AP Exams Adding Stress In More Ways than One

Casey Kelleher, Features Editor

With the end of the year quickly approaching, comes warmer weather, sandals, longer days, blooming flowers, and chirping birds. For many students, however, this is also the season for the dreaded Advanced Placement (AP) exams. Juniors and seniors at SHS spend months trapped inside stuffy classrooms working hard to pass challenging AP classes as well as worrying about impending college admissions. All of this stress and anxiety culminates in the first few weeks of May when the AP exams are administered.

Taking one or two AP exams can be stressful due to the amount of studying it entails; however, exam season is also expensive. Students pay $92 ($63 for students who qualify for free or reduced lunch) for each exam. Compared to junior year, there are many more options for seniors to take AP classes: AP Chemistry, Physics, Literature, Psychology, Government, Biology, Statistics, and Calculus represent popular classes for seniors. These increased options result in the pressure to pay even more fees in early spring. For example, students who take four AP classes pay $368 in exam fees if they decide to take all of their exams. Seniors who have already paid hundreds of dollars in college application fees and SAT expenses say the additional cost of AP exams is an additional burden. The fear of paying for exams, and scoring below a 3 is also a very real fear for students, and it can certainly deter them from taking the exam. “I’m paying too much to fail,” said SHS senior Maddi Tripp.

There is a clear frustration among some students regarding AP exams. Other students, however, simply don’t take them because their college doesn’t accept them, or they don’t want to feel overwhelmed with too many exams. Other students select exams that will correspond with their future college majors. Senior Danny Monger said, “I didn’t take the AP Lit exam because I was focusing on my AP Calculus exam and AP Computer Science exam. It was more important for me to do well on these tests than on the AP Literature exam.”

This year, there have been many complaints, especially from seniors, associted with AP exams. However, regardless of the cost and corresponding issues, many students still decided to take their exams. For example, 92 seniors took AP Literature and Composition this year, and 66 students took the exam. This represents about 72% of the students. Additionally, out of the 136 juniors who took AP Language and Composition, 130 took the exam, or about 96%. The difference in the percentages taking the AP Literature exam versus the AP Language exam can most likely be explained by the fact that both are English classes; therefore, students may not need any more college credits for their college English class if they have already taken AP Language.

English Department Chairperson Ryan Beattie offered his own thoughts on AP classes: “What I am proud of,” he said, “is that we teach a course that challenges kids to learn and grow, and the test is not the end all be all.” With this in mind, Beattie encourages students to take the test, but does not require them to, and they are not penalized for not taking it. In this case, students can feel less pressure.

With the rising cost of college — and the additional burdens of paying for SATs and AP exams — some students may be questioning whether they should take AP classes. This decision is a bit of a “now versus later” matter: would you rather pay $92 now and get college credit, or take the course in college, where you will likely pay more? Students must also weigh other factors when choosing AP courses: Are you passionate about the subject? Does your college accept these exam scores? Perhaps the best piece of advice is to take classes that are interesting to you.

Many students have been faced with decisions this year that involve financial factors, such as how many exams to take and which college to attend. This is just a small taste of what they will begin to experience as they become independent adults. Although students may not enjoy the burden of these decisions, they can appreciate the benefits of becoming more aware of all the factors that must be taken into account.