College Board review: ap exam ordering and test site registration (international)

Hello,

My name is Matthew Zavala, and I am the Principal and AP coordinator for the Maple Leaf World School - Hohhot, PRC campus received our level 2 College Board code this past August 2023. We were delighted to share the news with students and parents about our success and the ability to order AP exams, offer AP courses, and registered as an official AP test site at our school. I followed and attended all training sessions starting in July 2023, including international training sessions specific to Chinese schools. I ask questions at each session pertaining to the issues we were dealing with as an international campus located outside the US.

I have been attempting to solve these issues with Zhao, Haike, the international associate director for the College Board as my emails were forwarded to him from a few different AP customer care representatives. I was able to register my students and complete all necessary steps to order the exams, but my account was placed on hold.

He did not answer my phone calls for more than one week starting on October 16th and was delayed in responding to emails. I finally had the chance to receive a call from him on October 26th where he explained that we were not able to order AP exams for our campus nor are we able to become a test site. I explained to him that I understood if there are issues ordering exams and exam security but that the level 2 code issued from the College Board for my campus gave my campus the authority to become a test site for my students. I told him that I can accept that we need to order the AP exams through a third-party company called Prometrics but was not willing to accept that we would not be able to become an AP test site as we received the level 2 code which gives authorization to which he had no answer or response. His knowledge of the AP program in terms of costs and registration were not sufficient or representative of what I have experienced in all the other AP training sessions I have attended. I have worked hard for many months on this project only to now be informed of these issues. The Prometrics website also does not have this information and has some contradictory information to what was shared during my training sessions with the College Board. I even attended his training session last month where questions were not allowed to be asked, chat functions were turned off, and people were told to call or email if they had additional questions. This is not what I expected from a College Board representative especially in a challenging international market and believe this is detrimental to the reputation of the College Board in China and potentially other countries in the international community.