Everyone has been grinding hard for the numerous Advanced Placement (AP) tests these past two weeks. I personally had two tests, AP psychology and AP U.S. history, so I know the stress that is involved with AP tests.

South students take AP tests very seriously as I do, and it angers me when I have a first semester AP class but I have to take the test four months later. I have had to take the AP psychology and AP government and politics tests a semester after I finished the class. How is this fair compared to a student who takes an AP class second semester right before the exam?

Studying and review sessions can only do so much for a first semester student to remember all of the content that was crammed into the first semester.

Why can’t the first semester students take their AP tests after their class ends just like the second semester students do?

Students, like I do, put in countless hours of work throughout the whole semester to be prepared for the AP test just to forget all of the information we learned during the next semester.

The College Board should start offering first semester and second semester AP tests for half-year courses. This change would make testing more fair for first semester students and would ultimately make test scores more accurate by representing the students’  true potential.

Offering AP tests at the end of the first semester for courses that don’t last the entire year would also help because many schools, including South, are already at a disadvantage because they have certain semester-long classes (such as AP government and politics and AP psychology) that  other schools have as a full-year class. The least the College Board could do to standardize their tests would be to give us the test as soon as we finish the class.

If the College Board is all about standardized testing and fair opportunities, there must be a change in the way they offer their tests. I know my test scores would increase if I was able to take the test immediately after my half-year course is over.

Until this happens I will continue to advocate for a change to occur in the way College Board administers tests.

A poll that ran on the Tower Pulse twitter account showed that 32 people (69 percent of students) would rather take a second semester AP class than a first semester one.

This proves that the majority of South students think having an AP class second semester is better than during first semester.

The student body of South needs to stand up and to ask for change if they agree there should be a first semester tests administered for half-year AP courses.