![Standardized tests administered by the College Board require registration fees. [College Board]](http://www.jstudentboard.com/reporter/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Screen-Shot-2014-03-03-at-3.04.18-PM.png)
High schoolers must pay fees to the College Board to register for Advanced Placement (AP) exams. Yet, the cost of around $80 per exam can be too expensive for some students. These students can apply for the “free or reduced lunch” fee payment, which cuts down the amount a student has to pay to approximately eight dollars. Although paperwork, such as proof of economic need, must be provided, some students take advantage of this privilege.
Erik Yanez, a senior in Sonora High School, told JSR in an interview, “A friend of mine told me about how he was able to reduce the money he had to pay for the AP exam that he was taking this May. I thought it was quite unfair because his family was not in any poor state.”
Yanez continued, “When I asked him why he applied for it, he… mentioned how it was better for him to just take advantage of the program… After hearing him saying that, I was shocked how the program can be manipulated in a malignant way.”
This particular trend seems to have existed for a while.
John Marshall, a Sonora student who graduated in 2012, told JSR, “The abuse of the program was prevalent and quite known to many students during even my year. People often went for the cheap price that they got to pay by means of enrolling in the program. Yet, even though there was some hesitation among students who conspicuously abused it, money was a bigger problem than the moral reason behind it.”
