Jack Riley ‘24 | Colin Schlitt ‘24
Upper School students will take their final exams for non-AP classes from May 16th to 20th prior to May Term. AP exams will run from May 2th to May 13th.
The main distinction between EA’s finals and AP finals is that EA’s finals count 10-20% of a student’s final grade, while AP exams only provide students with an opportunity to earn college credit. Although AP exams do not count towards your final class grade, Upper School Learning Specialist Courtney Wisniewski stresses the importance of studying for those exams, explaining, “AP exams give you the opportunity to not have to take a class or course in college if you pass them.” Typically, a score of three or higher on the AP exam will count for college credit, but depending on the competitiveness of the school, some colleges require a four or even a five.
Photo courtesy of statesman.com
Wisniewski urges students to “map their studying plans out four weeks in advance.” Since much of the information on your final exams will be from earlier in the school year, she advises students to “really get organized and figure out the pieces that are missing, so you can meet with a teacher.” Although finals and AP exams are still several weeks away, she believes that actively reviewing class material will benefit a student’s score.
Studying methods can vary depending on the subject. “If you are working through math, you practice problems and go over things that you don’t know, so you can really fix those issues within your math exam. English is really about knowing skills, techniques, and literary devices, and then you can apply all those things you worked through the year into your final. Science is a little more difficult because it is so terminology driven, so really having all of your terms written down in flashcards and connecting them to concepts is a huge piece,” Wisniewski says.
Austin Bouvel ‘24 shares his studying plans by saying, “I am feeling pretty confident and not too nervous. It is going to be a lot of work to study. I am probably going to start studying a couple of weeks to a month before it, depending on the exam.” Similar to Bouvel’s opinion, Rohan Dalal ‘25 believes, “Middle school has prepared me well in many regards, and I’ve found the transition to Upper School pretty easy, so I think that exams will be pretty similar. I think that I’m well prepared for exams, and I am not too nervous.”
In terms of AP exams, Fernando Loor ‘24 states, “I would study [for the AP exams] the same amount [as final exams], but it depends if the class is difficult because if it’s an easy class, I wouldn’t study that much. I do want to do well because if you get a high score on the exam, it helps you out for college.” When asked about which AP exams students tend to perform most successfully on, Wisniewski feels, “Usually, people do better in history because it’s more accumulative. Science can be a little more difficult because it’s very terminology driven.”
However, some seniors have different mindsets towards taking the AP exams compared to underclassmen. Having already been accepted into college, Bobby Albani ‘22 is not planning on studying a large amount for the AP exams, saying, “I don’t think I will be putting in nearly as much time into studying for them as I did in previous years because to my knowledge, they can’t influence my college decisions and getting a good score won’t impact me.” In contrast to Albani, Nik Walling ‘22 states, “I am planning to study for APs this year just as I have in past years. One reason is that there is a potential tangible benefit in terms of the credit I could earn, especially for AP Spanish. Overall, I wouldn’t consider winging my exams because I like to see things through to the end.”