There is an incredible amount of class selections at South. Within those available are AP classes. Some AP classes are all year long and others last only a semester. If you choose to take a semester AP, no matter when you have the class, the exam is on the same date in May. This can cause students to face issues when preparing for the exam.

For Ian Foy ‘21, having a first semester AP class caused him to struggle when remembering the topics he learned when the exam came around.

“I barely remembered anything because after I took the midterm for the class, I kind of just forgot all about it,” Foy said. “Once the actual AP test was coming up, I had a lot going on that week and I didn’t end up doing as good as I probably could have if I had the class second semester.”

Charles Tiderington ‘21, took the same AP Government class second semester and says that he felt rushed while in the course.

“First semester kids had from September to January to learn all the material and we only had from late January to May,” Tiderington said. “I felt like maybe I wasn’t as prepared as I could have been if I had more time to learn everything.”

Although the class brought along some challenges, both Foy and Tiderington recommend taking a semester AP. Foy suggests it based on how much time you take to study.

“I think if you can find the time to study, it would be really easy to take the AP test,” Foy said. “I liked the class a lot and think it was worth taking.”

For Tiderington, he believes that one should only take an AP class if they find a real interest in the course.

“If you are really interested in that group of studies, it would be good to take an AP class,” Tiderington said. “ You can also get college credit for the class, so that would be beneficial.”

According to Ms. Ashmon, semester AP classes have too much information to learn in such a short amount of time.

“For my APUSH kids, we have about 180 days to learn until the AP exam, and even then we could use more time,” Ashmon said.

No matter what semester one might have an AP class, it will be a challenge. An AP class can bring along many benefits that can carry into college. Also, just by taking the AP exam, one automatically receives the AP multiplier.