BY SAVANNAH KEYSER
AP season has officially begun, and students and teachers alike know that having an adequate amount time to study is important for going for that 5 on the exam. This time can be limited, however, when teachers pile on the projects right before the exam, forcing the students to focus on getting them done rather than preparing for their exams.
“When students are given big projects that have a huge impact on their grade that they have to spend a lot of time on is unfair because it stresses out the student,” junior Johanna Packer said. “They spend their time on one or the other and either end up cramming for the exam or doing the project the last day possible.”
This time of year the hallways are booming with the sounds of stressed out students, freaking out over their upcoming exams and how they don’t have enough time to prepare because all of the teachers assigned them projects right before.
Students value the time before these huge tests and they take as much time as possible to make sure that they will be ready to pass their exams. It becomes hard to do that when the students taking these tests have been assigned three or four projects from different classes that are due right before the AP test, causing them to sacrifice their study time to complete these big assignments.
“It has a negative effect because it’s deterring the focus of students from studying,” junior Madison Worley said. “I would rather focus on studying for the exam because my scores affect my future and the teacher’s pass rates too.”
It is understandable that teachers want to give projects at the end of the year for whatever reason they may have; be it a chance for students to get more points or a more interesting way to learn about a certain topic, or a plethora of other reasons. Still, these projects could be assigned at a later date given the circumstances that many students are in.
There is no reason that teachers should stop assigning projects that have proven to be helpful when learning a certain topic, but perhaps it might be best to extend the due date until APs are done or maybe give the students time in class so they don’t have to worry about putting aside a bunch of time outside of school for the project.
This way, the teachers are still able to make sure the students are learning the material but the students are also given enough time to prepare for the exam.
Featured image by Sophia Wengier
