by Shirley Zheng ’21

Sherwood students were unable to start paying for their AP exams until Wednesday, October 23. Due to this delay, the originally announced November 1 deadline was pushed back to November 15, giving students a total of three weeks to register for their exams. However, Sherwood requires students to sign up by November 8 to allow extra time for the school to make sure registration numbers are accurate. The move of the registration period for AP exams from February to November has angered students and teachers.

“I don’t like it because I think it makes students make a commitment to taking the test that later might not turn out to be a good choice for them,” said AP Modern World History teacher Michelle Games.

“If it was in February, I would have a lot more data. I could tell the kids that come and ask me ‘you absolutely should [take the exam] or maybe you shouldn’t. But this year I only have one test guide that I can use as my data point, so it’s much more for students to decide with their parents if they want to take [the exam] or not,” said AP Government teacher Scott Allen.
The College Board argues that the new deadline is supposed to encourage AP students to stay more committed to their classes and exams; however, many students feel differently.

“It’s too early. There’s too much pressure on AP students to ‘take the exam and do well.’ With the early deadline, I can’t determine if I’m going to do well. There’s a possibility that I’ll fail the exam and lose $100 because I was pushed into taking the exam,” said junior Jahnavi Kirkire.

In fact, a survey by The Warrior found that no students are in favor of the early deadline. Along with the new deadline, College Board also created a new payment requirement where AP students have to pay a deposit of $40 by November 15 if they choose to take the exam. If they changed their mind about taking the exam after that deadline, they will have wasted that $40.

For those students that do not want to take the exam, the opt-out process is just as complicated. They would have to notify their AP teachers for them to email the AP coordinator, Andrew Dodge, who is the only one that is allowed to change the default setting on AP classroom.

Many students and teachers feel that this new policy is unfair and it is just another way for the College Board to get more money, but not benefiting the students in any way. Adding further confusion is MCPS’s brand new payment system. In past years, MCPS has used the Total Registration website to complete payments for AP exams. Now, MCPS is going to have students pay through Portal or by turning in a check to the business offices at schools. Due to these complications, a huge responsibility is now put upon AP teachers to efficiently prepare students for the new deadline.

“Teachers need to make sure they are communicating this with the kids in every way possible because we used to have months to tell them about [the deadline]; now we have days,” said Allen.

Based on the number of registered exams so far, Sherwood is scrambling before the deadline to get the number of registered exams to get anywhere similar to previous years. Last May, Sherwood students took a total of 1,425 exams. Due to the new default setting this year, Sherwood students have ordered a total of 1,550 exams so far. However, that number is expected to go down as the final deadline gets closer. As of November 4, students have paid the deposit for fewer than 500 tests, leaving more than 1,000 tests with unpaid desposits. According to co-AP coordinator Kelly Singleton, Sherwood’s expectations for AP registration numbers are that they will be similar to previous years despite the new deadline.