It’s a fresh new year with fresh new classes. Students who are taking AP classes are hoping to pass the AP exam at the end of the year. But starting this year, only the first six AP exams will be free. Before, FCPS paid for all the AP exams. This year, FCPS is paying for six AP exams. Students will have to pay for the rest themselves and some students are unhappy with this decision.
“I’m upset about it because at the end of this year, I’m going to have a total of five AP classes. I was planning on taking an AP science and AP math next year. This means I will have to pay for at least one of those exams, which makes me frustrated,” said junior Annina Miller.
Even though students have to pay for the exams, some see a positive side to this. It may help improve students to work harder and better in their classes.
“When I proctor kids taking AP, some of the students are falling asleep, they aren’t taking them seriously, so if they pay for exams, then they’ll take them more seriously,” said AP BC calculus teacher, Terri Stirk.
Not only may the money saved by this change have a positive effect on how the students work in their AP classes, but it will also help the FCPS budget.
“The money is definitely being used for things like teacher salaries, supplies, to keep things in the budget that wouldn’t otherwise be there, because the problem is that the number of students is growing, and you have to pay for teachers and things like, but they’re not giving us enough money for those students so that money has to come from some place,” said Stirk.
Despite the cost, some still think it’s worth it because when you have a goal that you’re striving for, you try to achieve it no matter what comes in your way .
“I think it’s worth it because I have my own goals that I would want to achieve,” said Miller.