As AP exam season comes to an end, a large fraction of WJ students have spent enormous amounts of time and effort on taking the classes and preparing for the exams. People often get distracted by the course load of these challenging classes and forget about a few important truths that can ease tensions about grades and exam scores.

Firstly, AP classes do not inherently help students get smarter. Though AP students do learn and develop certain skills throughout the courses, this comes as a result of trying to pass the class and exam, not from trying to learn the material. Let’s face it, if everyone were to try their best to soak up as much knowledge from each AP class as they could, they would barely survive. Yes, it is essential to learn the content of each course, but what is most important is learning exactly how to pass each certain class. This often requires more strategy and planning than learning in general.

I have learned so much more than I expected to from the AP courses I have taken in high school. That being said, it almost feels like the things I remember from each class after I take the exam in May is a byproduct of the course instead of its main purpose. Because of the intense and methodical strategies that students must develop in order to be successful in AP courses, it is not uncommon for them to let go of most of the information tied to each course from the second that they leave the auditorium after their AP exam concludes. With seven classes each day, choosing to take multiple AP courses, often along with other challenging classes, means that students simply do not have time to process the information they learn in an effective way.

For me, it is concerning to see how much information I have forgotten or even feel like I did not learn when reviewing for AP exams. Even my most enjoyable classes or the ones I have been most interested and engaged in are no exception from this pattern. Teachers are not at fault either. The looming exam date in May pressures teachers to fit the curriculum into the time they have, the generous ones leaving some extra time for practice and review.

To some, I’m sure this screams “college preparation,” but there are too many differences between high school AP classes and college courses to make this comparison valid at all. College students are given the freedom and time to study their course load while high school students learn more content every single day, leaving little to no time to process it all. Essentially, AP courses teach you how to complete AP courses, and not much more. They might help with some exposure to long exams and a more rigorous, fast paced curriculum, but overall, they do not resemble college courses enough to make them useful for the purpose of college preparation.

Beyond education, AP courses and exams surely do not provide assistance or experience for the workforce. Family, friends and even teachers I have spoken with about AP classes and exams affirm that they hold no value for real-life situations. Never again will anyone have to write a well-developed essay, solve masses of math problems or evaluate numerous historical documents in under an hour, outside of educational circumstances. A true understanding of the skills tested in AP exams requires more time to think about and edit responses to prompts.

What should change? Well, for starters, it could be incredibly beneficial to take a step backwards and spend high school learning, instead of cramming and strategizing for exams– there will be plenty of that in college. Without a significant change in the courses that it has become normalized for high school students to take, things will still look grim in springtime for a large portion of American teens. But other than that, testing formats can be changed so that graders get a more accurate view of the level of proficiency each student has in a certain course. AP exams should be more spread out, and taken in shorter sections, over longer periods of time. While this extends the exam process, it will greatly benefit the overall well being of students, as well as improve how they perform on these tests.

So next time you feel rushed, panicked or unprepared, remember that unfortunately, that is completely normal. AP exam scores do not fully reflect your level of understanding for a course, as I am sure everyone has seen in their own experience. If you took a class you really enjoyed this year, continue learning about that subject, in or out of school. Though it may feel like it, you don’t need to forget about interesting information to make space for next year’s content. For now, let’s be grateful that exams are over and relax until next spring.