Every year, a flurry of studying starts around May as Advanced Placement exams begin. Students spend the whole school year preparing for the tests that are paid for by the school district — except when it comes to AP Physics C. That exam cost each student who takes it $83.

“I’ve actually known that it would cost the students for two years,” physics teacher John Krehbiel said. “Because that’s when the state changed the definition of AP Physics C. They now defined it as two separate year-long classes.”

Students in the class learned about the cost when Krehbiel wrote it on the board last month.

“I just completely forgot to tell them at the beginning of this year,” Krehbiel said. “Because I meant to at the very first week [of the school year].”

Due to this unannounced cost, some of the students were worried.

“I was really surprised when I suddenly saw it on the board,” senior Laura Rantanen said. ” It’s frustrating because we didn’t know about the cost until the week before the exam. There were no reminders.”

There is a cost associated with the exams because the AP Physics C class covers the mechanics aspect as well as the electricity and magnetism aspects of the science. The district pays for the exam, but because AP Physics C is technically two exams, the students have to cover for the second part.

“He [Mr. Krehbiel] didn’t mention that we had to pay until someone asked him about it after seeing it on the board,” senior Mario Sultan said. “[Testing Coordinator Mike] Drake even came into class to talk about how important it was that we take and pay for the exam.”

By Billy Luu