As Bulldogs prepare for AP testing or have already taken them, many people feel as though they weren’t as hard as expected. All of their studying had paid off, and the exam questions were not significantly different from those in their other tests or quizzes given by their teachers.
The first set of AP exams was on Monday, May 5. The exams were AP Biology, AP European History, and AP Microeconomics. Many students, like Belinda Cheng (12), who took the AP Biology exam, Katie Cha (10), who took the AP European History exam, and Melody Chang (12), who took the AP Microeconomics exam, felt that these were not as hard as they had expected.
“I felt relieved from all the studying, and the questions were kind of easy, which made me think that all my hard work from studying paid off, and the AP micro exam was hard too, but I think all the studying I did paid off at the end,” said Cheng.
Many people were overthinking their tests and thought that they would fail. It took a lot of self-studying and doing practice tests to find out what was going to be on the tests and what they should look forward to.
“ I did do a lot of the FRQs [Free Response Questions] from the past exams, and I also had to self-study all the notes and other stuff,” said Chang.
Besides just studying alone, the teachers also played a huge role in helping the students be prepared for whatever they were going to see on the exams.
“I think Mr. Donovan prepared us a good amount, because the tests he gave us for each unit, mirrored the actual AP test pretty much exactly. So that helped us get an understanding of what the questions on the test were going to look like,” said Cha.
The teachers not only helped the students by giving them options on what to study, they also supported them and gave them exam tests that would look like the AP tests so that they would understand better.
“I think Mr. Gracia did a pretty good job at preparing us, and he also helped us with topics we struggled on right before the exam,” said Chang.
For the upcoming students, the people who have taken the AP tests are trying to show them that it isn’t really serious and just focus and you will do alright.
“I’d say study early, maybe even start during a spring break or winter break. And don’t give up, persevere through it cause your score at the end will always pay off,” said Cheng
Don’t worry about your scores or how nervous you are about the test, just focus on the now and remember all that you have studied.
“Some advice I would give is to not stress that much, because you’re probably making it worse in your head than it actually is, and to just know the basic material and you should be good,” said Cha.
