<p>At my son's school, not only do we have to pay for the AP exam, but in two of the three he has taken we also had to buy the text books. In general, his school only allows AP courses junior and senior year and you have to be invited to take the course. I was wondering if most schools pick up the cost. We would have done it for him, but it would have been hard for us to afford over $1000 to take the number of APs a lot of kids on here do.</p>
<p>Our school pays for everything including the exam. They charged for that in the past but then had to cover it since they require kids to sit for the exam (regardless of outcome) in order to get the additional weight on their GPAs.</p>
<p>Is this a public or private school? My kids’ school was private so we had to pay for all these costs.</p>
<p>how many APs will your child take for his junior year?</p>
<p>how many for his senior year?</p>
<p>Does the school require that the student take the exam or is it optional? </p>
<p>As for the textbooks, if this is a public school, why aren’t textbooks provided.</p>
<p>Have you looked online for cheaper/used textbooks?</p>
<p>If these classes are unaffordable, you might have your child work over the summer to help defray some of these costs.</p>
<p>At my son’s school they have to have had certain grade in prereq. classes I think it’s usually like 93% in class x in order to automatically get in otherwise the teachers think about it and they may get in or not. The school buy’s the text books. We pay the $87 for each AP test they take. I’m not sure they have text books in all the classes though. I do buy a "how to study for the AP exam at the book store but that’s just on our own. I can’t imagine having to buy the textbooks there are a number of people here that couldn’t afford that.</p>
<p>It is a public school. I did buy his books used on line, even then they were pricy. He took one AP jr year and is taking two this year. For his calc class she didn’t want them to have to buy the book so she is using handouts. I have bought study guides for him, he was one of just a couple of kids to get a 5 on his chem exam and I think it is because he studied on his own.</p>
<p>The only book we have bought was the one he is teaching himself so he can take the test next spring. We do pay for each test though. 15 credits of AP is a lot cheaper than 15 credits of college.</p>
<p>At my public school we have to pay to take the test, but we borrow textbooks that the school provides.</p>
<p>Here is a free on-line calculus (through multivariable calculus, which is a semester beyond BC) textbook:
[Textbook</a> | Calculus Online Textbook | MIT OpenCourseWare](<a href=“http://ocw.mit.edu/resources/res-18-001-calculus-online-textbook-spring-2005/textbook/]Textbook”>Textbook | Calculus Online Textbook | Supplemental Resources | MIT OpenCourseWare)</p>
<p>If the school cannot afford to buy calculus textbooks for calculus students to use, perhaps it should make a book like the one above the textbook for the calculus course, so that students who cannot afford the [$73</a> for the actual book](<a href=“http://www.wellesleycambridge.com/]$73”>http://www.wellesleycambridge.com/) can read it on-line at no cost.</p>
<p>Our HS paid for 5 senior year AP exams. All I had to do was tell the GT coordinator that it was difficult for us to afford it. We paid for the earlier ones, but 5 at once was a big chunk of money.</p>
<p>I cannot imagine having to purchase a textbook at a public HS. A study guide, sure. </p>
<p>No weighting or college credit involved, here.</p>
<p>We have to pay for the test but if you score a 3 or better the school refunds you half of the fee. They don’t have to buy any of the text books but they CAN buy the novels they read for the various English classes. The school has copies but you can’t write in those. It’s illegal in our state for the public schools to charge fees for textbooks or require kids to buy books for their classes in K-12. If they take any DE classes at the flagship, those books are free too!</p>
<p>I went to public school, they were paid for. But even if they cost money, I would’ve still taken them. Paying for an AP test and a few textbooks is nothing compared to paying for the real college courses.</p>
<p>The real cost of taking AP classes is the student’s social lives. The students who took too many were a bunch of mindless school zombies that would be far better off with an easier schedule and more free time to pursue interests and develop some passions.</p>
<p>At our HS, the textbooks are included just as they are for every other class. However, the student is required to pay the AP fee.</p>
<p>100 bucks per AP test at my HS. We’re flat out broke, so…</p>
<p>We also occasionally buy guides.</p>
<p>Our CA public school provided books but we paid for tests.</p>
<p>On the bright side…</p>
<p>Depending on where your child goes to college, you can save a bundle in college expenses with AP credits. An additional side benefit we didn’t anticipate is that although DD is completing her first quarter she is already considered a sophomore due to AP credits. This gives her priority enrollment and access to some upper division classes.</p>
<p>We pay for exams not textbooks. Often the teachers recommend specific study guides which we have to pay for and I think we also ended up paying for books read for summer reading. At least we still own them, so I think we must have bought them! While my kids both are going to do a full four years of college - in my younger’s son case he’d have a hard time getting in requirements without the AP credits since he’s also doing a full year abroad as a junior.</p>
<p>In our public HS we pay for the test fees and are required to buy the review books (the school provides the textbooks).</p>
<p>We pay for the tests, nothing else. There are AP test fee reductions (not waivers) available for those who qualify financially.</p>
<p>We pay for the tests in our public school ($87/each. D has 6 this year so sent a check for $522 last month.) There are fee waivers for students receiving free lunch. You can pay in full in November or pay half then and the other half by the end of February. Textbooks are provided, but teachers often recommend a particular study guide book that you buy on your own. </p>
<p>D1 started college with 25 credits from AP classes. Depending on where D2 ends up, she could have up to a generous 45 credits based on predicted scores. Not too shabby for $696.</p>
<p>At my D’s HS the school picks up the cost of the textbooks but for her AP Physics textbook the teacher spent most of the summer buying used books online because the school would not pay for new books (their limit was $65/book). It took him all summer to round up enough books below the price limit set by the school.</p>
<p>This is a school that has open AP classes and uses AVID to get low-income and minority students into AP classes. You would think they would let the teacher get new books so he wouldn’t have to waste so much time finding them used.</p>
<p>Perhaps the physics teacher might want to see these web sites for free physics textbooks:
[Light</a> and Matter: open-source physics textbooks](<a href=“http://www.lightandmatter.com/books.html]Light”>Light and Matter: open-source physics textbooks)
[The</a> Physics Hypertextbook](<a href=“http://physics.info/]The”>http://physics.info/)
[Calculus-Based</a> Physics](<a href=“Homepage | Saint Anselm College”>Homepage | Saint Anselm College)</p>
<p>And others:
[General</a> & Introductory Physics Books](<a href=“http://www.sciencebooksonline.info/physics/general-introductory.html]General”>General & Introductory Physics Books)</p>