By Marissa Mulligan and Alexia Orosco, Reporters
It’s the moment of truth for AP students, who are testing this month in an effort to earn college credit—and their numbers are growing.
There’s been a steady increase in the number of students taking AP exams, Counselor Anna Lamica said. In 2010, 27 percent of students enrolled in AP classes at KHS took an AP exam; in 2011, it was 30 percent, and this year, it’s 34 percent.
That’s good news for administrators, who say they would like to see even more students challenge themselves to take an AP exam, and good news for many AP teachers, who say that the class and test simulate a college environment.
“If you think you have a passion or an interest in a specific subject, it’s great to take the AP exam in that area so that you can get a taste of what that subject would be like in college,” Michelle Jurcenko, AP Spanish teacher, said.
Many AP students, however, choose not take the exam because they find the tests too costly or can receive college credit via a CLEP test or dual-credit option instead; others say that because some colleges have raised the minimum score required to earn college credit from a three to a four or a five, they are not confident that they would get college credit if they took the test.
According to the College Board, popular schools such as University of Illinois require anywhere from a three to a five on most tests; academic departments at Augustana determine which scores result in a credit, generally only accepting scores of either a four or five.
Senior Rebecca Arnold, who took the AP Biology and AP Calculus tests last year and will take the AP Statistics and AP Spanish tests this year, said she limits herself to colleges that are likely to take her AP credits. She hopes to enter college with four classes already completed, but she said that the test itself would be a waste if she wasn’t likely to get the credit.
“Even if you’re not going to take the AP test, it’s good to take the class because it’s good college experience,” Arnold said.
Some AP classes at Kaneland also have a dual-credit option, which is more expensive for students but provides an alternate path to college credit. Kaneland works with Waubonsee Community College to provide AP Calculus 1, AP Calculus 2 and Internet and HTML dual-credit courses and guarantees college credit to any student who passes with a C or higher and pays WCC’s course fees.
AP Calculus teacher Kenneth Dentino said that the most important thing is not whether students choose to take the AP test or seek dual credit, but that they challenge themselves to take harder classes.
“Students should strive to get into as many difficult classes, whether it’s AP or dual credit,” said Dentino.