The beginning of May means warmer weather and time spent outside for many, but for AP students, it means stress cramming for their upcoming exams.
The AP exams always fall at the beginning of the month and last two weeks. For seniors, this signifies the end of the school year wrapping up a month early.
At this point in the year, most seniors are taken over by senioritis and are anticipating their future plans, so their AP study schedule isn’t their first priority.
“The test is today and I started studying last night,” said senior Rhys Foulke, who is taking the AP statistics course, “I already got into college so what do I need to do all of this for,” he said.
Foulke isn’t the only senior who feels this way about exams. Even the most dedicated students are feeling defeated by their AP’s.
“I’ve always studied hard in school until like April. There’s just so much information to remember for AP Bio and I don’t have the motivation to look it over,” said senior Annabelle King.
Most AP teachers struggle to even finish teaching their course on time as they have to complete it by the end of April rather than mid-June.
Exams are three hours long, and are separated in parts with strict time limits. Some tests have up to 100 questions in a section, and include information from the entire school year.
“We only have a minute and a half to answer each multiple choice question if we want to finish on time. I probably won’t finish, it’s making me really stressed,” said Foulke.
Not only are the exams hard, but the curriculums are rigorous and fit for only the hardest workers. Students who take these courses should be willing to spend their free time studying and looking over the course material.
Second semester seniors aren’t the perfect fit for this description. Most went into the year ready to push themselves, but have given up at the end.
“I didn’t take an AP this year because I just knew I wouldn’t want to take the test when I was checked out at the end of senior year. I took AP Lang last year and I couldn’t imagine doing that test again now with senioritis,” said Emily Baumes.
Baumes’s empty schedule for the week is a luxury that many stressed out students wish they had.
With this being said, AP week signifies the end of the school year for the students who take these classes. Now seniors can cruise through their final month of high school worry free.