As May approaches, students are feeling the stress and excitement of the school year coming to an end. It’s AP season again and many students here at West will be taking their AP tests in the coming week.

The end of the year can be very hectic for students and some may feel like they aren’t able to take a break, but one thing I’m sure students would appreciate would be having the day of their test excused. For example, my test is at eight in the morning, so I would take my test and then be excused from school for the rest of the day. It is very tiring to be taking one test for three hours so being able to take the day off to help relax or maybe even study for other tests that students have would surely be appreciated.

As a sophomore taking my first ever AP test for AP Government, I feel stressed since I’ve never taken a test like this. A lot of my friends who are also taking APs have been talking about the stress they are feeling regarding their tests for classes like AP Psychology.

Having my mock test early last week while studying for both my classes and tests became exhausting. When the mock test came I found myself making careless mistakes with the inability to focus. Though I don’t think students should have the day off for their mock exams, I think that students should be given a fresh slate on the day of the real deal.

This would be especially beneficial to students with an afternoon test because they would be able to rest in the morning and perform to their best abilities. Having to sit in classes and then use more brainpower towards their AP tests seems unfair. It could be possible that students who have afternoon tests could even see improvements in scores.

The PSAT and SAT are also tests where we are given the day off, and the study and mental tolls of that test can be similar or maybe even worse for students so why not also give students a break. Students who may not be in AP classes can use the days with limited attention to work on prepping for their finals or also getting a break. Both AP tests and the SAT prepare us students for college and they have the same time limit, so I don’t understand why we can’t have AP tests off.

AP classes are advanced placement college-level classes. The scores of AP tests can be very important to some students as they give us the opportunity to opt out of college classes and can take money off our tuition. This is all dependent on where someone decides to go to college, but the turmoil of studying and taking the class for the whole year is dependent on these tests.

As I am only beginning my time with AP classes, I can only imagine the stress that my peers taking multiple AP classes are feeling. Fortunately, the end is near.