seldom is the question asked: is the sat too hard?

The number of students taking Advanced Placement tests in Minnesota has increased, as well as the number of students getting scores worthy of college credit.

According to information released Tuesday by the Minnesota Department of Education and the Minnesota Office of Higher Education, there was a 6 percent increase in the number of Minnesota students taking AP tests, which are tests students take at the end of an AP course in order to be eligible for college credit. There were 27,605 test takers who took 44,281 subject area exams during the 2007-08 school year.

There was an almost 8 percent increase in the number of tests that garnered a score of at least three out of five, meaning that 28,138 of the tests could be used by colleges to award credit to entering students.

Minnesota students in the Class of 2008 also performed above the national average on the SAT, which is taken by fewer than 10 percent of Minnesota high school graduates because it's mostly used to apply to colleges on the East or West Coast.