On May 7 and 14, students enrolled in the Advanced Placement (AP) classes at PHS took their required AP exams. There are two AP classes available for PHS students: AP Computer Science and AP English Language and Composition.

These exams were necessary for the AP students to get high school and potentially college credit. The Computer Science exam was taken first at the Support Services Building (SSB) in the afternoon on May 7, while the English exam was taken first thing in the morning on the 14 at the same building.

“I felt that throughout this entire year that our class has been kind of geared towards preparing us for this exam,” junior Colin Walker said. “I found this to be very helpful when taking the exam.”

Walker was in both the Computer Science and English AP classes and took both exams. In the previous quote, Walker was referring to the English exam, claiming that Mrs. McArthur, the AP English teacher, did a wonderful job of preparing him for the dreadful test.

“I felt far more prepared for the English exam,” Walker said, “as opposed to the Computer Science exam.”

According to Walker, Mrs. McArthur did a great job preparing her students for the exam. Mr. Hayano also did multiple practices with the class, and many of his students felt ready to take the exam.

“I felt like I could go a little more in-depth in some of the FRQ  [free response questions] than I could with the multiple choice,” sophomore David Stensing said. “Just because I think we practiced them a lot more.”

This was a common theme for an AP English student, with students expressing the need to prepare in closer proximity to the test date.

“I think I would have liked a little bit more review on the multiple choice stuff closer to the test,” junior Audrey Johnson said. “Opposed to so early in the year.”

Overall, however, all three students claimed that they felt pretty groovy going into their AP exams. Something different that started last year was the introduction to taking the exams online.

“I actually really liked it,” Johnson said. “I like it on the English exams because it immediately goes to the portion of the test, especially the multiple choice, to the questions you’re answering. You don’t have to search through it and that kind of thing.”

A recurring opinion within the school is that it’s nice to be able to see the questions right next to the article and have the ability to type the FRQs rather than handwrite them. Walker has a different opinion.

“I think it would be easier,” Walker said. “Simply because I think it’s easier to see how things are laid out when it’s on paper.”

This is totally reasonable, and also a common opinion. While the online test provides multiple tools and conveniences, a lot of people prefer reading the tricky words on paper. All in all, the AP exams went smoothly, and the teachers did a splendid job preparing their students.

“I felt pretty good about it,” Stensing said. “I know it was tough, but sometimes that’s just how tests are.”