With the school year winding down, many students are ready to call it a year and get ready for summer vacation. Unfortunately, for our AP students, they still have one more obstacle in their way, the AP tests. For those who do not know what an AP test is, it is basically a harder final exam that you must pay to take. It is not required to take the test, but with a high enough score, you can earn college credit. This year, the AP test has two variations for each exam; students can take to test in–person in the first week of May or students can take it online in June.  

Calculus and algebra teacher Christine Anderson-DeWitt has had her students practicing problems that could show up on the test using College Board’s AP classroom to hopefully give her students exposure to the types of questions asked on the test.  

“I use AP Classroom mainly because of its rigor. It has more challenging problems to prepare students for college classes,” Anderson-DeWitt said. 

Junior Ke’aloha Duhaylonsod is taking both AP Chemistry and AP Composition this year and had decided that she is not taking either of the AP tests.  

“I chose not to take the tests because it’s stressful and for something like chemistry, there’s never enough time to get through all of the units,” Duhaylonsod said. 

Senior Matthew Haley is the valedictorian and is currently taking AP Calculus and AP Literature, and has taken every AP class available to him throughout his high school career. Haley plans to take both tests to finish off his last school year in high school. 

“Last year, I watched about 30 one-hour long videos for chemistry, but this year, it was a lot harder to prepare due to not being in school for half the year,” Haley said. 

The AP tests are no joke and can give students great opportunities in the future if they score high enough. Today, the AP Calculus test has started and for the students who plan to take any of the tests this year, good luck!