Many students at Park take AP classes, meaning most of them take the AP test for those classes in May. AP tests create a lot of stress and put pressure on the students to do well because they can get college credits, or even a boost in their class grade depending on the teacher and how well they do. After AP tests students find busy work still being assigned by the teachers pointless.
AP US History teacher Scott Miller said after the AP tests are over there’s still a good amount of time in the school year. To fill the time he makes sure there is still stuff to do in the class.
“Well, there’s about a month left of school. So that’s a long time in my opinion to not give students any work,” Miller said. “But I try to make it more relaxed and more like a chance to actually improve grades versus being super intense and hard.”
Junior Zach Feinberg said now that the stress of those tests is gone he can focus more on his other classes and school in general, instead of just the AP classes.
“It’s very relieving. I don’t have to worry about the stress of studying for the big tests,” said Feinberg. “It’s a lot easier to kind of focus on all of my classes rather than the big heavy hitters.”
Junior Adam Rosvold said now that the AP tests are done there is less pressure in those classes. Teachers are giving work that now feels meaningless to the students since it won’t mean anything for the AP tests.
“There’s not as much stress now, but teachers are trying to keep you a lot busier than you should be, even though the point of the class is to do well on the AP test,” Rosvold said. “Now, they’re just coming up with more things that a lot of kids aren’t really as driven to do since they’re finished with what they feel like they’ve worked in that class to complete in the first place.”
Miller said to make the end of the school year easier on students he gives them easy ways for them to be able to get their grades up. For example, he spaces out the work given to students more than before.
“I like to give a lot of time between assignments,” Miller said. “And also let the students know that there’ll be plenty of points available that can help pull up their grades after the AP test is over.”
Feinberg said he would like to see next year’s class topics being introduced in the remaining portion of the school year, instead of the busy work for the class that he is getting.
“I wish we would be introduced to the topics for next year,” Feinberg said. “Kind of a brief intro to the next class that we were going to take would be super helpful instead of the work we are getting now.”
Rosvold said he wants his AP classes to be more low-key, with less stuff to do so he can focus on his other classes that haven’t gotten as much attention for the majority of the year.
“I wish for a little bit more of a chiller final and a little bit more time to kind of relax after such a long year of preparing for the AP test,” Rosvold said. “Having more of a study hall period now would be better because we finished our big goal for the year in those classes. Now I think it’s a good time to just relax and focus on other classes.”