Lack of sleep. Review sessions. Tears. These are all words that describe an AP student before the first week of March. Students trembled in fear as the dark, stealthy AP test prepared to pounce on hundreds of innocent students. These students had ventured in to the darkness in hope to find light in their future. Students challenged and fought through theorems, monarchs, presidents, cells and elements all year long; however, after nine months they faced their final duel. Student versus test. On one side was as a student was taking a few different AP’s and on the other side the college board providing the challenge. The student grips the Number 2 pencil in their sweaty hand, and bubbles ferociously. The test takes some hits, and it lands a few hard ones on the student. Students fight on through the free response and finally can begin to taste freedom. Alas, the proctor demands all work to cease and the doors of the test room open to freedom.

After putting in countless hours all year students these past two weeks have completed all their advanced placement test and are now released to be free. Many teachers see that as all the material of the class has been covered prior to the exam there is no longer a strict lesson plan required. During class, some classes watch movies to pass the time and celebrate a successful year. Students are given the opportunity to unwind and relax for the last month of school after having pushed themselves in strenuous classes and extracurricular activities. Students like Sophie Kim (10), have found that, “post AP testing is really calm and I get the chance to open up my schedule a little more because I don’t have that extra hour or two of homework or studying for that class”.

Teachers like Mr. Buchan, the AP Euro man, finds that “my hope is to have a few celebratory parties to celebrate their accomplishments as well as the end of the academic year. Moreover, we will be doing in class art activities as well watching some historical movies.” Students in Mr. Buchan’s class find activities like these interesting and entertaining because they get to retouch on the past subject they have learned that year, but now they get to become more involved in the artistic and physical element. Overall after countless study sessions, late nights studying and hours of annotating the intensity has come to a fall as students gave their ultimate effort on the AP test. Students enjoy this cool down after a long nine month sprint.