Itzel Esparza

Mrs. Storer

English 3H

Nov. 26, 2019

A Tight Squeeze

With this year being my junior year, there are a lot of important things that must be

considered financially. There’s the SATs, the ACTs, AP tests, gas money, money to pay for a

car, a prom for those who plan on attending, and a lot of other educational and recreational

activities. I usually hear people say “Its only _insert money amount here_” or some other phrase

when I or my family struggles to pay for something. But I do not think that people understand

that they can be more privileged than others. Tests such as AP tests, SATs and ACTS are Commented [IE1]: Thesis ?

expensive, the payments are due at inconvenient times, and can end up making families pay for a

lot more than just the tests.

My family wasn’t ever wealthy, but we weren’t exactly poor. My school wasn’t in the

nicest place so not a lot of us were wealthy, we were all mostly upper lower class and there

wasn’t a lot of differences in our lifestyles. This changed when I got to Mater Dei, I had been Commented [IE2]: WC

lucky enough to receive a little bit of help to go to the school and I was extremely excited. I was

already on high expectations from my parents who would give me the daily lecture of:

“Itzel remember how much we are spending for you to go to this school so do not mess around,

we do this so that you get into a good college.”

To which I would always reply with

“Sí ama, Sí apa”

So, I took 2 AP classes this year to try to make the most of the classes being offered. Now

obviously you must pay for AP exams by a certain deadline or else you technically are not

allowed/exist in the class. And usually my family can scrape up enough money to pay for

educational things like these exams; however, the payment date for the AP exams came right

before my brother’s birthday, which is when my parents like to use most of the money they have

for gifts. I didn’t want to put any extra financially stress on them but I did tell them about the due

date and I still remember my face feeling as if it was engulfed in flames as my dad screamed at

me in the car

“Are you kidding me, Itzel? They’re due by the 20th? Do you even understand how much we pay

and now we have this to top everything off?”

“I’m sorry… I know-“

“Do you really though? DO you really understand?”

I remember the shame and stress I felt that day, but my hope lay in asking for a long enough

extension so that my family could get more time to work with the payments. It took me a lot of

time to be able to gather the strength to ask for help, and I had hope that the person in charge

would be understanding and help me through this rough patch. I walked into the office to talk to

the lady that was head of the curriculum and introduce myself politely and try to explain my

situation to her when she abruptly cut me off and in a rude and annoyed tone said: “You have

until next Friday and that’s it. any later and you will pay another 40 dollars on top of each test

because you’re making it difficult for me, and I'm the one who has to order the tests. That’s all I

can do for you.” It took everything inside of me to not cry right at that moment, she made me

feel awful for not having the money to pay and she didn’t even bother to listen as to WHY I

couldn’t afford the payments. She didn’t know that my mom’s car had broken down and that we
only had one mode of transportation for my whole family, she hadn’t bothered to listen to the

fact that my mom needed medical attention and that we could afford to pay her bills on top of the

AP test fees, she didn’t even consider the fact that my family was barely getting by with

everything, instead I was making her life difficult because she wouldn’t get all the money

returned to the school right away.

There are different costs for different tests and depending on the extras you add or the

fees you are stuck paying, the total amount a student and their family must pay can add up. Not

only is the way these exams make money insane but how much money they make is even crazier,

“These tests are an industry unto themselves, with millions of dollars spent on test fees,

administration, and preparation.” (Briody, The Fiscal Times) the SAT itself costs about 50

dollars and AP tests average at about 93 dollars per test. On top of that there is always the chance

that the college doesn’t accept the AP score a student receives, or even with the extra help the

score from the SAT/ACT is not high enough and so they want to redo their test. However, every

time you want to take the ACT or SAT, “Registration charges are unfortunately mandatory if you

are planning on taking the SAT” (Fulciniti). These exam fees are expensive already but if you

want to retake it more than once, the money adds up. It can be hard for someone who has not

struggled financially to understand the pain someone who is not doing so well financially has to

go through every time another payment has to be made. Especially when these payments happen

during the most expensive part of the year.

