The dreaded month of May is almost upon us. From mid-April until mid-May, the days are occupied with students carrying stacks of AP review books with blood-shot eyes and a zombie-like walk. Their nights become consumed with Red Bull, Monster, coffee, or any other energy or caffeinated drink. Sleep becomes nothing more than an elusive dream and goal. It is, as most teachers love to call it, AP crunch time.

During the first two weeks of May, students will finally take the long-awaited AP exams that they have worked towards for the entire school year. The long, caffeine infused nights, the massive amounts of homework and studying, the weekends spent holed up in your room with no time left aside to spend with friends, all lead up to these tests.

For the past couple of weekends, and for the next two set of weekends, AP teachers have held up to four hour long review sessions in the library. Students soon find themselves at school almost as long as they are at home. From as early as 6:50 in the morning to as late as 4:30 in the afternoon, students will be at school reviewing for these tests during zero period and after school. Teachers begin to throw large review projects at students, hoping to make them remember the material from September and October, months that seemed so long ago. Students pore over dog-eared copies of review books, lovingly annotated and highlighted with knowledge that has been pounded into their heads for the past eight months.

Sophomore Brooke Gagnon (10) bluntly describes the AP life around May as, “Mornings having to wake up early for review sessions. Giving up your Saturdays and weekends to study. Spending nights curled up with your review book hoping for some extra credit that will bring your grade to at least within range of a grade change. And the only things left that bring you some shred of happiness are Twitter pages like APUSH pickup lines or AP Euro Problems. That’s when you know your social life is truly gone: when you can understand and laugh at all the corny history jokes that secretly make you cry a little on the inside because you know how much the AP class has taken over your life.”

Mid-April to mid-May are highly stressful and busy weeks for both AP students and teachers, but the payoff day is finally here. AP testing begins next week. Here is the schedule for the 2015 AP Testing Days (apstudent.collegeboard.org), and good luck to all students who will be taking these exams!