By Alec Lautanen
Editor-in-Chief
Keeping pace with other schools, Mira Costa has been increasing participation in AP classes and tests. With this comes the issues of non-AP student access to these study sessions, but limiting AP review sessions to only current AP students isn’t a fair choice to make.
A few non-AP students attending reviews isn’t fundamentally bad, but this practice becomes a problem if new students come into the sessions expecting the same amount of attention and instruction as their AP counterparts. Responsibility for keeping AP review sessions functional lies just as much, if not more, on the students than the teachers.
The most basic level of participation – adding a few more observing students to any AP review session – doesn’t hurt anyone. If a small number of dedicated CP students who are genuinely interested in the subject and taking the test sit in, no one’s learning experience is detracted from, and no teacher has to put forth extra effort.
Each supporter of limited study sessions may see blindly denying access to all non-AP students as the righteous path to take, but sometimes these same people can forget about students who perhaps didn’t have room in their schedule or have other conflicts and couldn’t take the class.
Punishing students who don’t take an AP class by discouraging them from taking the test isn’t fair. Although it’s idealistic to assume all students who take AP classes do so because of a real passion for the subject, a large number (like me) would say the classes are just a means to an end (the end being a head start in college).
Responsible students could benefit from having to take a less general education classes or having stronger application when applying to schools; it’s a pragmatic and valid approach. Because of this, it’s ignorant to expect students to only take AP tests for the corresponding classes they’re enrolled in.
On top of this, many AP tests are relatively easy to study for without taking the class, and they provide a huge jump for college. For all students to succeed at the next level, teachers shouldn’t limit students’ study options when it comes to review sessions.
Moreover, it’s clear there’s a huge disconnect between what AP tests are and what they “should” be. Although some may hold the more orthodox view that the tests are meant solely for students of the class, the tests and their review sessions should be regarded more openly.
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