<p>Eulenspiegel,
I had never heard about students being paid by the state or district for achieving certain test scores. That certainly doesn't happen in my neck of the woods or even in my own home!
In regard to the PTA subsidizing - I was not inferring at all that it is inappropriate to help families - in fact, I said it was a nice gesture. I was agreeing with CalMom that perhaps a PTA should not pay for a test that a student did not want to take but had to because the school required it.
I personally don't think that a high school should require a student to take the AP test at the end of the course. However, if a student wants to take an exam and can't afford it (and doesn't qualify for a fee waiver) ... it is wonderful that others are willing to help.
Sorry if my post was unclear.</p>
<p>I have been characterized as a "gifted worrier", so my son would be taking 3 more AP tests this year even if his school didn't require them and his ED university didn't give him credit for them. Why?
Because of the zillions of kids in our area who transfer at the drop of a hat. I want to be sure his credentials are maxed out, Just In Case.</p>
<p>Redshoes,
I'd surmise that most of the parents on this site are "gifted worriers" ... at any rate, you raise a good point.</p>
<p>LOL. That must be why I feel so at home on this site!</p>
<p>At my high school, you only got the weighted grade for the class if you took the test that went with it!!! I don't know if that will matter to colleges or not. I took my IB tests... but because you get screwed out of IB credit at colleges, I didn't study for them hardly at all (yes, I got my diploma, just not with the scores I could have...).</p>
<p>There was a kid on my freshmen hall last year who didn't take any of his AP tests.</p>
<p>Our HS requires kids to take the AP tests if they want the weighted credit (extra .1 for an A in the course) for class ranking...we also paid the $82 per test by Sept. 30th.</p>
<p>Quite a hit in the wallet, paying for 3-4 tests at a time, but I think it was worth it in the end, if only for the 'play' it appears to have given them in college course scheduling:</p>
<p>S's LAC credited him with 4 courses (would not recognize AP Chem for an engineering major as they do not believe HS chem labs are the equal of college-level labs, but would credit it for non-engineers), so he was able to finish the math sequence early and it gave him some breathing room for those semesters where the courseload was just overwhelming.</p>
<p>D's university credited her with 4 courses as well. She's not as far along as he is, but thinks it will work out similarly.</p>
<p>Our school requires the AP exams to be taken. The school system pays
the entire fee. The exam score does not add anything to the class grade but if you decide to rebel and not take the exam, your grade for the class is dropped a full letter grade for the year. His college accepts AP credit and as mentioned previously it helped in course placement for Math and English (i.e. did not have to take SATII or placement exam at his college). So for him it was worth it.</p>
<p>Our Ss' school requires that students enrolled in AP courses take the exams for those courses. We pay $82 for each. The only way that a student can be excused from a test is if he shows that the college he is going to attend will not give any credit, or waivers into other courses, for that AP.</p>
<p>S1 took quite a few AP courses in HS. He does not get advanced standing at Duke for all of those (he got 5's on all but one, on which he had a 4), however he has been waived out of many basic courses and that is a very good reason to take AP Exams. Not only is he not repeating work, but he is able to finish requirements for a double major more easily, and it is easier for him to register because there is not as much of a demand for the upper level courses as there is for the basic (ie: large lecture intro) courses. </p>
<p>The other benefit was that there was no time for senioritis to set in until the middle of May and...the AP Exam meant that they did not have a final during Exam Week at the end of May!! (Of course, many teachers gave finals in the AP courses a few days before the AP Exam in their class!!--but that was good preparation!)</p>
<p>Here in Fla., a state usually not known to be generous with education dollars, AP exams are required & the fee is paid for all students. Teachers get a $ reward for students that make a high enough score. I don't know whether it has to be a 5 or if a 4 will do.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=18374%5B/url%5D">http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=18374</a>
<a href="http://www.dailypennsylvanian.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2006/02/24/43fec41b92c76%5B/url%5D">http://www.dailypennsylvanian.com/vnews/display.v/ART/2006/02/24/43fec41b92c76</a>
<a href="http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=511595%5B/url%5D">http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=511595</a></p>
<p>and many other top schools as well. Rethink your strategy.</p>
<p>My dd will take:
English
European History
Government and Politics: United States </p>
<p>She will not take:
Art History - Poor preparation by teacher ... very far behind the course syllabus.
Government and Politics: Comparative - got college credit for this class at Governor's School this summer.</p>
<p>My D's both took several AP classes, the HS did not make it possible to take more than 4-5. Both D's are glad they took the toughest course load, but our school does not weight, so they derived no GPA benefit for it, but all the highly ranked kids would take AP classes. D1 took science & math, got units at her school, but all the courses she would have tested out of were required for her major and the universoty would not let you test out of them, so she tested out of nothing and we paid $82/test, but we did not know....D's friend took the AP and her university REQUIRED that she move to the 2nd year class level, she felt not well-prepared to make such a jump.</p>
<p>So, along comes D2, she took the English in 11th grade and we encouraged her to take the test to see how she would do, but her AP score did no more for her than her SAT score...as either allowed her to test out of certain English requirements. In grade 12, D wanted to take the tests, that's how she works, but we did hit a "puddle of pee" type set of time constraints and she was traveling for a significant portion of the time leading up to the tests so in discussion with teachers, she elected not to take the tests for which she had missed some important prep work, but still took a couple, for which she received units. It is true that with soo many kids having these units, one might be at a disadvantage in registration priority, in D's case, she had not the time to attend the in person orientations in June (HS goes through June) and so still was one of the last to register, units or not!</p>
<p>All her scores were good, yet at Berkeley, famous for huge weeder classes, she elected not to skip the 1st section of calculus, as she could not get the class first term, so it had been too long without math on the brain by the time spring rolled around. </p>
<p>I think the AP classes are good preparation, but I would not take the tests unless you know your school will allow you out of classes AND you will want to skip those course....the exams are a waste of money in many situations, the classes are not a waste of time.</p>
<p>One seems to have the best shot of using the AP units in classes not required for the major, so a science person might want to AP on English or Art History or the vice-versa</p>