Advanced Placement classes are college level courses that students can take during their high school years. APs helps students boost their GPA and allow them to skip certain college introductory courses. This gives students the ability to earn college credits before graduation and stand out to college admissions. Some students state that their teachers prepare them well for their AP exams while other students argue that their teachers do not prepare them enough.
“I would say my teacher prepares us pretty well for the AP exams,” senior Tyler Truong said. “They tend to start reviewing a whole month before and give us plenty of resources to use after school for our own studying. I do think that teachers should give us more independent time to work with our classmates on reviews. I feel that peer review tends to keep me engaged while reviewing. I think the classes do focus on AP exams skills, as most of the teachers plan their syllabus around the exam and be proficient.”
Another student also agreed that their teachers prepare them well for the AP exam.
“They prepare well for the exams by explaining it in an AP-specific point of view, and they let you know what you need to do to get that point, for example if they say identify and explain, then you have to make sure you’re doing exactly that, senior Emily Johnson said. “I believe my classes do focus on the AP exams and the skills that will be on the exam.”
Another peer also stated their agreement about this sentiment, highlighting the effectiveness of their teachers in preparing them for the AP exam.
“I feel like with the exam season starting officially on May 4th, I do believe that my AP Biology teacher is preparing us well for the AP exam,” junior Aryan Sharma said. “She gives us time to comprehend the information, and, additionally, she has given us various resources to aid us to do well on the exam.”
While some students argue that teachers prepare them well for the AP exams, others disagree with that statement and believe their teacher doesn’t prepare them well for the exam.
“I don’t think my teacher prepared me well for the exam due to the fact we move through the units really slow, and we’re behind a lot of the other classes,” sophomore Emily Fredlake said. “I worry that we’re not going to have a lot of time to actually review all the units we’ve done. In my class, we don’t do a lot of word problems, and that’s a big part of the exams. Those questions are always a lot harder. When the AP exam comes up we usually just kind of do notes, but, again, I feel like if we did harder problems, we would be better prepared.”
Another student also agreed that their teacher could have prepared better, however this student believes it depends on what AP class you take.
“In my AP math classes they do a very good job focusing on AP exams skills, however, I feel like that is lacking in history courses,” Johnson said. “We focus a lot on what happened in the past and the textbook readings, but we don’t focus a lot on multiple choice testing strategies. Knowing a lot of facts about world history didn’t necessarily equate to seeing my score improve on test until I focused on the content in its historical context, which they don’t necessarily teach you.”
“I think she has some good study material we can use, but she keeps switching her teaching style quite often and sometimes it confuses me,” sophomore Daniela Perez said. “There are days where she’ll do a Peardeck and I feel like I can learn, but, however, for the rest of the unit, you’re basically expected to teach yourself. I think my teacher could have prepared me better for the exam by giving more presentations about the units, instead of giving us big packets of confusing questions paired with the units.”
These students have expressed their opinions and thoughts on how their AP teachers prepare them for the upcoming exam. Some students do agree that their teachers do prepare them well for the exam, while other students disagree with that statement. This isn’t meant to bash teachers and their teaching but rather get students voices on how teachers could prepare them better.
