Why AP tests should be thrown out

Why AP tests should be thrown out

Carmen Canals, Staff Writer

High school students have the option to take AP classes, which are college level courses. Taking advanced course placements has a few benefits, such as boosting GPA and receiving college credits. However, students will only receive that credit if they pass the AP exam at the end of the year. This contrasts to duel enrollment because in duel enrollment the student will get the college credit no matter what. AP exams should not be used to determine a student’s intelligence level because College Board gives too little time and one test should not determine whether or not a student is granted college credits.

College Board expects all AP students to answer all of the questions successfully. Not only are AP tests excruciatingly long, students are forced to test at a crunch time. For example, the AP U.S. history exam consists of 55 multiple choice questions, 3 SAQ’s, an LEQ and a DBQ. That on its own is already too much, but students barely have enough time to finish it all, especially on the writing portions. People are recommended to spend an hour on the DBQ and 40 minutes on the LEQ. The time crunch in itself stresses students out. This causes students to preform worse on the exam.

In addition, if students fail the AP exam, then all of their hard work that they put in during the year will go to waste. A single exam should not determine whether or not a student should get the credit because some people are not good test takers.

Taking an extensive test while also being on a time crunch can be the reason why some people fail the AP exams. The inability to focus could also be a contributing factor, which can partly be caused by the time that students are required to take the test.