ADVANCED Placement courses provide students with an opportunity to earn college credit while still in high school. These classes require a lot of determination and responsibility, but they allow students to study subjects in depth and gain a higher level of knowledge.
Despite the benefits, taking a college-level course comes with additional costs. The main expense for AP courses arises at the end of the year, when students must pay to take the final exam that offers college credit. The fee is around $90 and may be covered by a fee waiver. However, recent news has circulated around Granger suggesting that students can pay to take the exam without actually enrolling in the course.
This surprised some students, as passing the exam itself can be tough. That being said, earning college credit isn’t guaranteed — AP exams are scored on a scale from 1 to 5, and students typically need a score of 3, 4, or 5 to receive credit. The option to take the exam without taking the class has sparked mixed opinions among students.
“I think it depends, because I have taken the same AP class twice because I did not pass the test, and if it was possible to just take the test again, I would. It wouldn’t be boring learning everything again, but if it’s the first time taking the test, I would take the class to get practice and gain experience,” Anayah Escamilla (11) said.
Although this approach could be great for students who have previously taken an AP course but failed the exam — it’s a shortcut for the students who haven’t taken the class. For students who haven’t taken an AP course, it’s been recommended to not just take the exam and take the course itself first before attempting the test.
“I think some pros are that you can take the class multiple times and have more experience each time and eventually pass. But I think some of the cons to this approach includes not being able to take practice exams. And aren’t as prepared as other students may be,” Escamilla said.
Since AP classes are difficult and rigorous, students don’t usually just take the exam itself without preparation beforehand, which could be a reason why so many aren’t aware of the idea of simply just paying for the exam at the end of the year.
“I personally wouldn’t recommend taking any test — especially if it were an AP test — without taking the class first because it wouldn’t do anything. If you were to take the class and then take the test, it would help you a lot. I would not recommend this to anyone,” Sarai Valle Alcantara (11) said.
There are also mixed opinions whether paying the AP fee itself is really worth it. Or should students turn to an alternative and just take CE courses provided here at Granger.
“I do think AP course classes are worth the fees and the time because they do prepare students for the future. And I would take the class because I’d learn more from a class than an exam,” Valle Alcantara said.
Whether or not a student chooses to take the actual course is optional. This call depends on a student’s ability to prepare for the exam on their own and will vary from person to person.
