<p>Thanks, nedad. I am really ambivalent about both the exams and the weighting.
On the one hand, without the validation of the exam, the quality of AP courses can vary hugely. It is known that in some schools, practically no one takes the exams and yet can lay claim to be in AP classes.<br>
Our school has decided to encourage as many students as possible to take APs. This means not demanding that everyone take the exam and allowing in some students who are not as well prepared as they should be. My S's history teacher mentioned this as a concern one month into the school year; she told me that she would no longer try to accommodate the slower students so that she could cover all the materials in the class. Next year, the school is launching AVID to help those slower students without barring them from APs.
When my S took the AP Chem exam, all the students in his class took it, and only 2 from the other class did--evidence of the difference in quality of the teachers.
Students are not required to pay the exam fees until some time in the spring--which would be after the end of the first semester, and of course, well after college applications have been sent out. I believe that class rank is calculated at the end of junior year and then again some time in senior year--I'm not sure exactly when.</p>