Adult Signing up for an AP Exam

[sirjake]

Thanks to an old post (2007) by cookderosa on a different site, I actually signed up for AP Physics C (Mechanics) today. And I'm definitely an adult. I found our local school's AP web page, called the director, explained that I'm an adult but would like to test with them, and asked if I could. "No problem!" was the reply. The guy was super-nice about the whole thing. So I went in today, submitted their form, paid my $89, and was told where to show up May 12 for the test.

Anyway, I just thought I'd let others know that it's not impossible to sign up for them as an adult and may actually be easy to sign up, as it was in my case. (Actually passing the exam might be another issue, but I'm up for the challenge!)

Note: That site I linked to is down right now, but you can read the cached version. Do a Google search for "cookderosa ap exams local guard dog" without the quotes.

[sanantone]

Note: That site I linked to is down right now, but you can read the cached version. Do a Google search for "cookderosa ap exams local guard dog" without the quotes.

A special person broke it.

[FallingWaters]

I tried everything possible to sign up for one this year.. called every single school, public and private, within an hours' drive. Not a single school would allow me to do it. Some of them said they didn't allow adults on their property for safety reasons. Others said they didn't allow anyone to test from outside their school district, etc. Very frustrating because it was exactly what I needed and now I'm just not sure how to accomplish it.

[sirjake]

I tried everything possible to sign up for one this year.. called every single school, public and private, within an hours' drive. Not a single school would allow me to do it. Some of them said they didn't allow adults on their property for safety reasons. Others said they didn't allow anyone to test from outside their school district, etc. Very frustrating because it was exactly what I needed and now I'm just not sure how to accomplish it.

Wow. That's a real bummer. Given cookderosa's post, I'm not totally surprised. I suppose like many things, your mileage may vary.

Did you offer to pay an administration fee? I was going to do that before "fighting," but ended up not needing to. It may have helped that I freely and openly said I was an employee of a highly regarded engineering company in their very small city (and I am). I took the "you catch more flies with honey...." approach and name-dropped my company, and that seemed to work. I was also open about what I was trying to do and extremely polite. I was prepared to go up the chain of command if necessary, but I'm very glad I didn't have to.

I really do wonder if offering to pay a fee would help, though. That "safety" reason seems like a convenient excuse to not have to bother looking into it. They very well may have a rule like that, but I'd be shocked if there aren't comparable exceptions. Being there for a legitimate reason (such as an exam) is hardly the same thing as being a visitor.

[clep3705]

I tried to take an AP exam at the private school my children attended while they were still enrolled. They told me no.