As the Advanced Placement (AP) testing season is fast approaching—starting next Monday, May 5, and lasting until Friday, May 16—students are beginning to study and prepare for the classes they have worked tirelessly in all year.
AP exams are standardized tests that are administered by the College Board in order to show what students have learned throughout their year-long AP class. Depending on the score—typically 4’s and 5’s—students are able to earn college credit, which takes the stress off earning credit for a class they have already taken and is the foundation for earning a degree. The number of APs one can take is unlimited; however, some like the challenge and aim to take as many as they possibly can. It can be hard to juggle so many advanced courses at once, especially depending on the difficulty and whether you have taken them in the past.
“[My APs are] all so different, and they’ve all been difficult in their own ways,” junior Maya Hristova said.
Hristova will be taking four tests in the following weeks, including AP Physics C Mechanics, AP Spanish Literature, AP English Language and AP Calculus BC. Overall, she expressed that the easiest of the four tests she will be taking is AP Spanish Literature.
“I feel pretty prepared for Spanish Literature” Hristova said. “I don’t have everything memorized very well, but when it comes to the things that they want me to do, I can do them; it might not be as detailed as they want me to be, but I have the overall gist of every topic.”
Studying is key to these types of tests, such as reviewing concepts and looking over notes, but most students have different strategies that work best for them.
“The days or the week leading up, I’m definitely reviewing material given by either my teachers or just reviewing stuff on AP classroom,” senior Mariam Yusuf said. “If there are any specific topics that I’m not that confident in, just going on those videos or even looking at videos on YouTube.”
Yusuf has taken the continuing AP English course after Language, being Literature. The transition has been a lot easier since she has past experience and prior knowledge of what exactly is on the test.
“I feel like we have done a lot of preparation, and I definitely feel confident going into [AP Lit] more than I was for AP Lang,” Yusuf said. “For me, I’ve always been more STEM-oriented, so the English tests like Lang and Lit are always going to be harder for me than AP Calc, which I’ve taken in the past, so just relying on the test prep from taking multiple choice practice tests and the essay practice tests.”
Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, which is why acknowledging the areas that you are strong in and what you still need to work on is important in order to manage your time well with studying. In previous years, it was known that freshmen weren’t allowed or weren’t recommended to take AP courses. For freshman Fyodor Panchenko, however, this has not been a factor as he is taking three APs: Calculus AB, Computer Science and German.
“I feel pretty confident,” Panchenko said. “I don’t have any experience taking [them], so I’m a bit nervous, but I’m confident I’ll get at least a four, hopefully a five; that’s my goal.”
Panchenko is taking AP German through a website called UC Scout, which is essentially the online version of an AP class. Taking German through this site gives him more flexibility and the ability to take the AP test whenever he wants. Panchenko expressed that he will likely take some practice exams for German since they aren’t required like they are for the classes he takes at school. It’s no surprise that for other tests, students tend to procrastinate and study the night before, however, the AP test isn’t one you should leave for the last minute, according to students.
“I’m not one to cram my studying because I know that if I don’t know the content the day before or the morning of the day of, I may not be able to remember it,” Yusuf said. “I kind of just know, ‘I’ll know what I know on the test,’ and if not, I’ll take my best educated guess because you’re not going to know everything on the test.”
