Collegeboard

I've seen a lot of hate towards Collegeboard, but I don't think they are justified.

One common complaint is the pricing. I think this is unfair to Collegeboard considering they have a lot of expenses per test: designing/developing the test, testing the questions, producing the tests, shipping the tests, processing, grading, and analyzing the results, etc. There are also maintenance expenses such as with training, the website, servers, etc. I do concede that some prices they make us pay are unfair, such as the cost of sending scores and the price constancy for digital exams. But the injustice here isn't about the absolute price point (the common complaint), it is that the cost is so high relative to the low expenses due to it being a digital task. Overall though, if we look at Collegeboard's margins they aren't outrageously high. I also think that the margin is understandable as Collegeboard, like any organization, wants to expand, requiring storing up funds for future projects. The most important point, though, is how much Collegeboard is saving us. Consider the average cost of one college class (3 credit hours) is $1,170 [1]. The cost of one full-price AP test is currently $96. Thus AP tests are about 8% of the cost of college. This is minuscule. Furthermore, the cost of AP tests hasn't risen much since 2015, from $91 to $96 [2], a ~5.4% rise, which in comparison to the rise in the cost of college at ~7.3% ($1275 to $1368) [1] in the same time period is quite a bit less than AP tests. Both of these are less than the rate of inflation in the same time period, at ~10% 3. Admittedly, the cost of an AP test has risen dramatically since the 1950s (likely more than college considering from [2] it was $10 for any number of exams vs the <5 fold increase in [1] from 1963 to 2020). However, this can probably be chalked up to more financially conscious/less idealistic leadership overtime in the Collegeboard administration. Thus AP tests save a huge amount of money compared to the classes they can allow one to skip. In addition, there is financial aid. This isn't even mentioning the possibility of colleges accepting multiple full courses for one AP test or the time you save (time one can use to develop one's career, self, or just enjoying one's youth, with the former being an especially good investment considering how early experience have much larger impacts on the self than later ones).

Another complaint (from [2]) of of educational inequality. I think this is an unfair point as the systemic inequality is already a part of the system and it'd be hard for any sole organization to truly address it adequately. Furthermore, I believe AP classes are less rigorous than college classes, but do retain more rigor than regular high school classes. Thus disadvantaged students who wish to enter college will still benefit from the classes as experience, thus reducing the likelihood of floundering in college (with higher costs, in both time and finance). Also, these students don't have to pay for the tests. Another benefit is that the growth of AP tests in poorer schools has allowed those who wouldn't otherwise have exposure to "college"-level classes still get the experience of harder classes.

Another common complaint is of standardized testing. I don't think standardized testing is that awful. After all, what would science be if we didn't have ways of standardizing conditions in experiments? I think the prominence of standardized testing is an expression of the growth in the faith of man's ability from the science movement: science is about quantitatively measuring the world and our faith in mankind's ability makes us believe we can measure traits like creativity and skill. I think the main argument against the testing is of stress. I think stress is good (probably a future post, so I'll just leave it at that).

I think the most valid complaint is that AP tests aren't sufficiently rigorous. This really just reflects my experience in the inequality in the education system from different levels of ability. Even still, I live in a pretty well-off school district near what is typically considered a very developed city. Yet I find AP classes to not really require that much critical thinking. For example, my BC class is extremely simple. We just learn the content and then immediately apply it to one-step problems. Furthermore, the class is paced to meet the students yet still seems quite slow. It is quite frequent that we just skip over some content (relevant to calculus and I think college-level calculus) just because it isn't on the AP test. In addition, there are no proofs. I think most AP classes in my school demand a decent amount of work, but many don't do it. This leads to the belief that the class is extremely difficult simply due to people not putting in any work. For those who do put in the effort, they think its hard because of the work. Thus there is little mental challenge. I really don't understand why my school seems relatively unchallenging. I've talked to people from states, and their AP classes seem mentally harder than mine. Even in states like Utah and Virginia, not really the most well-known states.

[1] https://educationdata.org/cost-of-a-college-class-or-credit-hour
[2] https://blog.prepscholar.com/history-of-ap-classes-exams
[3] https://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm