May, commonly viewed as the most stressful month of the year. Why you might ask? It is filled with end of the year sports activities, graduations, vacation planning, college move-outs, final exams, and loads of last minute school work. To top off the already overwhelming moments before summer, students who take AP classes are weighted with the burden of AP exams that also begin in May.
No matter how many AP classes a student takes, having any exam at all during a school day is exhausting. In addition to the tiring tests, students feel forced to perform their absolute best on the exam to get the credit for the class.
“I think AP exams are so stressful because people work their whole year for this one test,” said junior Abby Bruskin. “There is always a ton of pressure to do the best you can.”
As a student who has taken several AP exams, I know how this exact pressure feels. The AP classes are structured around learning the exact material that will be tested on these exams and teaching students the strategies needed to successfully pass. After working the whole year to finally take the test, all any students are focusing on is studying and getting the best score possible.
Furthermore, the last thing many students want to do is go to their classes before they take their afternoon exam or after they have taken their morning exam.
“AP tests are normally about three hours straight of testing which can be exhausting,” said junior Mona Ferraioli. “It’s hard for a lot of students to focus in class before the test if they are nervous, or after if they are drained from taking the exam.”
Even if students want to stay at school after their exams, it makes it a lot harder to sit in class after three plus hours of straight testing. Coming back to school after this testing makes it immensely harder to focus, it adds more stress to an already overwhelming situation, and it does not allow for students to take a break.
“When I go back to class after taking an AP exam, I become distracted by the fact that I have already focused for several hours on another stressful subject,” said junior Maggie Gilleran. “I feel like my time is better spent at home recharging for the next day of school.”
On the other hand, students are actually excused from class after the PSAT and SAT which also consists of over a three hour test. If students can be excused from class after a practice SAT, then why can’t students be excused from class after taking a test that actually counts.
Although students are not forced to take the AP exams for their classes, the students that do take it deserve the rest and a break after a long period of time spent working. It is important for them to be able to take the time to regroup, eat some food, and simply just relax before any other future stressors they might encounter.
