Welp.
There isn’t much I can say about the day of the AP Exam that I haven’t written already, so here are two blurbs from last year, from about the same point in the campaign, that pretty much sum things up:
The predominant feeling I have this time around?
Relief.5
I’ll be the first to say that this exam needs to be done with so that everyone involved can breathe and remember the taste of food again.6 A few days from now,7 I’ll be able to exhale and admire the journey of the past dozen moons, but for the moment, I am way too close to the trees to see anything but the dang trees.
This year, we’re back to the second Wednesday afternoon for the exam. Each of the last two seasons, College Board had us on the first Friday afternoon, which is about the worst thing imaginable, taking a high-stakes exam that centers on logical reasoning and clear communication, late on a Friday.8 Though truth be told, I am a bit envious of the teachers who already have their exams out of the way. One of the fellow Calculus teachers in my hallway and I were saying how we wished that our exams were reversed,9 given the pacing and schedules of our respective classes, to which I agreed.10
As for the actual AP Exam scores,11 the topic of how important these things are is a complicated one.12 Being my first year on at my current campus only serves to further complicate the complicated.
At the end of the day though, it’s just one test. A number. That’s all. And it .13. Like I’ve said before, the worst-case consequence of bombing this exam is having to take a Statistics class in college, where you might make some new friends and perhaps meet your future soulmate.14
But these are wrinkles for another day’s forehead.
For now, we get to sleep,15 eat, 16 and breathe.
(And maybe watch some movies.)1718
- Naturally, since it’s past three in the morning and I can’t get any sleep. [↩]
- It’s also THAT day. Incidentally, if you go to my teacher website and mouse-over — or tap — my face, you’ll notice that my head spins and my shirt changes color to yellow. My face also smiles, which is a bit ironic now that I think about it, as this is usually a day of agony and/or relief… but not so much happiness. Hmm. [↩]
- Noteworthy this time around: I do NOT have the last period of the day free. We have one hundred eighty-something students taking it this year. Also not a whole lot of kids showing up for tutorials… yet. And it is obviously not the last day of the week, as our exam was moved from Friday to Wednesday. [↩]
- Yes, I still fret that something might happen to the exams in transit. That would be absolutely heart-breakingly sucky. [↩]
- As in, “Thank you, Lord, I made it without hurting anybody.” [↩]
- And some of my students have been way too eager to express similar sentiments. A couple have done so in quite inappropriate teen-angst fashion, even. Comes with the territory, it seems. [↩]
- mmm… maybe weeks? [↩]
- Although you might not know it by looking at our exam scores. I suppose that’s because taking the exam on a Friday afternoon was the worst thing imaginable for everyone else on the planet as well. [↩]
- Calculus was on the first Tuesday, Statistics eight days later. [↩]
- Next year, our exam is on the second Thursday. Not quite sure how I feel about that, but the jerk in my knee says that I do NOT like it. [↩]
- which come out the week after we celebrate our country’s freedom [↩]
- I have loooong blog posts written months ago that I have yet to publish about the significance of the darn scores. Perhaps one day I’ll actually get around to polishing it up enough for show. [↩]
- including, I believe, teachers. That is definitely a topic for another day — perhaps the end of all days. [↩]
- Hey, it could happen. Might not be plausible at the five percent significance level, but it could happen… [↩]
- not during class! [↩]
- again, not during class… probably… [↩]
- Don’t know about during class… [↩]
- For the record, “Pitch Perfect 2” and “Mad Max” come out this weekend. Hopefully the combination of the two can make up for the disappointment that was Avengers 2… [↩]
