57 percent of Berkeley High School students have taken at least one College Board Advabced Placement (AP) exam, according to U.S. News. Most AP class content is geared towards preparing students for the final AP test, a summative assessment taken at the end of the year. If a student gets a passing score, they can often receive college credits.
Different teaching styles in each individual class can create a huge difference in how students perform on the test. To help students feel as prepared as possible, teachers should model their activities and curricula around the AP test rather than skip topics or branch off to other ones.
One of the most daunting aspects of taking an AP test is that the formatting of each test is different and demands very specific kinds of answers that adhere to specific rubric guidelines. Teachers do not know exactly what the test will ask about, but they do know the format of each test.
Ensuring that students understand how to approach certain questions based on their wording and context is essential for success on an AP test, so much so that College Board, the company that makes the tests, recommends getting familiar with a test’s format as the very first step in AP test preparation. Naia Wahrhaftig, a BHS senior, said that understanding the formatting of an AP test is a crucial step in feeling prepared for AP exams. “I especially noticed that a few teachers did a lot of practice and teaching about the exam content, but didn’t focus as much on the exam format, which made the exams feel a bit more challenging and unfamiliar,” Wahrhaftig said.
An important factor for AP preparedness is that students often go into an AP class with little previous knowledge about the subject matter. Without an initial understanding of the topic, teaching styles can greatly change students’ level of preparedness for their AP tests. This is especially important in classes like AP Chemistry, which is usually the first true chemistry class a BHS student has taken. Tobi Stein, an AP Chemistry and AP Physics teacher, commented that in his classes, he “(sees) it as irresponsible to not teach to the test in the context of a class that is literally defined by the test at the end of the year.” Stein has had experience with a teacher who didn’t teach that way. “For instance, my AP Chemistry teacher ran zero labs with us. None at all. So when it came to the experimental design questions on the AP exam, I had no clue what was going on,” he said, “my teacher’s failure to engage me and my peers with the content of the exam … was a detriment to (our) performances.”
AP classes are known for their particularly challenging and rigorous nature. Even with as much preparation from teachers as possible, AP classes cover a vast amount of content that is exceedingly difficult to understand in one school year. Taking AP classes as a BHS student comes with the expectation that mistakes will be made, both in class and on the AP test. Most students will not get perfect scores on their AP exams.
However, with teaching that acclimates students to the AP test they take, there is more opportunity for understanding and confidence in the summative AP test at the end of the school year. Teaching to both the content and format of AP exams ensures that students have the best chance of understanding new and academically challenging material.