Although AP Psychology is not technically offered at The Morgan School, this spring, Hendrick Bausch, a sophomore at Morgan, plans to sit down and take the AP test.

Bausch had to talk with his guidance counselors about why he should take the test, despite the class not technically being offered at that level.

The details on how Bausch will take this exam are not final; however, he believes “it will be a lot of work, but will hopefully be rewarding in the end.”

Although Bausch might be the one and only student to take AP Psychology without taking the certified class this year. This is not new to Morgan.

“Each year, there are a couple of students who elect to take the AP exam, even though it is not officially offered at our school,” said history and psychology teacher, Rachel Shook.

Although there is no current AP Psychology class offered at Morgan, many students take Ms. Shook’s psychology class, the closest equivalent, where they learn topics such as childhood development, and the different parts and functions of the brain.

The psychology class is only offered for half the year whereas the AP class would be provided for a whole year, meaning the students wanting to take the exam need to teach themselves the material for the other half of the year.

“Most students don’t know this, but anyone can take any AP exam, even if it’s not officially offered. I’ve had students take the AP US History exam. They would come after school and take an extra course to prepare,” said Shook

The AP Psychology exam has two sections: multiple-choice and free-response. The multiple-choice section has around 100 questions in 70 minutes, covering various psychology topics. The free-response section has 2 questions in 50 minutes, requiring essay responses that analyze and apply psychological concepts. Scores range from 1 to 5.

“Each year students take my psychology class and each year a few students decide to take the AP exam and average about a 3. It can be a difficult subject, but the students willing to take the exam generally succeed,” said Shook.

To help with the AP exam, in the past, Shook has provided students with the book used in a class all year, so they have resources and multiple other study sources to have the right preparation needed to succeed.

Bausch stresses that he is taking this exam because “originally I was very interested in the class, and I thought it would be a cool experience to take the AP exam.”

However, the AP exam wasn’t the right choice for other students at Morgan such as Senior Jason Mansfield, who isn’t taking the AP Psychology exam and said, “learning about these topics is very interesting; however, I decided not to take the AP exam because it wasn’t a good fit with my already full schedule.”
The AP Psychology and all other AP exams will take place this spring and cost around $98 per student.