<p>i've been meaning to ask this question for a while but keep forgetting lol</p>
<p>at our school every single kid who takes the AP class is forced to take the AP test because the school pays for it... and if you decide to not take the AP test you have to reimburse the school. </p>
<p>with that being said there are a lot of kids taking AP courses just for the .5 GPA boost and don't care at all about the test... when i took my AP US History test (most popular AP class in the school) a lot of the kids just went to sleep or just stared off into oblivion when the essay part came around... a lot of kids drew pictures instead of writing essays as well</p>
<p>i was very happy to see this of course since the grades are curved and this gave me a better shot of being up higher on the curve...</p>
<p>i was just wondering if a lot of kids at your school/AP test center were like this as well sleeping, staring into space, just doing one or two essays, drawing pictures while they are supposed to be doing essays, etc...</p>
<p>My school doesn't offer to pay for the AP exams, so it isn't necessary if you take them even if you take the class. That being said, most of the students actually attempted to complete the exams (generally, most students want to do well)... even though there is always a lot of talk beforehand ("it doesn't matter if I do bad" etc).</p>
<p>AP/Honors courses are offered a +1 (so 5/4 weight), which is why a lot of students take the classes. They also have a policy where if you take the AP exam, you are exempted from the final (this pretty much gets everyone to take the exam).. although they were thinking of changing that because kids were doing what you said, drawing pictures, just to get out of the final. Doesn't that sound like a waste of $$..</p>
<p>Most kids at my school take it pretty seriously, as in they really try their hardest. Ive only seen a few kids completely blow off the test(one kid in AP Euro and a few kids for the Environmental exam).</p>
<p>We have to pay for our own exams at our school so we tend to stress about it a lot.</p>
<p>APs get a 5.0 out of a 4.0 GPA curve, yet not many students opp for AP because it's pretty troublesome to get "heavy" courseloads approved at our school. I was planning on taking only 3 APs and one honors course next year, and the principal wants me to write a letter of appeal. uguh</p>
<p>Most people here take it pretty seriously but still don't do well. There was like two people who walked out during the FRQ's of the APUSH test.</p>
<p>Well, I took two AP tests at different places, since my school doesn't offer them. One was in a small sort of out-of-the-way type of room, I'm not really sure what it's normally used for, probably nothing. There were people going about their usual business and the occasional disruptive class activity in the hallways.</p>
<p>The second place was some huge formal test center in Cambridge, MA, in a tall building. Getting there involved an elevator. And it was a large classroom with neat rows of desks. And outside, there were two water fountains, one higher, one lower, and with the collective label "AP water fountain. Choose A or B."</p>
<p>At my school, the more popular exams (with hundreds are students taking them) are done in my school's gym. They drag out the ratty old tables and chairs that are reserved especially for the AP exams for the "special occasion." The tables are so horrible that they give each student a smooth piece of wood to put on top of the table to write on! About three hundred students take the test in the gym, and if there are even more students signed up for an exam, they open up another smaller classroom to accommodate the rest. </p>
<p>Even though a lot of people at my school get fee waivers for the AP test and pay only $5 per test, almost everybody takes the exams pretty seriously. </p>
<p>Some teachers give out final exams right before the AP test to force their students to study. xP</p>
<p>Honors is 4.5 and AP is 5.0 for us. We are must pay for our own AP Exam and it's mandatory.</p>
<p>That being said, unlike other schools, our AP program, I think, is rather tough. I've seen some schedules here that would be insane for my school. In fact, I don't think anyone takes more than 3 APs because 3 APs alone is tough. I guess the best part is that our school averages like a 4 (or in some classes, higher) on nearly all our AP tests, so the prep is good. </p>
<p>But yeah, I don't think admin would approve of anyone at our school taking >3 AP classes.</p>
<p>Nautilus World Headquarters, baby! It was pretty sweet, they volunteered since we couldn't use our school gym this year. We got a huge and I mean HUGE room with super comfy chairs and huge tables all to ourselves.. It was pretty sweet.</p>
<p>I also had a couple tests, with less people, in a classroom at school. Woot.</p>
<p>Our AP exams were at a church, which I felt was kinda ironic. But anyway, we had to pay the whole $70 fee, so whoever was taking them took them pretty seriously.</p>
<p>At our school we have to take the test or we don't get credit for the course. We also have to take a final for some subjects. And we also have to pay the whole fee, so most people take it. However, during the last hour or so, I looked around the room and there were kids sitting around with their heads in their hands, looking lost or troubled, and just sitting there. There were other people who were writing furiously, though. One kid kept asking if he could leave early. None of us were really prepared for the exam. A few people afterwards told me that they did all of the multiple choice questions, but weren't able to fill them in and only got up to 35 or 40 out of 75...</p>
<p>Well our school used to pay for them so generally kids who took the test were looking for that GPA boost, but now that some money is attached people were generally more focused. Though I have a good story about how last year was the last year the school paid for the test, and during this year the AP chemistry class was the most popular with 27 students. Though we had a new teacher, and then he got fired since he burned two students with one of his lab, and they never got a replacement until oh late february and that was entirely too late. So we didn't care and then apparently on the test everyone was either writing letters apologozing for the weak scores from out school or drawing pictures of our teacher burning students, so it was pretty funny overall.</p>