Rows of desks fill the library during the month of May. Students quietly file in one by one after over nine months of prepping for the Advanced Placement test.

Dartmouth College, ranked #10 for National Universities according to U.S. News, reports that beginning with the class of 2018, the college will no longer grant credit based on its students’ AP test scores in high school in an article titled “Advanced Placement, Not Credit” by Alexandra Tilsley on Jan. 18.  However, Dartmouth is not the first institution that has stop granting college credit by using AP exam scores.

Dartmouth ran an independent experiment in its psychology department, asking all students that earned a five on the AP psychology test, to take a placement test based on the final exam for intro psychology. It was found that 90% of students failed the placement test and did not perform better than their peers who have not taken the AP test or scored less than a five, according to Tilsley’s article.

Students may be exempted from certain courses that count towards their degrees in college by receiving certain scores on AP tests. Scores differ between various universities and colleges.

I think students who score well on an AP test should earn an exemption from the tested subject.

According to the College Board, students will have to pay $89 to take a single exam in 2014. Dartmouth should keep in mind that students are paying for the tests so they can save money to take other courses in college.

Tuition is not cheap, especially if a student is out of state.

To put things into perspective, I will use the University of Texas–Austin’s tuition rates. For a semester in state for 2013-2014 it is about $9,790 and about $33,824 for out-of-state students according to U.S. News. An $89 test saves a UT student from having to take six hours of U.S. History course for at least $2,873 or more depending on the student’s major.

Students spend from 160 to180 days out of a year for school instruction, the number of days vary depending on the state the student resides in according to the Education Commission of the States. Due to the A/B schedule, AP students on campus spend 75 days prepping for the AP tests that are first administered on May 5^th. AP students have been pounded with information that are essential for the tests, some being tips on how to “ace” the free response portion of the test or the material the test covers.

After each unit for an AP subject, teachers generally administer a test to allow students to apply the knowledge they have learned on mock AP test questions. AP students on campus spend approximately 113 hours of instruction per AP course before the exam. Keep in mind that those are only the hours spent in class, there are many more hours spent on homework and studying outside of class.

Before the AP test, some choose to prep on their own with books that claim to help students achieve high scores. Books costs as much as 55 dollars on the Barnes and Noble’s website.

Granted if they can’t pass a department test they shouldn’t be able to receive credit if it essential for their degree, but tell me when will a nurse need six hours worth of US history when preforming a routine checkup on a patient.

Students spend countless hours studying and preparing themselves before the AP test, spend nearly $100 on the exam, and some invest on study aids for the exam. You would think that being a prestigious school, they realize that students deserve to receive credit for their hard work and dedication for the high score on their AP test(s).