DECATUR - The cell phones piled up like cordwood on a long table at Richland Community College on Friday.

High school students attached sticky notes with their names to their phones before turning them in - the phones weren't allowed while they took advanced placement tests.

Decatur schools have been offering advanced placement classes since the early 1970s, said Sara Davis, advanced placement grant coordinator for the district, but in the last few years, the number of classes has increased considerably thanks to Superintendent Gloria Davis' emphasis on academic rigor and to a grant the district received just in time to implement that initiative.

As a result, the number of students taking the exams has increased, too. More than 200 students took the exams in 13 subjects, many students taking more than one, for a total of 343 exams. Advanced placement classes are available in U.S. and European history, government, language, literature and composition, chemistry and calculus. Students also had the option of taking the exam in foreign languages, even though those classes are not yet offered.

"There's no penalty if you don't do well," Davis said.

But if a student does well, the benefits are worth the extra effort. Many universities will award college credit for a successful advanced placement exam, saving the student time and money for required courses. Students who do very well can enter college as a second-semester freshman and, in some cases, as a sophomore. Advanced placement classes and the exam also offer the chance to prepare for college demands while still in high school.

"It's like a good college prep experience, and I knew in AP I had a chance to get college credit," said Shana Dunning, a sophomore at Eisenhower High School. "It was hard. It was challenging."

You can't let yourself get too stressed, said Jeremy Smith, a junior at MacArthur High School. It helps that both high schools are on a block 8 schedule - one set of classes on A days, a different set of classes on B days - because that gives students an extra day to do homework. Keeping up with a heavy class load is a matter of time management, he said.

"Even if I don't do great, it's still an experience, and it will prepare me for college," said Jessica Butts, an Eisenhower junior.

Students can learn techniques for studying and learning that help with regular classes, said Ting Lin, also an Eisenhower junior.

"I used to never be able to write an essay in 30 minutes," Lin said. "Now, I can do it in 20."

Valerie Wells can be reached at vwells@herald-review.com or 421-7982.