As spring arrives, the familiar announcement for Advanced Placement Exam registration pervades Haverford High School’s hallways, classrooms, and minds of its AP students.

An AP exam costs $89 these days, and when students take a multitude of these classes, cost can really pile up.  I personally am experiencing, for the first time, the College Board’s AP program. But with, dare I say, egregious testing fees, I find myself constantly wondering whether the AP experience (course, exam, and college impact) is really worth it.

 AP courses abound with opportunities. They provide discontented honors students with a more challenging intellectual environment. They allow college applicants to proudly litter their transcript and resumes with courses deemed rigorous by admissions officers. They can even permit students with high scores on the AP exams to earn college credit in high school, saving time and money later.

But with those opportunities comes a price. Not a monetary price, but a price in time, patience, and sanity. For to succeed in AP courses, students have to be entirely devoted to achieving their goals in such a class, and be willing to read voraciously, write constantly, and study industriously. These expectations result in lost time, impatience (and even anger), and stress at varied degrees throughout the course.

That being said, AP courses are totally worthwhile. Not for their college credit opportunities or their appeal on applications, but for the intellectual stimulus they provide for the future.

 AP courses expose students to the level of reading, writing, studying, and thinking that will ultimately be expected in college – and the stress that will accompany the academic work. Regardless of the college credit that one actually receives, AP courses undoubtedly will assist students in their quest for a degree; they mitigate the shock of collegiate expectations.

The AP experience can be extended beyond college study. The close examination of pertinent details in each AP discipline better informs students of how the world works. I have personally seen how my AP World History class has changed the way I look at the present state of affairs and how they have been influenced by history. For instance, teachers’ labor unions instantly remind me of socialist reforms in response to British industrialism. An education enriches one’s life adventure, and the College Board has provided an outlet for students to receive an excellent education at an earlier age than ever.

Yes, a college degree is allegedly an outlet to more lucrative employment and by extension a “better life”. Ultimately, though, the skills one masters are what is taken away from a college education. AP contributes to that college education and allows it to be a more fruitful experience by preparing students for college both practically and intellectually.

 While the accolades that the College Board can dole out via its AP exams are enticing and motivate many a pupil, students should be concentrating on the act of learning itself in their AP classes. Learn how to accomplish individual academic enrichment through reading, writing, and hard work. Learn to manage a busy schedule with an abundance of “to-dos”. Learn to simply love learning. Everything else will fall in place.