AP Anxiety

As many students know when you get into your junior and senior years you are allowed to take Advanced Placement (AP) classes. From the very first day of some of those classes the first thing you are told is when your test is going to be and that this entire year long class is to help you prepare. If you ask me, that is a lot of pressure for one test. Now, I know that this test is very important. It could help or harm college acceptance but now that the test is almost here for us I have never been more nervous. I’ve talked to many students in my classes, and none of us feel ready for the test. I don’t think it’s that we are not learning anything. I think it’s just that we have built up this test so much in our minds and we know how important it is that we will never feel fully prepared. The problem with this is that going into a test with too much anxiety can harm your results according to the US DOE. A little bit of nerves can sometimes be beneficial but when you’re too nervous it can mess up your results really badly and as the AP kids know, you don’t get a chance to retake an AP test. While I know that the teachers focus on the test so much because they want us to do well on it, I also think that out of the 42 kids in the school preparing for their tests, they might need a breather every once in a while to calm those pre-test nerves and feel a little bit more in control.