By the time the beginning of May rolls around, many students are dreaming of summer vacation and sand between their toes. School is barely a blip on their radar. But for some poor souls, the start of May brings nothing but anxiety and fear as the dreaded AP exams loom in the near future.
Instead of enjoying the beautiful spring weather, AP students are sweating not from the sun, but from the prospect of taking a test on a year’s worth of material. While this may not seem any more difficult than a typical end-of-the-year exam, the big difference is that AP tests are not created by your teacher.
While a teacher of an AP class should focus on material that could be on the test, there are some teachers that have their own ideas about what’s important. There’s no telling if AP teachers around the globe are all sticking to the curriculum.
Even if they are educating their students in the manner that an AP teacher should, they don’t know what might possibly appear on the test. Until now, that is.
According to The New York Times, the board that creates the AP exams will cut back on the amount of material a student needs to know by providing a curriculum framework. This way, teachers can know what they should be teaching so that their students will have a better chance at understanding key concepts.
These changes will take affect for French Language and Culture, German Language and Culture, and World History by the 2011-2012 school year. Changes to the Biology, Latin, and Spanish Language and Culture tests will be made by 2012-2013, as well as to the U.S. History test by 2013-2014.
It’s about time that whoever creates these crazy tests realized that no student can memorize everything there is to know about world history. Speaking from experience, trying to decide what to study for an AP test is like trying to shop for a bathing suit in December – futile, frustrating, and a complete waste of time.
How can someone hope to earn college credit when they are given such an open-ended task? This new system of a curriculum framework gives teachers and, students by extension, a jumping-off point.
While some may argue that the point of taking an AP class is the challenge and the infamous difficulty of those tests, the experience is supposed to help students receive college credit and give them a glimpse of what they will go through in a few years. However, one single exam does not make or break a college student’s grade. It is more important that the student maintains their grade by understanding concepts.
These changes make AP exams that much more valuable because now they don’t just test a student’s stress limitations and ability to memorize facts that, once that bubble is colored in, are completely forgotten. Instead, more students will be learning college-level concepts and applying them on their AP test.
In the past, colleges noticed that AP students knew how to take a test but did not know how to analyze or critique something. In the real world of college, test-taking strategies are forgotten. It is much more important to have the ability to truly absorb information and apply it.
Additionally, beginning this May, there have been more alterations made to the way that the exams are scored. In previous years, points were given for right answers and deducted for wrong answers while no points were given or taken away if the student opted not to answer a question. Now, however, points will no longer be taken away for wrong answers.
These may seem like minor adjustments, but small changes can make a big difference. In this case, change is good for all of those AP students out there who will now being breathing a little easier instead of breathing into a paper bag on that dreaded day in May.
Cara Reilly is a Copy Editor for “The Patriot” and jcpatriot.com.