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High school students ofttimes take college-level classes to save time and money in college, merely there is one catch: You have to pass the exams in social club to get the credit.

According to a recent study by The Higher Lath, virtually fifty% of high school students taking Advanced Placement (AP) courses do not pass the exams to qualify for college credit.

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

AP exams are scored on a five-indicate scale, with test scores earning a three and to a higher place considered a passing grade by well-nigh universities. Some schools will give college credit for students earning a score of two on sure exams.

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

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

AP tests toll $87 a piece--significantly less than the toll 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 too early in their high schoolhouse career or without the appropriate preparatory courses.

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

"Lots of these new exam takers are from socioeconomic backgrounds where college is far from a given--the level of preparation inbound the AP classes is not the aforementioned as their colleagues who have e'er been on what we might call an advanced placement track," he says.

Because at that place are more students than ever taking AP courses, more teachers are needed for both preparatory curriculum and for the avant-garde classes, resulting in a decrease in the quality of teachers, according to senior advisor at College Confidential Sally 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 class, "or the schoolhouse will not put the vaunted "AP" designation on the transcript if the educatee bails on the examination."

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

What teachers tin do

To ensure that their students become into exam day feeling prepared, teachers should be very familiar with the grade description and exam format for whatsoever AP class, advises Chakravarty.

"This is why all new AP teachers are required to have their class syllabus canonical past college faculty," she says. "The AP Program offers a variety of professional development workshops and conferences to help AP teachers continue to abound and improve."

While proper pedagogy is a necessity, Livingston adds that information technology's essential that teachers relay to students the importance of self-preparation and commitment to the fabric.

"Promoting that sense of ownership in the learning process is something that the all-time AP teachers already practise and that the new AP teachers should learn to do."

What can students exercise to be more than prepared?

The experts stress that higher-level courses are academically rigorous and that students need to understand the level of time and free energy needed compared to loftier school classes to successfully laissez passer the terminate exam.

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

"Getting to know the examination format is very important, and it is a great idea to talk with other students who have taken the exam in the past," she says. "It is as well much better to piece of work hard throughout the yr rather than to cram before the exam, which is not effective for the kinds of learning measured on AP exams."

Practise tests and online programs can help students empathize what to focus on for the duration of the course, every bit high grades in an AP class won't necessarily hateful high scores on the exam, says Rubenstone.

"The students need to recheck the do material throughout the semester to see if what they're learning in course seems to mesh with what they'll be asked on the test. Students who aren't in touch with the pending exam questions are blindsided by depression exam grades afterwards succeeding in the course itself."

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

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