This year had been my first in any sort of AP classes, and I barely even understood how they usually worked. After a year of rigorous classwork to prepare me for the tests, I had been anticipating the end of the year when I could take the AP exams and hopefully see my hard work pay off. This year, however, tests were administered at home, which turned out to be both a blessing and a curse. Many of the exams that used to include multiple choice became essay only tests to prevent cheating, which is great if you’re awesome at writing essays. It was definitely a learning curve for me as I was preparing. 

On the morning of my first AP exam, I don’t think I was too worried. I was able to sleep in a little longer, have a nice breakfast, and go on a walk outside before the test started, which helped me not to worry too much leading up to exam time. Had the test been at school as usual, I probably wouldn’t have had such a nice morning where I could casually study everything I needed to know over a cup of coffee; it really was enjoyable. And AP classroom thankfully had plenty of videos online to explain the testing process, so I knew I was prepared. There was no way the exam wouldn’t go well, I thought to myself. But then the timer started to go down as I waited for everything to begin, and then I realized I had no idea what I was doing. 

The clock hit zero and the test began, and suddenly it was impossible to focus on what I was doing; my eyes were on the clock. I typed as fast as I possibly could, trying to remember everything I had learned relating to the prompt, but between structuring the essay and trying to meet every point on the rubric, I ran out of time fast. 50 minutes turned to 20 minutes, which then turned to 10 minutes, and then the clock turned red with 5 minutes remaining. I wanted to keep typing, but I wanted to make sure I could submit it on time and honestly I had just wanted it to be over. So, after a moment of hesitation, I clicked submit on my work. Then I sat there for a minute trying to process everything.

It wasn’t perfect, but I knew I had done the best I could in such a small amount of time. Overall I was proud of myself just for the effort that I had put in to prepare for the test. It definitely wasn’t what I had expected for my first AP exam, but it wasn’t too bad. Would I ever want to take AP exams online again? Absolutely not. But overall I think it went okay, and taking it at my house definitely was nice. And I got to go to Juice Stop afterwards, which honestly made up for it all. I think AP exams went fairly smoothly this year considering all of the challenges being faced. And to anyone who tested this year, remember that you are amazing and I hope that all of your exams went well! And thankfully things can go back to how they always were next year.