Essay: Why Students Should Take AP Exams

AP courses are supposed to be hard. Their curriculums were designed by the Collegeboard to challenge motivated students and build up essential academic skills. However, aspects like the cost of taking AP exams, Arlington’s policy requiring students to take the AP exam with the course, and the north’s late school year start often create unintentional difficulties, adding stress to already difficult classes. To start, the exam themselves are expensive. At $94 per exam, even students who are able to afford the fee might think twice about dropping hundreds of dollars on AP exams. The hefty fee might discourage student who are on the fence about taking another AP exam from doing so, or it might discourage students who are new to taking APs from taking more than a few. Senior Erin Traut comments, “It’s frustrating because we’re working hard and taking advanced courses, and our wallets have to take the hits for it, and not everyone can afford that. Everything seems to come down to money, which sucks, especially in a country where there’s sicha huge gap between the wealthy, the middle class, and the poor” Additionally, Arlington’s curriculum is structured so that seniors have the most opportunity to take many AP courses, and one must also take into account all of the other costs faced by many college-bound seniors, like college application fees and the price

According to AP World History teacher James Lillis, “We as a district will not let the cost of the test get in the way of you taking the test. We have the Arlington education fund which will cover the cost of student who are challenged by the cost.” So, for students who want to take more AP courses but are struggling to pay for the fees, it might be helpful to contact your guidance office about exam fee aid before abandoning the