By Claire Burnett, Features Editor
Every year, Advanced Placement (AP) classes offer exams in the spring to give students a chance to earn college credit for an AP class they take in high school. Registration just opened up on October 15th for the 2022 AP exams, so many students need to make the decision whether or not to take the exam, or, for some students, multiple exams.
Junior Dora Zhou is planning to take five AP exams this year: AP Language, AP World History, AP Physics C, AP Chemistry, and AP Calculus BC. She described the two reasons she decided to take so many exams: to challenge herself and to earn college credit.
AP exams are guaranteed to be difficult- they cover a full year’s worth of information for a college-level course. Because of this, AP exams are nothing short of a challenge for ambitious high school students.
Dora Zhou referenced that knowing she has to take the AP exams in the spring “keeps me more motivated to learn things that challenge me and help me understand other things better.” With the added pressure of taking an exam at the end of the year, many students, like Dora, believe that it helps them learn more because they have a clear goal for the near future.
Dora’s other reason for taking the exams and one of the most popular reasons for taking AP exams among students is to potentially earn college credits and not have to retake the class in college. Dora added “it’s always nice to have a head start on things in college, whether that means getting it out of the way or allowing you to take more advanced classes in college.” By passing exams for certain college courses, it allows students to skip some entry-level courses.
Senior Iris Zhan agreed, remarking, “I’m taking microeconomics, macroeconomics, and statistics because it will give me lots of college credits.” Since Iris is taking three AP exams, they could avoid having to take three extra classes in college, which would give them more free time and save money in the long run.
Overall, students have a multitude of reasons for deciding whether or not to take certain AP exams. College credits, motivation, cost, and class difficulty can all be factored into their final decision.