Every year, more and more students begin taking AP classes. These classes are meant to help prepare you for college-like work. With more students at Lafayette taking more of these advanced classes, the stress level begins to grow during the middle of the second semester.

There are a variety of AP classes offered here at Lafayette: AP Language, French, Spanish, and Japanese\; AP social studies, Government for freshmen, World History for Sophomores, and US History for Juniors, along with AP Human Geography\; AP Science, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, etc\; AP Math, Calculus\; AP English, Language, and Literature. There are many more AP classes here at Lafayette, but these are a few classes students can take.

Students take these classes in hopes to get good scores on the test for college credit. Just as everything in life there’s a catch: not every college accepts AP scores as college credit classes, this is due where so many students would use these as a way to have fewer hours to take in college\; but this caused conflicts with scheduling freshmen and took away money from the colleges.

These known events haven’t prevented students from taking these courses, mainly because every student that takes these classes, cares about their grade, and they want to have a good transcript for colleges to look at. The benefits of taking these courses are to allow you to have an idea of what school work will be like outside of high school, and how to manage your time to do this work.

Near the end of the school year, students all over the world prepare for the AP tests which are optional to take. Not everyone who takes these classes takes the test, mainly because they do not feel confident enough about this particular class in order to take a test over it for a certain score. The way the scoring system works for these tests is anything from 3-5 is considered a passing grade, but if you were to receive a two or one, you would not pass the test. Just because you don’t pass the test, has no reflection on your grade for the class. You could pass the class with an “A” all year and still get a two on the test.

There are various ways to pass these tests, but every test is different based on the subject. The best way to prepare is to take several tests from previous years, time yourself, and slowly get into a rhythm that would help you. Studies show that those who study with a certain flavor of gum and have that gum while you test, you will be able to remember more because of that familiarity.

For more information about the AP exams coming up you can go to the College Board website at the top of the article, or click on the link below. Good luck to all those taking these exams, and stay safe. This year’s AP exams will be online.