NPR

4 Things We Don't Know About AP Tests

Nearly 3 million students take their Advanced Placement exams in the coming weeks. There's very little independent research on the benefits of these courses.
Source: Oivind Hovland

This week and next is a national rite of passage for stressed-out overachievers everywhere. Nearly 3 million high school students at 22,000 high schools will be sitting down to take their Advanced Placement exams.

Created by the nonprofit College Board in the 1950s, AP is to other high school courses what Whole Foods is to other supermarkets: a mark of the aspirational, a promise of higher standards and, occasionally, a more expensive alternative.

AP courses promise to be the

You’re reading a preview, subscribe to read more.

More from NPR

NPR7 min readWorld
Pro-Palestinian Encampments And Protests Spread On College Campuses Across The U.S.
After dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested at Columbia, Yale and NYU, students at colleges from Massachusetts to Minnesota to California are erecting encampments in solidarity.
NPR5 min readFinance & Money Management
Housing Experts Say There Just Aren't Enough Homes In The U.S.
The United States is millions of homes short of demand, and lacks enough affordable housing units. And many Americans feel like housing costs are eating up too much of their take-home pay.
NPR2 min read
Read The Last Letters Of George Mallory, Who Died Climbing Mount Everest In 1924
The British explorer died in 1924 during his third trip to Everest, the world's highest point. In one letter to his wife Ruth, he described the expedition's chance of success as "50 to 1 against us."

Related Books & Audiobooks