<p>I was just thinking of how many people are going to blow off this year's AP tests due to the fact that a majority will have made their college decision by May 1 (right before the AP testing schedule begins). Last year, so many people blew off the AP tests that it made me sad that they wasted so much of the school's money through their lack of care. This year, my AP macroeconomics teacher said that he was trying to get the school to make students taking AP classes pay $60 per AP class; the only way the students can get their money back is by passing the test. I think this is a really good idea seeing as the amount of people who don't care about the money being spent on them is pretty big. </p>
<p>Does anybody's school do something like this or do you think this would be a fair approach? I just hate to see my school's money being wasted by students who do not care about passing the test, but only take AP classes to seem smart or to have a better GPA. </p>
<p>Are there more qualified people as a result? I know that there will still be some willing to pay for some of the benefits alone, but overall, do you feel that the classes move faster and people have at least some motivation to pass the tests?</p>
<p>At first I was doubtful about his plan, but it started making more sense after seeing so many people not caring about their classes and remembering back to last year’s AP testing. A lot of people went to sleep or gave up halfway through the tests. It was really sad.</p>
<p>At my school, if we are in an AP class, we are required to take the tests and required to pay for them as well. So, it makes sense for us to try our best on the test, since otherwise the money is wasted.</p>
<p>Hopefully schools start doing this more often, especially when funds are being slashed for schools. However, there needs to be some sort of waiver for students that are not financially stable and cannot afford to pay for the tests themselves.</p>
<p>You’re in the class -> You take the exam.
You’re not on free lunch -> You pay for the exam.
You’re not in the class -> You don’t take the exam (you can’t self study).
You failed an exam -> You may retake it, but you’re paying for it again.</p>
<p>I think not being able to self study an AP test only hinders those students who are willing to excel in their studies. I think my school is like this, but not many people want to self study anything so I guess it doesn’t affect anybody. I wanted to self study a test or two, but in the end I didn’t see the benefit of studying for them if the school wasn’t going to let me take the test.</p>
<p>At my school everyone takes the tests for free, but not everyone tries (around 25%-40% truly try I guess). </p>
<p>I was also planning on testing at another school, but somebody on here told me it would be complicated getting the credit to transfer for some reason, so I was like meh.</p>
<p>At my school we have to pay for the test. If we don’t take the test then the school considers it an honors class, so it affects gpa and class rank.</p>
<p>My school pays for all the AP tests and it is sad. In an AP class of 30, probably only 5-10 people pass depending on the exam. People just take them to boost their GPA basically.</p>