Students and teachers prepare for AP exams

Every year,  juniors and seniors alike take their advanced placement test, which are very important, but one of the most important factors is the people that help them prepare for the tests.

Mrs. Erin Wise, an AP government teacher, says that how she prepares her students for the AP test is to do a lot of review for the material in class and after school and a Zoom review where she and AP teacher Mr. Scibbe review online.

“We just do a lot of reviews within class and then after school reviews. So I am hosting a review either before or after school every day this week, and fellow AP teacher Mr. Scibbe and I are going to do a 2-hour Zoom review on Sunday night, and just giving materials to get the students ready for the AP comparative government exam. I have to say since I don’t see everybody together as a class since last semester, I created a review group on Schoology. So a little bit different kind of class. Something where I kept a lot of resources and different help for them,” Wise said. 

Mr. Scibbe, who is also an AP government teacher, says that his teaching methods involve going over content that is going to be on the test such as foundational documents that are important to the ideals of this country and Supreme Court cases that have been issued and what they mean for our country going forward. They also cover topics about what life is like working as a government official in our country.

“Well it is an AP U.S. Government class, so we talked a lot about foundational documents that are important to the ideals of the country. We have students look at the Supreme Court cases that have been issued and what they mean for us going forward in addition to just realities and facts about what is life like in the government life in the United States. Even though teachers are one of the main turning points in these students taking the test, the students themselves are the ones that are actually taking the test,” Scibbe said.

Jack Dirig is a senior in the Class of 2022. He states that he wasn’t stressed at all because the school he goes to won’t take any of his exams, but he says that he thought he did very well because he knew all of the questions. “I actually think I did alright because I knew a lot of the content so I think I did pretty good,” he said.

Ms. Wise has multiple ways of teaching and preparing her students.

“The one thing is a lot of practice to be able to gain the skills necessary for when test day comes that way they’re best prepared. For instance we give them lots of practice to give them multiple choice test practice test so that way they know what they can expect come test day,” Wise said.