Told student cannot study independantly for AP- help?

<p>Hi-</p>

<p>My son is a high school junior. He has a 4.3 GPA. He attends a midwestern suburban high school in an upper middle class area. His class has about 450 students in it. They offer about 10 AP classes and many more ACP classes. They do not have an IB program. He is currently taking several AP classes and plans to take many more his senior year. He has straight A's. He did the research last fall and found out about the possibility of independently studying for AP exams. At an AP meeting a month ago I asked someone in our district if this was a possibility and was told that it is. She was enthusiastic about it and called his counselor into the conversation. We ended the conversation with her telling me to contact her in February to let her know which test to order for him. I contacted her this week. We are now we are being told by his counselor and principal that he cannot take an AP exam without taking the class and the counselor is reporting not remembering the details of this prior conversation. I believe that this hasn't been done before and the school just isn't prepared to handle it. I'm hoping this can be a learning experience for them, but in any case, my son would like to take this test. Anyone else have challenges with their school district allowing them to take the test without taking the class? Any advice on how to handle this situation?</p>

<p>Could be that they are afraid that he will fail and hurt the school’s AP pass percentage or something like that.</p>

<p>Is there another school that he can take the desired AP tests at?</p>

<p>On the other hand, if they are low value (for college credit) AP tests like environmental science, human geography, statistics, or physics B, then it may not be worth hassling with (though he may still want to self-study the subjects for personal interest anyway).</p>

<p>@ucbalumnus : never heard that ap stat / physics b are low in terms of college credit? furthermore, jnsw94’s son may want to take them for application/sat2 reasons.</p>

<p>Anyway, I’ve been told the same thing from my high school, you have to see what high schools around you will allow you to take it. Keep in mind that if your son has another test that day, your location can’t be more than 30 minutes away (unless you take both tests at the other school).</p>