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FAQ

Will there be an exam?

  • Career Kickstart assessments are designed to measure knowledge of the learning objectives and skills outlined in the course frameworks. Career Kickstart assessments will provide students authentic opportunities to show their understanding.
  • Career Kickstart assessments will also provide higher education faculty with a reliable indicator of student readiness for sequent coursework and provide industry a reliable indicator of workforce readiness.
  • Career Kickstart’s exam designs are under development and will include several assessment components. Exams will likely be a combination of assessment types—for example, the assessment team is currently determining the value of multiple-choice questions, free-response questions, a performance task, a project or a presentation, and a portfolio of artifacts.
  • In 2024-25, as part of the road to finalizing the Career Kickstart assessment designs, Cybersecurity 1 students will complete an end-of-course exam. Cybersecurity 2 students will complete both an end-of-course exam and a course project.
  • In the Cybersecurity 2 Course Project in 2024-25, students will explore an emerging topic related to cybersecurity, research the security implications of the chosen topic, and present their research in a written paper. For both courses’ 2024-25 end-of-course exams, students will have 2 hours to complete 72 multiple-choice questions.

Exam Fees

  • Costs for Career Kickstart Exams will be as follows: In 2024-25, as part of the road to finalizing the Career Kickstart assessment designs, Cybersecurity 1 students will complete an end-of-course exam. Cybersecurity 2 students will complete both an end-of-course exam and a course project.
    • Pilot 1: There are no exam fees for 2024-25.
    • Pilot 2: For 2025-26, the Career Kickstart Exam fee will be the same as for that year’s standard AP Exams. This includes fee reductions for eligible students and applicable school rebates. AP Exam fees are set and published the prior July each year so fees for 2025-26 are not yet known. For reference, schools will pay $99 for AP Exams in 2024-25, with a $9 rebate for every exam plus an additional $37 reduction for every exam taken by a low-income student.
    • As a pilot program, Career Kickstart is exploring various state and federal funding options to support students, schools, districts, and states in the future. State subsidies in place for AP Exams in 2025 may not be applicable to Career Kickstart Exams in 2025.
    • All states and districts have access to CTE funding sources, and the Career Kickstart program will work with schools and districts to identify available sources of funding support to minimize or eliminate students paying out-of-pocket for exam fees.