Our district requires us to pay the fee but doesn’t require the kids to take the exam 
. So if you take an AP class you are required to pay the exam fee regardless if you end up taking the test. I think this year they are graciously not letting us pay for the one that is colliding with graduation…
At our HS, if you skip the AP exam, they remove the “weighted” benefit from your GPA. Less critical for second semester senior year than earlier in HS, but yes, D will be taking all of hers.
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Same, if an AP is not taken, the weighting is removed AND the name of the course on the transcript is changed.
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5 AP exams here, though he may not get credit that he can actually use to get out of taking much. Rest of school is done. He has 3 this week and 2 next week, then graduation.
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I asked my D about any repercussions like that at her school, she said she didn’t know. And I think, even if there were, she wouldn’t change her mind as she is deep into senior pranks and last day of this, last day of that by now 
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I’ve let mine forego the AP exam in one class sophomore year (still took 5 tests) and one class junior year (would have been 2 tests for one class, and she still took 4 other tests). This year I made it clear she ought to be a good closer and take all 5 tests, though she feels woefully unprepared for one of them. Kudos to kids who finish what they started. I feel old saying this (“I walked uphill both ways in the snow”) but I feel like some young people have become less reliable at follow through compared to generations past…
Now get off my lawn!
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Rose-Hulman sent out a welcome parents of “S22 name” email today. Dates for housing survey, health services setup, and purchasing his laptop are in there. Aww, now things start on his next chapter. He needs to set up his Rose email, check out their LMS (Moodle), and access something called Campus Groups. Even as he wraps up his high school these next three weeks.
All so fast!
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My S19 is a ME major at Rose. Have you joined the parents FB group? It is amazing!
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D22 will be taking all five AP exams. At her school, if you don’t take the exam, you have to take an alternative class final — promised to be difficult.
She’d much rather not endanger her high grades with some hard finals. She’d prefer to take the AP exams even if she doesn’t get great results.
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Yes! I love that group. I’ve saved several posts already for reference later.
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@professionaldad and @2Devils your schools require AP students to take the exam?? Does the school pay for the exam?? Otherwise it seems pretty unfair that kids who can’t afford to take the exam aren’t allowed to take APs (with the weighted grades they imply)!
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Interesting- my kid has finals in the AP classes plus the AP exam.
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Yes, required, and it is well -known when you sign up for the classes. Plus, the AP scores appear on each student’s transcript and overall AP pass rates appear on the profile. Kids on financial aid(this is a private HS), or who otherwise qualify can get fee reduction or exemption, no problem at all. Back in the day, at my public HS, I qualified and received fee exemption the year I took more than one. So I imagine that is still available for public school kids so cost is not a barrier, because you are right–that would be pretty unfair!
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Cost is definitely a potential barrier. You only get a fee waiver if you’re eligible for free lunch (I checked). So families with relatively low incomes need to come up with hundreds of dollars for tests that are meaningless at a lot of colleges or not take the classes and not get into those colleges in the first place. I mean we signed the agreement upfront but I still resent it.
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It’s not a waiver; it’s a reduction of about $40, although the school may opt to pay the balance on its own.
Our district brings the cost to $0 if you’re on free/reduced lunch. So they combo the waiver with district funds.
I went to a college where the AP exam grades were “nice and all”, but you still took a placement test, and you didn’t get any credit for it.
My kid is going to a college where he’s getting a class worth of credit for each one that he scores above their threshold level. And he doesn’t have to take the early classes in the sequences unless he chooses to. So, I suppose there is a benefit to the crappy admissions this year.
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Wow. Our little public school in Florida paid for all the AP exams. No costs for any students regardless of ability to pay.
(The school was not wealthy at all. In fact, the entire school gets free breakfast and lunch regardless of income. And I believe that most public schools in our county provide the same.)
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Yes. 20-30 kids would sign up for each AP class, then steadily drop out until there were less than 10 per class. So the admin down here in our county school began to charge AP fees up front and require the testing to try to prevent kids from trying the class then leaving.
The fees were discounted for kids with need, I think by college board, but not free - maybe still around $60.
The public school in town about 5 miles away has a very different take on this and pays the test fees for each student.
DecOct, Chambana doesn’t get too cold in the winter, at least compared to Chicago. It is pretty hot and humid in August and September though.
Congratulations to your son.
I have a lot of feelings about barriers to higher education and education equality (my job is in public education funding), but I’ll zip it and just say that if a kid takes an AP course and does all the rigorous coursework that entails - they are entitled to the weighted grade regardless of whether or not they write a check to College Board.
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