Following two weeks of missed classes and remote learning due to winter weather, Davie High School has made the decision to move all Advanced Placement (AP) exams to the late testing dates from May 18–22. The exams being pushed back a week brought some relief, but with it came new problems.
AP classes follow a strict schedule with little wiggle room, especially for single-semester classes like AP Psychology and AP Pre-calculus. After these delays, both teachers and students felt as if they were squeezed for time and playing catch-up.
The new test dates are only a week long instead of the normal two weeks. Many students have now found themselves with multiple tests on the same day, when that wasn’t the case before. That is the predicament junior Ethan Diemer has found himself in.
“I appreciate the motive of extending the window in which we can study because of the snow; however, I am now in a predicament where I have two exams on the same day.”
Diemer is taking AP Calculus and AP Language and Composition on the same day. In the previous schedule, the two exams were on Monday, May 11, and Wednesday, May 13, respectively.
“I find the change really frustrating,” sophomore Meghan Russo said. Russo, like others, is irritated with the fact that they have to continue their studies into late May. “I was looking forward to just taking the exam and spending the rest of the year stress-free, but now it’s something I have to worry about until the last weeks of school.”
For some AP students, the second semester is already an uphill battle to fight burnout, and the exams being pushed back can feel like another hurdle. While some students are feeling the burden of two exams on the same day, others, like sophomore Chis Samet, are happy to jump at the chance for extra time to review.
“None of my classes had any issue with the previous exam schedule,” Samet said. “That final week will be incredibly stressful, but I’ll have the bonus preparation to get me through it. The pros and the cons cancel out.”
The delayed exams allow for teachers to continue teaching at a steady pace without cutting into in-class review time. Though the new AP Biology teacher, Stephanie Goulding, says she is not letting off the gas after the exam delay.
“Even though it is pushed back, I’m still almost working in the fashion as if it’s not, so that we will recover everything in plenty of detail, and be really prepared.”
While the new AP exam dates have sparked controversy over whether the extra review time is worth squishing all the exams into one week, few students would turn down the opportunity for more time to study — or time to procrastinate studying.
No matter how one feels, Davie will start AP testing on May 18 at 8 AM.
