As the busy days of testing for AP exams draw near, the anticipation of what is to come after the exam is upon students.
With tests spanning from May 6 to May 17, AP teachers have been preparing all year. AP United States History and European History teacher, Peter Palen said he will take a big sigh of relief after the rigorous courses and exams are over.
“I internalize my own students’ anxiety about the test and I feel the squeeze trying to get through all of the material, review and discuss test-taking strategies,” Palen said.
With school starting on Sept. 5 this year, it leaves less than eight months to prepare for the exam. For AP Spanish teacher Cindy Morefield-Pinder, she feels that another month would have given her more time to prepare students.
“In Spanish, students are going up against 80 percent native speakers,” Morefield-Pinder said. “So I don’t get a month (to prepare students), but the native speakers get even another month.”
Because of the multiple breaks and days off school, semester two AP classes may not have as much time to prepare for the exam. AP Microeconomics and Macroeconomics teacher Donn Bacon said a time frame argument can be prevalent for semester AP classes like these.
“The first semester students get the full Fall semester and second semester students get a shorter time frame,” Bacon said.
After the exam is over, the class is not used as a tutorial but is still educational and entertaining at the same time. Palen said after the exam, he likes to give his students a break and watch a film.
“Typically, we don’t watch whole feature-length films because there’s not enough time to do so,” Palen said. “So I like to reward and treat the students with just a little bit of downtime with an entertaining film that’s still related to US history.”
After the AP exam, it isn’t uncommon for teachers to revisit old lessons that they may want to spend more time on. Bacon said the lessons can come from the Economics class or be revisited.
“With the focus of the AP exam, we just haven’t had time in those classes to do those types of activities, but we’ll cover those after the exam,” Bacon said.
