For the past two weeks, many DHS students have been participating in International Baccalaureate (IB) and Advanced Placement (AP) exams. The main reason why many of them do this is to get a high enough score that would allow them to gain credits at their college. As testing comes to an end, DHS students recap what they did in order to prepare for their tests.
Some DHS began studying long before their exams without even knowing it. Their teachers had started giving exam preparation starting early in the school year. AP Chemistry teacher Mary Fredell had been giving students old AP questions on previous tests and formatted many of her tests similar to the AP exam.
“One thing that Fredell did that I really liked was she used past AP multiple choice questions on her multiple choice tests,” junior Matt Lee said. “Not only that, but she also never allowed us to use a calculator on that portion just like the AP.”
Another way students prepared for their exam was buying textbooks designed to prepare students for their tests. Many of the popular textbooks used were published by Kaplan Test Prep, The Princeton Review, and Barrons and Cliffs AP.
“To prepare for the exams, I went out and bought a Princeton Review Book for my AP,” senior Patrick Basset said. “It covered all of the material on the test.”
A few students decided to start AP review sessions with other students in their classes. They would hold these sessions at places like the library on the weekend or after school in a teacher’s classroom. At these meetings, the students would help other students in understanding different concepts or theories.
“My friends and I would go to the library on the weekend,” junior Derek Striker said. “It was helpful because we all helped each other out and we all were experts on different subjects that was covered on the exam.”
One other way students prepared for their exams was taking previous exams. The companies that administer the exams like the IB and AP exams post previous years exams on their website for students to use a study tool.
“My teacher told us to check out the AP website and take some of those exams as practice,” senior Brenden Dimeric said. “The old ones were way harder than this years.”
Some of DHS students taking IB language tests practiced for their exam by talking with other students in that foreign language class. The IB exam requires students to be recorded while they answer questions asked by the person giving the exam. This recording is then sent somewhere else in the world to be evaluated by other IB schools.
“My friend, who is also in the class, and I had many conversations,” junior Ian Peterson said. “I wanted to practice so when I got recorded for my exam, it would sound conversational.”
There are multiple ways that students prepared for their exams this year. All of them chose the method that they thought would be most productive for them.
