Students are in their final stretch of the year this May, with both AP testing and exams wrapping up for the season. However, AP testing for all was back to normal this year coming out of two COVID years.

What does this mean for students? The writing portion of exams this year was handwritten, as it usually is, compared to last year when essay responses were typed on computers. This made it harder for students to complete their free response questions on time, as they didn’t have the luxury of a computer to speed their writing process up.
“Handwriting the essay made it more difficult because we’re all faster at typing, meaning our essay didn’t reflect our true abilities,” sophomore Matthew Klacik said. “If we were typing online, our abilities would have been expressed as we can type a full sentence in the time it takes us to neatly handwrite a few words.”

AP exams being administered normally also means a difference in the difficulty of exams from last year. Although some found this year’s harder due to the handwritten portion, others actually found this year’s exams easier.

The difference between the blend of hybrid, online, and in-person learning last school year with this year’s complete in-person learning contributed to some students’ better experience this year.

“This year…I felt a lot more prepared due to the amount of in-class time we had,” sophomore Macy Roberts said.

Some felt that certain AP exams went better than others, not due to lack of studying, but just because of the difficulty of the class.

“APUSH went pretty well as long as you studied for it, but AP Bio was pretty challenging even though I studied a lot for it,” sophomore Tressel Holton said.

Although many students consider AP exams to be important for both college resumes and college credit, it is the students’ choice whether or not to submit the scores to colleges. AP exam scores will be released on the College Board website starting July 5.