The Pressure of Taking AP Exams
This year, I’m taking more AP exams than I ever thought I would. And honestly, it’s not even close to the level of many other students I know. With that being said, the studying piles up, the test dates are crawling towards you, and at some point, you’re sitting at your desk flipping through flashcards for a test that you wish you had started studying for a couple of months ago. It’s exhausting in a way hard to explain to someone who hasn’t been in it; it's like my brain is drained and doesn’t want to cooperate anymore.
What makes it stranger is that, as I mentioned earlier, I’m not alone. Millions of students across America are taking exams, with thousands of them taking 5+ tests. But here is the thing that always comes to my mind: why are so many of us even doing this? Especially for those who are going out of their way to learn a whole college-level course on their own. At some point, it stopped being about learning the material because you enjoy that topic; it's about the number itself. How many AP’s are you taking? It becomes this status, this quiet competition to stack up as many as possible to impress colleges, and indirectly impress your peers.
To be honest, I don’t really have the exact answer to why people some people are spending $1,000 and some change for these tests (I am pretty sure it is $130 per exam, but that likely changes on location and financial hardships you face). I think it is crazy, the amount of pressure, the amount of exhaustion, and the effort many people are putting into a test score. And I am not saying this to attack anyone who is taking AP exams, as obviously it looks good for colleges, and I'm also a part of the people who are taking many exams and even studying some on my own. I always just found it genuinely interesting how natural everything has become. Nobody really ever questions it.
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