<p>What Sligh_Anarchist said, but let me address some of the assumptions of the OP:</p>
<p>If I fail the test then their pass rate goes down and the teacher's pass rate goes down and he won't get a raise/gets fired idk.</p>
<p>The school pass rate does go down, but depending on the size of the school, it probably will not be by a significant margin. And unless you're looking at hyperactive parents who want that pass rate above a certain number, one student opting to tank the test isn't going to significantly impact that pass rate, and even then, that number has to be borderline there.</p>
<p>Teacher pay is almost never based upon those considerations. In most localities, teacher pay is based upon two considerations: how many years of teaching experience that you have and how much education beyond their bachelor's degree that they have, neither of which is dependent on you passing the test. While some schools are considering going to ideas of merit pay (which depending on the location, would be based upon evaluations, test scores, student achievement rate, and the like), very few districts/schools have adopted this yet. I'm not sure of your location, but given the mention of attendance in California colleges, I'd assume you're located near that state, and I don't know of any of those states that currently have merit pay.</p>
<p>Perhaps your individual district/school has particular incentives for achievement, and it might impact those. I know in my district they don't have those.</p>
<p>As far as retention of staff goes, many school district teachers are governed by a teacher's union that helps negotiate the contractual rights of teachers with the district. Those rights may even extend to non-union members (they do in my district). Our district is also going through budget cuts right now, but the procedure for letting teachers go is very spelled out: it's one set of scenarios for forcing teachers to switch buildings in case there are overages in one building and shortages in another; it's a second set of scenarios in case there are overages in the district (and it's based on experience, not ability). The odds are that unless your teacher is one of the newest, budget cuts wouldn't impact him anyway, regardless of his ability (I know, sounds a bit backwards, right?). And if it were going to impact him, what you do doesn't matter.</p>
<p>Here's the kicker, they make taking the test madatory somehow. I guess I could have gotten out of it if I made a fuss but I didn't and just signed up for it.</p>
<p>Our district also makes the taking of the test mandatory. The thought process behind it is all in the name of gathering information about the quality of the program. The hoops that the district makes you jump through if you don't want to take the test are so outrageous that people usually just say, "Fine, I'll take the test." :)</p>
<p>I am in Calc AB right now, and based on the tests we take I would probably get a 4 on the exam. But I don't want to pass the exam, because if I do then I have to take the next level up of math in college, which might be too hard, which might lower my GPA, which I need to be at least a 3.8.</p>
<p>I'd take the test for all it's worth.</p>
<p>For one thing, you might change your mind about your career path between now and the fall (it's happened).</p>
<p>For another thing, you are not required to report your score.</p>
<p>For a third thing, even if you do report your score, you are only required to take the next math course if you plan to accept the credit. (NOTE: Only some colleges require you to take the next course to accept the credit; some will just give you the credit for free.) You can always opt to decline the credit, and you can always opt to take the first semester/quarter Calculus course instead.</p>
<p>In addition, you should really take a look at what that second course requires before you go and freak out about what it might do to your GPA, as the way most colleges award credit for the AB and BC courses is somewhat antiquated. The following is taken from UC</a> Davis General Catalog | Mathematics (MAT) Courses,
where the bolded text within the course description indicates AP Calculus AB topics:</p>
<p>21B. Calculus (4)
Lecture—3 hours; discussion—1 hour. Prerequisite: course 21A or 21AH. Continuation of course 21A. Definition of definite integral, fundamental theorem of calculus, techniques of integration. Application to area, volume, arc length, average of a function, improper integral, surface of revolution. Only 2 units of credit to students who have completed course 16B, 16C, 17B, or 17C. GE credit: SciEng.—I, II, III. (I, II, III.)</p>
<p>Notice that the only thing that doesn't lie completely within the AB course description are (1) "techniques of integration", which would include u-substitution (covered), partial fractions (not on the exam, but covered in some courses), integration by parts (not on the exam, but covered in some courses), integration by tables (not on the exam, and not usually covered), and integration by trig substitution (not on the exam, but covered in some courses), (2) arc lengths (which is no longer on the exam, but some courses cover), and (3) improper integrals (not on the exam, but really a non-difficult two day topic).</p>
<p>If you can get a 4 on the exam, you should be able to pull an A in this course, especially if a high GPA is among your collegiate goals for transfer.</p>
<p>One last thing: if a program requires a 3.8 GPA to transfer, and you have to perform extraordinarily unintuitive feats that are the reverse of standard logic to achieve it, you might not want to apply anyway. That requirement is almost certainly for a reason.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>