AP Exams

 This post originally appeared in my now defunct "Mom's View" blog.  I moved it to this blog at the request of my kids, who wanted to have all of the various posts that accompanied their high school years in one place.  I've matched the publication dates here to their original post date.  If you're reading these posts, I sincerely thank you for taking the time to go back through them all!

If you've got high school students, you know that AP Exams occurred over the past two weeks.

My two youngest kids took their exams over the week.  DD only had one exam- in AP US History.
She studied like a crazy woman, watched videos, and was worried about how hard the exams were going to be.  When the day of the exam finally arrived, she told me after the fact:  "The exam was easier than I was expecting.  I thought it was going to be impossible.  It wasn't impossible, and I knew a lot of the information.  I guess I was prepared enough."

Younger son, who is a Senior in high school, took multiple AP Exams.  AP Calc BC, AP Physics, AP Microeconomics, AP Macroeconomics, AP Literature, AP Language, and AP Spanish.  Most of these classes he took this year, with the exception of AP Literature and AP Language.  His English teacher encouraged the seniors to take both the Literature and Language exams if they felt up to the challenge.  Younger son has taken other AP exams in the past.  He was not as concerned as his sister was about the tests.  While he was concerned, his strategy was to stay up to date on his homework throughout the year, and he attended every review session his teachers held throughout the year.  Taking this many exams, his biggest concern was getting enough sleep every night, and eating well each day to make certain that he was able to get through the tests.

While AP exams are time consuming, and they do cost money, they are cost effective.  Colleges and Universities will take AP scores and offer a corresponding amount of credit for the scores.  Whether the scores are counted in major, or as electives, or for how many credits, depends upon the college.  This is one of those crucial things you research in depth when you are looking at colleges.

We won't know the results of these exams until sometime in July. 

No matter what their scores, I am so proud of them for trying.