AP test, the cause of stress from students everywhere starting in May. While doing practices at home or in class with online resources or within AP Classroom are good for you, all they really are is practice. The intimidated environment of the actual testing site is felt even before you get there since you have to drive there causing yourself to become even more nervous.
Arrival
On test day you’ll drive over to the testing site and then once you enter the building there are two different “paths” to go down. A-L goes down one and the M-Z to the other. With less popular tests like AP Macro or Calc will be very empty. Once you’re checked in with your id you’ll be told your seat which will have a chromebook provided. Log into bluebook and wait for instructions and then the test starts.
“Rules”
You can’t talk or bring in a water bottle or a snack baggie if it’s not clear. They do this so that they won’t have to search your bag, one look into a clear container and they’ll let you bring it in. If you need to go to the bathroom then you raise your hand, after they give you the ok and you went into your test and clicked bathroom break, you are able to go. You won’t be compensated for time missed so if you can hold it without it messing up your focus then wait for the break. Even if you just need a moment to yourself to calm down, or move around you can take a bathroom break. They also don’t want you to talk about the test in detail, but it doesn’t really matter unless you somehow record the test and post it online. They say get there at 7:15 or the early time, but I showed up late at like 7:30/7:40 and there weren’t any problems.
My Expirences
For my first AP test last year I was a little nervous since I’ll be seeing the results of an entire year of learning, in just 3 hours. I think the nervousness that I felt is comparable to taking all the Junior year tests like the SAT. The format of most of them is pretty similar, one section of MCQ’s (multiple choice questions) and one section of FRQ’s (free response question).
For AP Literature this year there were 55 multiple choice questions in an hour with I think 5 different passages/poems to read in order to answer, and 3 essay FRQ’s. They are organized as a poem, a passage, and then a book of your choice. FRQ 1 was about a jogger on a run where he reminisces about his sister, FRQ 2 was about an 8 year old who can “read” people emotions when she eats food and she finds out the emptiness within her mother, and FRQ 3 was about the separation between generations with the book of your choice. In FRQ 1 and 2 you have to find complexity and then what the arthur is trying to say by using that complexity, and FRQ 3 is how the prompt they ask applies to your book of choice and then how it impacts the interpretation of the work as a whole. The total elapsed time of testing was 3 hours, a 10 minute break. The test starts at 8 but you get there at 7:15 which doesn’t help your nerves since you wait for 45 minutes with no phone. I did feel really confident with how I did, I really recommend doing the practice Mrs. Martian assigns at the end since it was harder than the test which makes you overprepared.
I also took AP Calc AB this year and this was the test I was stressing about. Unlike AP Lit, Mrs. Amo didn’t really give up much to practice and expected us to study on our own, which was very annoying since we expected our teacher to give us material. I did some studying and practice tests the day before and felt pretty confident and then I took it. It honestly felt way easier than the practice test. The MCQ section was split up into two parts, first one had 30 questions with a calculator and then 15 questions without a calculator. Then the FRQ’s were also two sections, one with 3 questions with a calc and then 6 questions without the calculator. It all was pretty easy expect for the first FRQ in the second section, I knew like nothing but with how easy the rest of the test felt I still felt really confident. Getting into your head when your stuck on a question will mess up your
Scandles
Of course there’s people who cheat every year and there’s been two that I’ve heard of 7 days in. There was a girl who cut out a hole in her shoe and put her phone in it. I don’t know how she did it but she was using it during the test and every time someone came by she just put her feet on the floor. This is honestly an unbeatable method until she slammed her foot a little too hard and Siri went off. Of course she was sent out and her scores were clavicle, but they also canceled two other students’ scores for laughing which I guess disturbed other testers. The next one is even crazier because it involves insects. At one of the sites there were 300 crickets or cockroaches released into the testing site and it was chaotic. The proctors told everyone to stay put and continue the test or else their scores would be canceled, I think under 10 students stayed. Two people were involved, a tester and an outsider. I think the idea behind this one is that if the tester was struggling then the other would release the bugs and they would be able to retake the test, but they got caught.
Some other ways I’ve heard people tried and failed to cheat is by planting a phone in a place beforehand. One time a student got into the testing site early and tapped their phone under their desk, they were caught. Another instance of using a phone is when someone put their phone in the bathroom before the test started and everytime they were stuck they asked to go to the bathroom, obviously they were also caught or else we wouldn’t know about it. People have also tried to use morse code to communicate with their assailants but since they were making so much noise they were found and taken out of their testing site. Just don’t cheat, it’s not worth it. If you get caught you won’t be able to take any more AP classes and your previous scores will also get canceled.
