As the 2018–19 school year comes to a close, many students and teachers have one goal in mind: to pass the Advanced Placement (AP) exams. Several months of preparation and learning culminate to one single test that can give students college credit and aid their chances at getting into their top colleges.  

Teachers have different approaches to prepare for the tests; some give their students multiple practice exams in the last semester or recommend certain books to read and practice from. For most AP exams, the free response section is worth a substantial part of the credit earned, and teachers often give practice questions throughout the year. Mr. Brian Carnes, the Honors and AP Chemistry teacher, is one of those teachers.  

“All [of my] tests are made from the old AP exams,” Carnes said. “We do a lot of study guides that are composed of old AP free response and multiple-choice questions.”  

One teacher is using the ubiquity of technology in her favor; Ms. Lara Bowen, the World History and AP Human Geography teacher, is recommending to her students the iScore5-APHG app. 

“[This resource] takes [all 0ther books] away because it does the same thing, but kids are much more likely to go on their phone than they are to read or purchase another book,” Bowen said.  

One of her students, freshman George Chemala has been preparing for the better part of a year.  

“I started preparing [for the exam] two months after school started,” Chemala said.  

The AP Environmental Science and Honors Biology teacher Ms. Wendy Roberts, who is already well-renowned for her quizzes in Biology, employs a similar method in her AP Environmental Science class.  

“Study after study [has] shown that the best way to prepare for something [is] practice quizzes and practice tests,” Roberts said. “If we keep going over quizzes and saying, ‘Let me ask you this, let me ask you that,’ it gets more ingrained in the student.”  

Sophomore Ally Jackson in the AP Environmental Science class has not yet started preparing for the exam but will begin soon.  

“I’m in the process 0f ordering books and choosing which to study,” Jackson said. 

The AP Exams for this year will begin on Monday, May 6 with United States Government/Politics and Environmental Science. They will end on Friday, May 17 with Microeconomics, Music Theory, Computer Science, and Latin.