The days and times of the AP exams vary for each and every student. Photo by: Matthew Libersky

By Michaela Moreno

Advanced Placement courses are college level classes that, if the exam is passed with a three or higher,  a student can earn college credits. Some of Plymouth High School’s students will be taking the exam between May 7 and May 11 in hopes of earning college credits.
The types of AP classes offered at PHS include English, Psychology, Biology, Mathematics and Foreign Language. The exams include around 100 multiple choice questions and one or more essays in a limited amount of time. Senior John Hampton has had experiences with an AP exam. He previously took Biology 2. Senior Jacob Segraves has had experience with these type of exams as well, he took AP English his junior year. He recommends future AP test takers to “Study a lot and try not to get yourself too nervous for it.”

Besides the classes, the students’ reasons for taking AP classes vary as well. Some students, like juniors Casey McDonald and Faith Read, were looking for a way to challenge themselves. Other students shared junior Miriah Bowen’s reasoning about taking AP classes for the Core 40 Academic Honors Diploma. Junior Kyra Christy joined in the hopes of scoring some college credits. As for junior Maiyah Czarnecki, she just wanted to take psychology because she’s interested in that area of study. “I didn’t care if it was AP or not,” Czarnecki said.

All the interviewed AP class students agreed that AP classes differ from other “normal” classes. Hampton, for example, explains how “the actual content is much more difficult and learning is in a much faster pace than other classes.” McDonald, on the other hand, compared her AP English class to others and found that they do not do the same things. “We do more of the technical stuff to get us ready for the AP test, while they just do the regular English stuff,” McDonald said. The workload is heavier and the classes are challenging, but students like Read find the classes to be, in a lot of ways, really amazing and fun.

With the countdown till AP exams coming to an end, the AP instructors have been preparing their students more and more each day. In McDonald’s AP English class they have been reviewing the AP vocabulary terms that they learned, as well as going over poems and trying to get a better understanding on how to annotate them. Bowen’s Psychology instructor has been having them “do practice quizzes everyday, providing [them] with notes, giving [them] review packets, and by giving [them] other resources to use as well.” Read, another Psychology student, plans on using those notes and quizzes in her own time to study for the big exam.

All AP students share one thing in common. Nerves. McDonald said she is really nervous for this test because, “it’ll show me how well I am prepared for an English class in college.” Czarnecki’s nerves come from the fear of not passing and it being a waste of money. Segraves feels the same way, that is why he is hoping that he does pass “because it will save [him] some money when [he] goes to college.” For Christy, however, her feelings are neutral. It is just like any other test for her.

For the students, there are some benefits to taking an AP course, as well as some less than beautiful qualities. The main benefit is getting college credits and saving students some money, while the main downfall is the exam fee. Another good outcome, according to Read, is bragging rights. She feels that there is no downside to taking the AP exam. Bowen, however, feels that the homework, namely “all the packets,” is a downside. Segraves feels the same way. He explains how the classes are a lot harder and the preparation for the exam is very stressful. The classes help students get an idea of what college level courses are like and even if students do not pass the exam, it will end up helping them when taking the finals for the class.

Students like Czarnecki do not care about the benefits and downfalls. “AP classes are a lot more fun than normal classes, but you have to work a little extra hard,” said Czarnecki.

Psychology instructor, Mr. David Hatcher, gave his students a study log that included reasons why students would want to pass their exam. Photo by: Michaela Moreno