College Board used to have the deadline for AP tests be in June but recently they

switched this deadline to November “Final exam ordering deadline. Final deadline to submit

your exam order for all full-year AP courses, AP courses that begin before November 15, and all

exam only sections without incurring additional fees. For details, go to Ordering Exam Materials
and review the 2019-20 AP Coordinator’s Manual, Part 1.” (College Board) This means that

schools are likely to push up the payment date for students because of the time it takes to send

the money and order the tests. However, this also means that a student or their family could end

up paying at least one hundred dollars for an exam right before the holidays, the most expensive

time of year. People already spend a lot of money during this time of year and to add on top of

that stress of buying gifts and decorations and whatever else the holiday requires. These new

early deadlines make people paying late fees more common. These payments are due in the

worst time period, families have just emptied money onto school supplies in August/September

and right before the holidays they are stuck paying for tests and “the AP tests themselves are not

cheap. In fact, the test fees and associated costs can quickly add up” (Albert N). The tests are not

the only thing a family is paying for, all the fees and add ons can cost quite the amount of

money.

When people prepare to take the SAT or ACT or any AP test they usually go to tutoring

or get a workbook to help them prepare for the exams, but these resources are not cheap and not

everyone can afford them. Now people could argue that these extra things, such as tutors or extra

help programs are not required, and that they do not make that much of a difference but “Some

schools, in fact, have a specific test score set as a cut-off, so if 30 points bring a student over that

threshold, test prep could make the difference between acceptance and rejection.” (Grove) and

how do you tell your teenager that’s already stressed over getting into a good college that the

reason they are never going to do as well as their peers is not because they are not smart enough,

but because they cannot get the same resources as their classmates. Does a parent not want the

best chance for their child to succeed? Many parents try their hardest to give the best that they

can give to their child. But sometimes the rates of these programs are reasons why some parents
cannot provide these studying or extra help program. The prices of these programs can vary

immensely “SAT On Demand Self-Paced Course ($299), SAT Classroom Online ($749), SAT

Classroom On-Site ($749), Unlimited Prep--PSAT, SAT, ACT ($1499)” (Grove). These

programs are not cheap, and tutors can cost even more. The extra help is not the only thing that

add onto the cost of the test, there are also fees for taking a test later, paying for a test late, wait

listing fees, etc. Even after you take the tests, you are not done paying, you must pay to send out

your score, to withhold your score, and if you want a rescore if you think they messed up the

multiple choice part of your exam. These tests make bucketloads of money off the families that

just want the best future for their child. We end up paying so much to be able to go to a place

where we end up in even further debt but to a different company or institution.

AP classes are encouraged and looked fondly upon by the school yet when I needed more

time to be able to pay, I got a lecture and felt ashamed for my situation. I ended up having to pay

for my own tests so that I could make the deadline and give my family a financial break. You

never know what someone else is going through and through personal experience, we should

either make AP tests and SAT/ACTs more affordable or allow for families to be able to have

payment plans or be flexible with the due dates. We should not expect every family to have the Commented [IE3]: Imma assume this is ur thesis
Commented [IE4]: Maybe offer a possible solution
money to pay for these things at the same time, we should consider and hear out those students

who are struggling with asking for help with these kinds of problems.
 Works cited

“Annual Calendar and Deadlines.” AP Central, 27 Aug. 2019, apcentral.collegeboard.org/ap-

coordinators/calendar-deadlines.

Carrns, Ann. “Another College Expense: Preparing for the SAT and ACT.” The New York

Times, The New York Times, 29 Oct. 2014, www.nytimes.com/2014/10/29/your-

money/another-college-expense-preparing-for-the-sat-and-act-.html.

Fulciniti, Francesca. “SAT Fees and Registration: What's the Total Cost of the SAT?” SAT Fees

and Registration: What's the Total Cost of the SAT?, PrepScholar,

blog.prepscholar.com/sat-full-fees-and-registration-whats-the-total-cost-of-the-sat.

Grove, Allen. “Are SAT Prep Courses Worth the Money?” ThoughtCo, ThoughtCo, 1 May

2019, www.thoughtco.com/are-sat-prep-courses-worth-the-cost-788672.

Learnwithalbert. “How Much Do AP Tests Cost?: Everything You Need to Know about Exam

Fees.” Albert Blog, 6 Mar. 2017, www.albert.io/blog/how-much-do-ap-tests-cost-

everything-you-need-to-know-about-exam-fees/.

“SAT Tests: Another Drain on the Family Budget.” The Fiscal Times,

www.thefiscaltimes.com/Articles/2013/05/01/SAT-Tests-Another-Drain-on-the-Family-

Budget.