<p>At many of the larger, well funded public schools that I am familiar with relatively weaker students are routinely screened out of the AP program. Usually this is based on meeting GPA requirements, sometimes a combination of GPA and rigor of prerequisite courses, sometimes with Regents exam scores (in NYS) thrown into the mix. There are some schools that even administer pre-AP examinations to determine which students will be permitted to take a course. These schools almost always have a significantly higher percentage of students scoring a 3,4 or 5 on the exam than tose schools with an open enrollment policy. Open enrollment is, last I heard, the preferred approach of the College Board (lots more tests to be sold!). Most of the school districts in my part of NYS do indeed practice a modified form of open enrollment. If a student pursuing a college prep degree wants to take an AP course they can. Yes, this means a lot of kids who are not really ready or committed to working hard end up scoring a 2 or even a 1. But some of them – even students who had mediocre grades prior to taking the AP course due to lack of being challenged – end up with a 4 or 5.</p>