs the rest of us are not even aware of. </p>
<p>No one wants to pay for anything in America anymore. Everybody wants everything for free. I saw a post on CC recently where some kid said college should be totally free. And of course, 1/2 the country supports free health care. And free use of ATM machines, which need to be built, stocked with money every day, and maintained. If we in America don’t start paying for the full value of services we get, we will go the way of Greece.</p>
<p>I bet the family who groans about paying for AP tests spends money going out to dinner, buying cigarettes, bottled water, designer blue jeans and running shoes, lottery tickets, has a nice big screen TV set, computer equipment, etc., etc. etc. THAT, they are willing to pay for. </p>
<p>Sorry not to be too sympathetic, but that’s my viewpoint on this. Now, if you really are poor, that is indeed a different story.</p>
<p>As previous messages have noted, if you pass the AP test, it will save you a ton of money in college tuition, so it would seem to me that the AP test is actually a bargain.</p>
<p>Compared to the costs of college, they are pretty reasonable. Maybe you could go without a luxury for awhile to pay for the tests? you really have to draw a line between how much you are willing to sacrifice to have a good life. They are not that expensive and I agree with the above poster in that you shouldn’t complain about the prices cause things in this life aren’t free! The sooner you realize that, the less discord you will feel!</p>
<p>^yeah. considering its around 2k per class in college, you’ll be saving a bunch of money. sounds like you’re too cheap to pay. just wait till you apply to college($50-100 per school) + all the sat/act fees for sending your scores.</p>
<p>APs are the cheapest college credits you can get. I attend a Comm College on top of HS, and the state only covers 2/3- which is $200 left for one 5-credit class (what you could skip with AP).</p>
<p>Each textbook costs around $100 per class, multiply by four classes, multiply by three quarters, and bam. Thats how much not even including tuition.</p>
<p>You might think APs are expensive (and yes, thats how CollegeBoard gets rich), but its still thr cheapest. When you start applying for student loans, you’ll realize how $12k is different from $175.</p>