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Once
again as I was talking to school district employees, I was amazed by some of
the things that our young people are doing.
Now this is not a negative thing.
Our kids are taking more AP (advanced placement) courses in high school
than ever. What they aren’t doing is always
taking the AP test. AP courses are
tougher courses across most subjects like math, biology, chemistry, history, English,
etc that kids can take in high school after they shown that they can achieve at
a higher level. In May, after the
majority of the coursework is done, there is a week in which all kids across
the country take the exact same test for the particular subject they took.
What
is disappointing is that after taking these rigorous courses some kids aren’t
taking the AP test. They take this tough
course for a semester or a whole year and don’t take the AP test which can help
them get though college sooner and save money.
How is that? If you take the test
and get a 3, 4, or 5 on the test on a scale of 1-5, you can get credit at most
colleges that will shorten the number of
credits you will need to take in college.
The test does cost money but the offset of college cost is probably at
least $3-4 saved for each dollar spent on the test. It also looks very good on the high school
transcript.
In
the case of my own kids, our daughter who went to MIT only got credit for
electives for two courses even though she took 7 AP courses but that was
definitely worth it because she probably never would have gotten into the
school without them. She ended up
graduating in 3 ½ years. Our son who
goes to the University of Washington in Seattle which is a public school, got
almost a quarters worth of credits for the 6 AP courses he took and then took
the test. He’s anticipating graduating
in 3 years and a quarter. There are 3
quarters in the normal September to June school year with a summer quarter from
June through August.
The
other great benefit is the test taking experience that the kids get from taking
the final test of a tough course. After
taking some of the toughest courses in high school, the kids should want to
take the test.
Our
young people should be very proud of their achievements.
