It haunts students at night, follows them during the day, and appears when they least expect it. The word itself makes students shudder with anxiousness and fear. What is this horrid and detested creature? The infamous standardized test.
The United States education system has put an extraordinarily large emphasis on standardized testing as a tool for weighing and measuring students’ intellectual abilities. Testing begins as early as kindergarten and continues even after graduate school. The countless different acronyms for standardized testing can practically spell the entire alphabet: the SAT, AP, PSAT/NMSQT, ACT, GRE, LSAT, etc. Because performing well on these exams opens up a wider range of opportunities such as which colleges students can attend and even future careers, students are motivated to do their best on them.
One major group of students frazzled by the myriad of standardized testing is indeed high school students. Many high school students are enrolled in Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) classes, where they are required to take the AP or IB test for that class at the end of the year.
In order to help alleviate the students’ burden of having to prepare for these exams, schools have taken a series of approaches to ensure that students achieve their maximum potential when taking the exams.
Santa Margarita Catholic High School, for example, offers a series of weekend classes not only to supplement the material discussed in class, but also to review the information from the beginning of the school year. The history department at Santa Margarita High offers before and after school reviews for AP World History, European History, and United States History, and an additional weekend workshop for the essay portion of these exams. Mrs. Teresa Villa, science department chairperson, conducts weekend review sessions for AP and IB Biology. These sessions interweave interactive activities, review lectures, and conclude with a delicious pizza party.
“I really appreciate Mrs. Villa taking her time to help us review for the AP,” said Eric Yoon, an AP Biology student. “To think that AP tests are only in a few weeks is really scary, but review sessions like these really help to manage the studying.”
However, learning from the teachers is not the only benefit to these review sessions. As students come together to prepare for the impending exams, these reviews have become an opportunity for students to share their knowledge with others and temporarily relieve their concerns.
For many high school students, May is the month that it comes down to. SAT Subject tests on the weekend, AP/IB exams on consecutive days, and to top it off, an unending stream of school work. However, many schools have been attempting to help students as they go through a stressful period in their high school academics. Good luck on the upcoming exams!
