With AP exams set to begin on May 5, the district is helping AP students prepare by giving certain classes a mock AP exam.

“A mock AP exam is simply a trial run of what AP students will experience for the real AP exam,” AP Academic Coordinator Kathryn Pabst said. “That’s why it’s called a mock exam. The purpose of mock exams is to give students the practice of what it looks like, feels like, what room they’re going to be in, what will the proctor say, how to time themselves with each element of the exam, so that when exam day comes, there will be no surprises.”

Some of these exams are part of the class requirements.

“There are some exams that are going to be taken as mock exams by our art department because they are required by AP Strategies, which is our grant, so some of these are required,” Pabst said.

However, an underlying purpose of many of the mock exams is to give students practice for what can be a challenging endeavor.

“It’s [the mock exam] an opportunity for students who have never taken an AP exam to experience what it’s going to be like to do the whole thing,” AP social studies teacher Homa Lewis said. “So it’s giving the students a chance to know what it’s like to sit for that length of time and how much time it’s going to take them to answer the multiple choice and then how much time it’s going to take them to write the essay; how much work they’re going to have to do in a set timeframe.”

For other courses, a mock exam allows students to do something that is hard to replicate in a normal class setting.

“AP Language is going to have a mock exam because students have never taken a writing exam that requires three essays in that length of time in the English department,” Pabst said.

This year, the number of classes taking a mock exam is lower than in previous years.

“So we did a pick-and-choose this year versus everyone doing a mock exam as we have done in the past,” Pabst said. “We really wanted students to be in their classrooms with their AP teachers as much as possible because I personally value that classroom time; it helps every child that they’re in a class.”

Teachers hope these exams will help students see and focus on what still needs to be learned while there is still review time.

“My hopes for AP human geography are that the students come out and they’re going to be very motivated to really review for that month,” Lewis said. “So, I hope it doesn’t scare them and freak them out, but I hope that it motivates them.”

Some students think that the exams will help them review.

“Well, I think that it’s a great way to find out what’s on the exam,” sophomore Matthew Norwood said. “I think that I’m prepared because of my dense knowledge, so I’d to just do my best to see what I can do with it. It’ll show me what I should be expecting so that I’ll really know what to study and what I should focus most on depending on how I do.”

Overall, the hope is the mock exams will provide both practice and perspective for the students.

“I want to do everything possible to have all of the students prepared,” Lewis said. “Other teachers in the building have thought that this was a good tool to use so that you guys [the students] won’t go into the real exam not really knowing what it’s like to sit through the whole thing, so it’s designed to give you more familiarity with the process. So that’s how I think it fits in.”

AP exams will take place May 5-16. Below is the entire AP exam schedule.

Week 1

Week 2