AP tests, also known as advanced placement tests, are college level exams on specific subjects that a student will study for throughout the year.

When an AP course is completed that student will take the AP exam at their high school, which usually happens around the month of May.

If the score is high enough, the student will earn college credit, which could mean lower college tuition bills in some cases.

AP tests are scored on a scale of 1-5, with 4 often being a score that gets colleges attention. Scores for AP testing are released in July.

Although the score won’t affect your school GPA or chances of college admission, scores do matter as some schools won’t accept credit unless a 5 is scored, but it’s always good to check with the school first and understand how they handle scores.

AP tests are administered by The College Board but not all schools offer them. If an AP coordinator is present at your school, talk directly to them about registration. If there is no coordinator, you would need to call AP Services no later than March 1 for information.

Central Kitsap High School is one of many high schools that allows AP classes and testing to be available to students. How  students feel about the AP testing environment, and whether or not it could be improved, is equally important.

When asked about what time testing took place and feelings regarding past and future testing, students had very positive responses.

Shayla Sutliff, junior at Central Kitsap High School, takes multiple AP courses and is one of the many students that tested.

“I tested May 1, I’m testing May 3, May 4, May 5, and then May 8, and May 9,” said Sutliff. “I’m feeling pretty good about my history and English exam, but I’m a little nervous for my physics test. On my US Government and Politics I think I may have gotten a 5, it felt really easy and all the prompts on the test were things that I have already studied.”

Junior Abigail Lundblad is set to take her AP US History test soon.

“I’m feeling pretty good and prepared for my next test,” said Lundblad.

Lorraine Villanueva, senior at CKHS, feels nervous about her testing.

“My tests are the week of May 17 and 18 and I’m feeling kind of nervous, but I’m a senior so it’s low stakes for me,” said Villanueva. “At this point it’s like I get the college credit or I don’t but I’ve already gotten into the schools that I wanted to get into so I ́m not stressing too hard, but it’s still an AP test and it’s still kind of scary.”

Jackson Moyer, is also one of the students testing multiple times.

“I tested about 5 times throughout the month of May,” said Moyer. “I felt good about the Lit, APush [AP United States History], and the math test but I didn’t feel great about electricity and magnetism as well as mechanics.”

Since AP testing happens on multiple days throughout May, it is important that students know and understand the changes that happen, like the schedule change.

“I think students definitely are aware of staff as well,” said Sutliff. “I understand that staff who teach classes that aren’t AP based can’t stop teaching necessarily, but I wish that some of the AP teachers would stop assigning homework at least for a little bit.”

Jackson Moyer thinks that the students aren’t able to grasp how difficult AP testing can be. 

“I feel like some teachers respect the AP testing time and I don’t think people understand how hard AP testing can really be sometimes,” he explained.

Sutliff thinks that the AP test setting could improve.

“I think that we could take our test somewhere different,” said Sutliff. “I took my test in the Silverdale Public Library conference room and the setting was nice and I wish that more of the tests were in there because the satellite gym is freezing. So, I think an area of improvement would just be changing the setting.”

Lundblad thinks that the schedule could be disseminated more so students can become familiar with the change in the schedule.

“I feel like the schedule for AP testing should have been posted somewhere, maybe in the lunchroom because they were only given out to AP students,” said Lundblad. “So I feel some teachers that don’t teach AP classes can sometimes be left wondering where their students are.”

Villanueva thinks that the administration now works just fine.

“I feel like the way it’s being administered now is good,” said Villanueva. “From what I’ve heard, some teachers have a hard time covering all the material and then reviewing it with students, then reviewing before the test, but in really rigorous coursework it can be hard to accommodate everything because there’s so much to learn. So, I guess other teachers understanding that study periods are important is helpful, even though a majority of the teachers already do.”

Moyer thinks that the school year should be moved forward in order for more time to study as well as weekday review sessions.

“I vote that we move the school year forward and then end earlier so we have more time to prepare before the AP tests,” said Moyer. “Maybe adding some review sessions and practice tests on non-weekdays or no practice days because I miss every single one from track practices or track meets.”

The amount of work that goes into AP testing for students is equally important.

“It was a lot of work for AP Chem,“ said Lundblad. “It took a lot of time coming on Saturdays and doing the review. For APush there were review sessions and a decent amount of homework but to me the review wasn’t bad.”

Moyer says that AP testing isn’t really that bad and feels it’s often exaggerated.

Moyer said, “Going into AP testing it wasn’t too much, kind of over the year I would say it’s probably definitely above normal classes but I don’t think it’s as bad as people make it out to be.”

None of this would be possible without having an AP coordinator. Elizabeth Martin, counselor at CKHS, plays a major role in overseeing and managing AP testing. As Mrs. Martin states there can be a lot of steps and a very long process for AP testing.

“I was the AP coordinator for this past school year,” said Martin. “So the work that goes into coordinating AP exams for CK is you place an order for students who want to take the AP exam, so that means that you’re helping the students sign in to AP classroom, decide if they want to order the test, and then helping coordinate payment for the exam. Also if a student has reduced lunch and they pay less, or if they pay late, then they pay more so you’re coordinating all of that as well ordering the tests, and then finding spots for all the students to test, people to proctor the tests, and then shipping back the test back when the student has completed the exam.”

Along with helping students plan and ordering tests, as the coordinator on some days it can be really long hours, especially if a student is taking longer than expected.

“So long days for me, but long days for the students too because some students take multiple tests in a day and some of these tests are over three hours,” said Martin. “So they are long days and can be longer days with organizing all the tests from that day and getting ready for the next day because tests start at 7:30.”

Some AP courses have multiple class periods due to the amount of students partaking in the class. Martin and other organizers and proctors work to ensure satisfactory conditions in available facilities for student success.

“So [we get] the satellite gym set up for testing because some of the exams can have up to 90 students in them,” Martin said. “Making sure everything is organized and that it can go as smoothly as possible because students put in a ton of work and as well as teachers, teaching the material to their students. So wanting to make sure that their hard work pays off and that they have the best experience testing as possible, so that they receive college credit.”

AP exams as seen can be hard for some students and even harder on the coordinators but learning from the students and seeing what can be done to better the AP experience and become helpful to everyone.