College prices average around $24,000 for a public school and $48,000 for a private school per year. For some students this means parents have been saving up for their college since before they were born, others may be hoping for a scholarship, or are working to get themselves through college, and for others college means debt and student loans.

No matter what way the money for college is gathered it never hurts to get the opportunity to save some money, and with weighted classes at Bowie High School, this opportunity is possible.

Students currently enrolled in world history have been given the opportunity to receive college credit for the course. In order to receive the credit the students had to sign up to take the AP test, which had a $93 non-refundable fee.

The test is graded on a five-point scale and to recieve credit for a public college a student would need a three or higher and to recieve credit for a private college a four or higher.

I think that the test is a great way for students to get ahead in the competitive race for college.

The test is constructed with two sections, a multiple choice section and a writing section, and each section is worth 50% of the overall grade. Section one, the multiple choice questions, contains 70 questions total. The writing section has three essay types and students don’t know which one they’ll get. I think that if a student has paid enough attention throughout the year to be able to at least get 35 questions correct and is an okay writer they can definitely pass the test with a three to get the public school credit.

Students who wanted to take the test but also felt that they needed more prep for the test were provided with many resources to hopefully help them strive and encouraged to join study groups outside of school.

From January 19th through May 11th FIT sessions were created to help students be prepared for the test. There were six review sessions that were optional for students who needed to go over a specific time period in history, and there was also three mandatory essay sessions.

Many students jumped on the opportunity to take the test considering the odds looked extremely good for them, however there was one issue that was faced that discouraged some students from wanting to take the test.

The reason that the essay FIT sessions were mandatory was because throughout this school year pre-AP teachers had been teaching their students the essay styles needed to pass next year’s U.S. history AP test and the styles of next year’s AP test and this year’s AP test are different. This meant that for students who had been learning how to write essays a certain way all year had to try to put that knowledge aside and learn a completely new way to write.

This issue, while slightly discouraging to some, is being overcome thanks to Marie Hoffman-Howell’s sessions to help students learn the “new old” styling of historical writing.

I think that more tests like this need to be offered to students so that way they can prepare for the future better and save money.

All in all, even if a student who tries to take the test doesn’t pass they still gained the experience of what an AP test is like to help them improve and be more prepared for any other AP test they’ll take.

Considering all of the time, money and stress a student can save themselves by attempting to take the test for a fee of only $93 I believe it is a great idea to try.