May is one of the most exciting months for high school students as the end of the school year approaches, but it is also stressful for those taking AP tests. These college level exams are cumulative assessments on everything students learn in some of the most rigorous classes offered. The AP curriculum includes a large quantity of topics and teachers must stay on task in order to cover all of the content within the school year. This is where students who begin school in Sept. have to overcome a major obstacle with the shortened amount of time they have before AP testing. They don’t get enough time to learn the content in their AP classes before the exams in May. Losing up to four weeks of time to cover topics puts students at a severe disadvantage. They are forced to rush their learning and in some cases, they cannot get through all of the content.
The average school year in the United States is approximately 180 days, which is 36 weeks. This means that students that start school later are losing 1/9 of the school year to learn In classes like AP Modern World History, which has 9 units, students starting school in August would have been able to finish an entire unit before students in schools starting later have even begun the class. This doesn’t provide equal opportunities for all students because forcing a faster paced learning in an already challenging class creates more stress and higher difficulty. Decreased time also means that many students are left to self study the later topics in the class.
The Course and Exam Descriptions provided by the College Board for many AP classes states that the course is intended to be completed over a “full academic year.” This plan for completion of the course doesn’t allow students starting later to follow the intended pace without missing content because they don’t have the amount of time allotted in the provided plan. This shows that students who start school later are not given the proper amount of time to learn the content. Not only does cramming this content into 8 months affect the learning of students, but it also leaves them with no new content left to learn for over a month after the AP tests are over, which isn’t an effective use of students’ time.
A solution to this problem is to create two versions of the test, the May version, and the June version. This allows schools to choose which test to provide based on their school’s calendar.
This solution will cost money ,but it is money that the College Board doesn’t have. The College Board has excess funds, which have been used for many reasons, including paying top employees up to 2 million dollars and providing first class or charter travel for these high level employees, according to ProPublica. The College Board makes its large profits using information and the testing of students in AP classes and the SAT. As of 2021, the College Board is charging 50 cents to colleges for one student’s information. It costs $99 for one AP test, leaving many juniors and seniors paying almost 400-500 dollars per year to sit for their tests, which doesn’t include the PSAT or SAT that many students take. With nearly 3 million students sitting for an AP exam every year, there is no shortage of funds to create another test.
There is a clear need for a June version of the AP tests for students who start school later for both their mental health and ability to perform. The College Board is a huge organization, which gives it the opportunity to provide students equal chances on their test and support their learning.
