The AP exam price escalated from $110 to $115 this school year due to the spike in the cost of running the exam itself.
AP Central states the base exam fee for schools in the US is $98 per exam. So where is the extra $17 coming in? $98 is the baseline set by AP Central- however, schools are free to charge more in order to cover their expenses. This academic year, the cost of administering the AP test for administration has increased. This includes proctoring and administration.
High Schools all around the US are in this same position. The only difference is, based on the cost of running the test at each school on an individual basis, the administration gets to decide how much they will charge students. Superintendent Terri Faught, from the Los Altos California School District, determined the district’s price. Even schools on the other side of the country are faced with this decision.
All of the neighboring school districts were charging between $115 and $146, and so we decided to make an adjustment in our prices.
— Superintendent Terri Faught of the Los Altos California School District
“The prices that we have been charging were nowhere near supporting the increase of expenditures,” Faught said. “All of the neighboring school districts were charging between $115 and $146, and so we decided to make an adjustment in our prices.”
This is not the first time the price of the test has gone up. Just last year students were charged an additional $10 after the price rose from $100 to $110. Although a fee reduction of $36 per exam can be applied for eligible students, some students still might not be able to take the test because of its lack of affordability.
“I feel like there shouldn’t be a cost at all because that restricts some people from being able to take the test if they want to,” Katharine Frank ’24 said.
Frank is taking AP Psychology this year. Though she is not taking the AP exam in May, she has taken AP tests for different courses in years prior. She thinks the increased cost will compel students to opt out or at least consider opting out of taking the test because it is so expensive.
“[Students] just don’t want to pay for [AP tests],” Frank said, “so they won’t try as hard because they don’t have to take the AP test at the end of the year.”
