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Loftier school students often accept higher-level classes to save time and coin in college, but there is one catch: You lot have to laissez passer the exams in order to get the credit.

According to a recent study by The College Board, almost fifty% of high school students taking Advanced Placement (AP) courses do non pass the exams to qualify for college credit.

"While AP enrollments are on the rising, the reality is that the vast majority of new AP class takers are not becoming AP exam passers," says Jeff Livingston, senior vice president of College and Career Readiness at McGraw-Hill Instruction. "These students are unprepared for the rigors of college level coursework in loftier school."

AP exams are scored on a five-point scale, with test scores earning a three and higher up considered a passing grade by nearly universities. Some schools will requite college credit for students earning a score of two on certain exams.

Likewise preparing students for the challenge of a college course load, passing AP courses can potentially save students thousands of dollars in tuition and give them a better chance to graduate in four years, says Auditi Chakravarty, vice president of AP Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment at The College Board.

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"Students have the opportunity to explore electives and courses exterior their major, or even to complete a double-major," she says.

AP tests cost $87 a slice--significantly less than the cost of that course in college.

Why are students unprepared?

Chakravarty says students are academically unprepared for the difficulty of AP courses, whether they are taking the course besides early in their high schoolhouse career or without the appropriate preparatory courses.

Livingston explains that schools are encouraging more students to accept AP classes--including students whose families haven't planned for or encouraged college--to requite them exposure to college-level work.

"Lots of these new test takers are from socioeconomic backgrounds where college is far from a given--the level of training entering the AP classes is not the same as their colleagues who accept ever been on what we might phone call an avant-garde placement track," he says.

Because there are more students than always taking AP courses, more teachers are needed for both preparatory curriculum and for the advanced classes, resulting in a decrease in the quality of teachers, according to senior advisor at College Confidential Emerge Rubenstone.

"Now second- and third-string teachers have been called upon to teach APs and many react with mixed feelings," she says. "My own son is just a freshman in high school, just already I've seen the chasm that separates his strongest teachers from his weakest ones."

Rubenstone adds that a growing number of high schools are requiring the AP exam for all students who accept an AP grade, "or the school will non put the vaunted "AP" designation on the transcript if the student bails on the exam."

"In the old days, "I can't afford the test," allowed some unprepared students to wheedle out," she says. "But now, even with recent budget cuts that affected AP exam fee waivers, many school districts provide free testing for students from low-income households."

What teachers tin do

To ensure that their students go into exam solar day feeling prepared, teachers should be very familiar with the course description and exam format for any AP grade, advises Chakravarty.

"This is why all new AP teachers are required to have their course syllabus approved by higher faculty," she says. "The AP Program offers a variety of professional person evolution workshops and conferences to help AP teachers continue to grow and improve."

While proper didactics is a necessity, Livingston adds that it's essential that teachers relay to students the importance of self-preparation and commitment to the material.

"Promoting that sense of ownership in the learning process is something that the best AP teachers already do and that the new AP teachers should acquire to do."

What can students practice to be more than prepared?

The experts stress that college-level courses are academically rigorous and that students demand to sympathize the level of time and energy needed compared to loftier school classes to successfully laissez passer the end exam.

Students should familiarize themselves with class materials by checking out a listing of the courses and what'due south required before they sign up, recommends Chakravarty.

"Getting to know the exam format is very important, and it is a corking thought to talk with other students who accept taken the exam in the past," she says. "It is besides much better to work difficult throughout the year rather than to cram before the exam, which is not effective for the kinds of learning measured on AP exams."

Practice tests and online programs can assist students sympathise what to focus on for the elapsing of the course, as loftier grades in an AP class won't necessarily hateful high scores on the examination, says Rubenstone.

"The students demand to recheck the practice textile throughout the semester to see if what they're learning in course seems to mesh with what they'll exist asked on the exam. Students who aren't in touch with the pending examination questions are blindsided by low exam grades after succeeding in the course itself."

McGraw-Hill Education recently announced the launch of the ONboard Series for Advanced Placement, an all-digital learning solution designed to improve students' performance in AP classes and on exams.

"We've provided digital, online, cocky-paced guides specifically tailored so that a educatee tin can spend a function of his or her summer preparing for AP environmental scientific discipline or AP world history," says Livingston.