How my personal experience with AP registration got me thinking


Check the AP course you want to be tested on. It’s $95 per test. Multiply that times the number of AP tests you take. Write a check.

Those were the steps I took on Thursday evening as I looked to register for my U.S. History and Biology AP tests. The ridiculous price of a few sheets of embossed, inked paper annoyed even my anxious parents badgering me to register. Of course, they still wrote the check.

At MVHS, the price of AP tests has raised very little complaint from parents or students. Sure, there is always some quiet muttering questioning the sense in spending almost $100 on a test. However, the allure of that perfect five for AP credit qualification overshadows the costs and parents happily dole out their hard-earned savings for an opportunity to achieve it.

Then, I begin thinking. If an upper middle-class, academically-motivated student like me thought $95 was a lot of money to spend on tests, how might the price of the test affect a poorer or a less studious individual?

As I stared at the check for $190, I thought about the various costs of testing and applying for college. Making a list, it came up to be quite a lot.

• PSAT= $25 per
• SAT I= $47 per; ACT= $48
• SAT II= $21 per
• AP exam= $95 each
• copy of transcript= $3 each
• secondary school report= $5 each
• college application= $65-100 each
• SAT score report (free for first four)= $10 each

In total, the costs will be above $500 for most MVHS students. For me personally, I will be looking at more than $2000 in total payments to various colleges and College Board. This fee total does not even count the cost of actually attending high school, SAT classes, and tutors that we have to pay. The AP test serves as an unwelcome reminder of those commissions.

One has to wonder why public education funded by taxes requires so much check-writing. Politicians talk all the time about how the U.S. Education system needs reform. Maybe, just maybe, that should start with the thousands of dollars in fees for some fancy paper.

Even in Cupertino, the cost of the AP exams is affecting students’ desire to take the exams. Several of my classmates will not be sitting down in early May with the rest of the students in their class.

Who knows? It may be wise to do just that.