A practice exam for the Advanced Placement United States History exam will be held in the media center April 20. It coincides with the AP Language Arts and AP Chemistry practice exams that will be held in the Cafeteria and Building 16, respectively.

“The only problem I have is conflicting practice exams,” AP United States History teacher Athena Pietrzak said. “These seniors right here can tell you the imperativeness of a Saturday. Between Grad Bash and prom and all of these events in their life, I needed it to be around their schedule.”

Sophomores are expected to arrive at 8 a.m. to begin the mock exam. They are advised to bring pens and drinks for the 3 hours and 15 minutes exam duration.

“This is my second year taking AP exams, and I would say that efficiency is key and don’t cram your studying — it won’t work,” sophomore Hlla Waregh said.

The Test Prep Program was started in the 2021-2022 school year by then-junior Aiden Meyers. This is the first year of test prep since his graduation, and a new set of grading coordinators has taken his place. Seniors Thien-Nhi Nguyen and Vincent Stone, who both received a 5 on the AP United States History exam, set up the tests and choose the multiple-choice questions, free-response questions and document-based questions.

“Participation [when planning the exams] can be a trouble sometimes; however, most of our test prep crew is very willing and eager to help us when needed,” Nguyen said.

Although grading the handwritten exam differs each year with different prompts, Nguyen estimated that it will take more than 4 hours to finish grading. The students’ teachers will pass them back their exams once they are graded.

“This is a big part of the preparation, just coming [to the practice exam],” Stone said. “I think you just need to work the whole year and then maybe from this exam you’ll see if you’re prepared or you need to do some more work.”

Current practice test proctors seek AP United States History students to take their place in the Test Prep Program when they graduate. In the meantime, Stone and Nguyen will review the graded material with the sophomores.

“Something I’ve done throughout the years is after the test, I will come in during Power Hour and do a review session where we go over some of the multiple-choice questions on their tests,” Stone said. “We slowly go through it to help them gain a better idea on how to answer these questions.”

By Amanda Madjid