In mid-March, the College Board announced that all Advanced Placement exams will be administered at home because of the COVID-19 outbreak.

As an Advanced Placement (AP) U.S. History student taking part in distance learning, there will be a lot to learn that’s not covered in-person. I feel this is a disadvantage because we will have to learn key parts of the 20th century such as the Vietnam War, the end of the Cold War, the Civil Rights Movement all by ourselves.

However, AP recently released free online classes offering students new information missed in class and study sessions for the AP exams. Educators from all over the country are participating in teaching specific classes to students. Students can watch these sessions live via Zoom or at a later time. Each session is recorded and later posted on the AP YouTube channel, making it accessible for students to view at any time.

Although content covered in the videos will not be part of the exam, it is still important to experience learning content from AP teachers, rather than just trying to succeed on exams.
I decided to try out one of these videos to see if they were beneficial to my learning. The time length of each video can range from 35 minutes to 50 minutes depending on the lesson being taught that day. An instructor introduced herself and explained what will be covered in the videos to come.

Overall, I enjoyed the video. It was exactly like a class— there was a warm up question, a slideshow the instructor prepared and examples of exam questions. I was able to take many notes and pause the video when needed. Although it was online, I felt like I was back in a desk at school, absorbing all the important content my teacher was sharing.

I will definitely return to finish the additional videos posted, as it was an amazing resource and it will help me stay caught up and prepared for college level courses. As the exam date grows nearer, the instructor mentioned that she will transition from teaching new content to reviewing past units in preparation for the test.

I highly recommend any student who is involved in any AP class to engage in the review sessions, as they will be beneficial to succeed on the AP exams.