Hello, my daughter is self studying for the AP Music Theory examination. We have been looking for a place for her to take the test on May 14th in California and either it is not offered or if it is, the schools do not allow “outsiders” to take the exam. I was told today that it is illegal for a school district not to offer the exam if anyone located in it wanted to take a particular test. The College Board has sent me all of the schools in California that offer outside testing but again they either don’t offer the test at all, or that particular test is not available for outsiders due to the extra work involved. Any suggestions? The deadline for a lot of schools is tomorrow although the College Board’s deadline is March 14th.
I can completely understand a school district not wanting to administrator an AP exam to a student who is not enrolled. On the bright side I guess you will know to confirm testing before taking an AP again! Is there not some homeschool consortium that administers AP testing in your area? Many universities/colleges do not offer credit for AP Music Theory that counts for anything and most music majors need to take music theory from their university/college and will not be granted credit for AP. My DD took AP Music Theory, it is a really hard exam. Has your daughter considered taking the ABRSM music theory test instead? Some schools will give credit for that exam.
Look for charters and private Christian schools within a 100-200 mile radius. Smaller Christian schools might be open to admining it. What area of CA are you in? I got a small PSP to admin AP exams for my son. They’re in So Cal.
I can’t speak to the legal issues of California law, but I will say that you need to focus on schools that offer AP Music Theory. As the exam requirements for Music Theory are more complicated than simply passing out an exam book and proctoring the exam, you will encounter resistance if the school does not offer the course.
Since you have the list of schools from the College Board, and internet access, you can review schools’ offerings and at least eliminate schools where it’s not going to happen. As @sbjdorlo says, you will have to expand your geographic search beyond your immediate area. Good luck.
Can you call CB and get names of testing coordinators? I’m in Georgia and my homeschooled son was told do that.
S/he already did per the original post.
Thanks @skieurope . Skimmed too fast.
IME, the lists the college board gives out are completely useless; they don’t have all the schools that will let you test and some of the ones they say will actually won’t. You’re pushing up against deadlines and with a less-popular exam…but I’d get on the phone right now with every public and private school anywhere nearby and ask them if they’ll seat her (my approach is to word it as if I’m assuming that OF COURSE they will; you just need to find out who to give the check to). This is our third year dealing with this; it’s a super frustrating problem that the college board really needs to do something about, but they don’t care because there aren’t enough homeschoolers trying to do AP exams to be big money for them. We’ve always been able to find somewhere to test, but it’s stressful every year (and I start looking in January). Good luck!
Weighing in here a bit late but we had this same issue with a Physics test my D wanted to take that was not offered by our local public school - according to the College Board they are ‘supposed’ to order the test for you. They ended up offering to order the test and proctor it for our D if we paid the fee to cover the time (think it was $100) which we happily agreed to pay as it was the only option that we saw to allow her to take this test.