AP exams are stressful for all students no matter how prepared they are or how much they studied before the exam. From the days leading up to the exam to the day the results are released, students are nervous wrecks. AP teachers are also stressed; it’s their job to prepare the students and they are the main reason students generally feel good about their AP exams. But what do the classes do after the exam?
In AP art classes such as AP Drawing, students displayed the art they made throughout the year in the art show. It allowed the students to destress after submitting their portfolio in AP Classroom by seeing the works of their peers. After taking down the art, the remaining students who aren’t seniors are given a final project. For AP Drawing, the final project consists of a series of bicycle studies in different mediums such as ink, graphite and charcoal. After multiple studies are done, they will be collaged to create a much larger final.
In AP Chemistry, teacher Stephanie Deonarain assigned the class’ last project/lab: making soap for students to keep. Over several weeks, the classroom was filled with different scents from different students’ soaps. The lab allowed students to exercise what they had learned throughout the course while doing something they likely enjoyed.
In AP Government, classes learned about financial literacy and presented in groups different parts of the course, such as how to manage credit, and how to deal and prevent identity theft. Each group was tasked with teaching the class and providing them with their respective worksheets on the subjects they studied. Afterward, they were assigned a Model UN project that consisted of students choosing a country and researching an outstanding problem they may have. They were expected to write a position paper, present their findings to the “United Nations (UN),” write a letter to a local representative and then meet up with other countries with similar problems to present resolutions.
Despite all the stress of AP classes and the exams, teachers manage to make class fun post-exams by including what students have learned throughout the year in an engaging way.
