YULA Girls Division has, for the past few years, allowed seniors to decide for themselves whether they should take AP exams, while the boys are required to pay for and sit for the exams. However, now that the Boys and Girls Division have merged, many students are asking that a cohesive decision be made. Girls Division General Studies Principal Ms. Yehudis Benhamou believes that there are many advantages to allowing seniors to decide for themselves which AP exams to take. By the time AP exams have begun, seniors would have already applied to colleges and have a feel for where they will attend. Since “many of the colleges that our students are applying to actually do not take credit for the AP exams,” they find it to be a waste of time. “There are many colleges that do accept it, and therefore [we] encourage our seniors to take [the exam], but we do not require it,” said Ms. Benhamou. She firmly believes that seniors will make an informed decision regarding which APs they should take to benefit them in college. While seniors can save time spent studying for AP exams, there is great concern that not requiring them can lead to a serious decline in participation within the classroom. Ms. Benhamou rejected this notion. She and the other heads of the Girls Division have had “that discussion before about whether forcing seniors to take the APs would make them more diligent in class, but we didn’t find that at all.” The students who want to take the test are studying regardless of a mandate. “What we have found is that if we mandate unwilling seniors to take the test, they get to the test and don’t do anything.” YULA Girls Division’s AP Chemistry and Biology teacher Mrs. Sandy Waleko says that she is biased towards students taking the exam because “I spend so much time [in the course], and I know my students do, too.” When they enroll in her class, Mrs. Waleko’s students understand that she requires that her students take the exam so she can better see how well they have understood the content of the course. Mrs. Waleko suggests that it takes a lot of effort to do poorly on the exam. “I think it has only happened once that a girl in one of my classes sat down for the test and scored a 2. It is not common at all.” Most of her students average a 4 on the exam. The YULA Boys Division views the issue differently. Students are required to take the AP exam as a measure of success in the course. According to Principal of General Studies Rick St. Laurent, “the department chairs and AP teachers at the Boys Division voted and agreed that seniors should be required to take the AP exam to earn AP credit on their transcript.” The faculty agrees that the exams help “recognize the strengths of the students,” and that mandating them allows for “an objective measure of the strength of the curriculum and the student population.” The exams also help colleges understand the rigor of the YULA Boys Division curriculum. Some AP teachers at the Boys Division are also passionate about the exam requirement. Ms. Pam Felcher, who teaches multiple AP English classes, encourages her students to prepare for the exams every year. “If you’re committing to an AP course, you’re also committing to the AP exam,” she says. “I like the exams because they allow students to demonstrate their knowledge and compete on a national level and let me see whether or not I’m doing a good job.” On the other hand, Mrs. Vickie Bellomo, who has taught AP science courses at YULA for 23 years, believes the choice to take the AP exam should be up to each student and teacher. “Sometimes, unforeseen circumstances arise, so exceptions should be considered on a case-by-case basis.” She says that in her experience, students in other schools who aren’t interested in the AP exam have the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge in other ways. “I know that some kids commit to community projects and presentations in lieu of the exam. In my opinion, it’s a fair alternative.” While there are advantages to requiring students to take the exam, the Girls Division decision not to require students to take AP exams hasn’t had many negatives. Rather, it has allowed seniors to actively choose what will best benefit them. “Both the boys and girls campuses have gone back and forth on this decision,” Ms. Benhamou admits, but “I think what we will find is that next year we will be on the same page. However, I’m not sure what that page will be.”